The Game
South Dakota continues its three-game home stand with a Thursday night game against Denver. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip from the Sanford Coyote Sports Center in Vermillion.
 
The game will be televised on Midco Sports 2 with Jay Elsen and Brad Newitt on the call. The broadcast can be found on Midco+ and ESPN+ as well. A free stream is available on GoYotes.com/watch. Fans can tune into the game on The Coyote Sports Network with John Thayer on KVHT 106.3 FM in Yankton/Vermillion or by using The Varsity Network app.
 
The Series
South Dakota and Denver have met 23 times in series history. USD has won nine straight games over Denver. The Coyotes swept the series last season with an 80-71 win at home and an 84-76 victory in Denver. The Pioneers have not win in Vermillion since 2016 and have dropped their last seven at South Dakota. Kruz Perrott-Hunt picked up two career-highs in the first meeting against Denver last season. He scored what was a career-high at the time of 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds. His eight rebounds in that game still stand as a career-best, although he has matched it twice since then.
 
The Coyotes
South Dakota opened the three-game home stand with a 64-82 loss to South Dakota State last Saturday. Saturday's game featured the return of head coach Eric Peterson to the Coyote bench. Peterson had missed the previous seven games while recovering from an injury. In his absence, assistant coach Patrick Eberhart took over head-coaching duties and the Coyotes went 3-4 in those seven games.
 
Paul Bruns led the team in scoring last game with 16 points off the bench and a 50 percent clip from the field. Bruns has cemented himself as one of the best reserves in the conference and is one of five Coyotes who has played in all 18 games thus far for South Dakota. Perrott-Hunt ranks 10th in the Summit in scoring with a team-high 13.9 points per game. He is ranked third in the conference in scoring since Summit League play began with 20 points per game. A.J. Plitzuweit (16th in Summit) and Tasos Kamateros (17th in Summit) are behind Perrott-Hunt in scoring at 11.6 and 11.4 points per game. Bruns rounds out the double-digit scoring averages at 11.2 points per game (19th in Summit).
 
The Pioneers
It's been a tale of two halves for the Denver Pioneers in Jeff Wulbrun's second season as head coach. DU ended last year at 11-21 and 7-11 in conference play. They were knocked out in the first round of the Summit League Tournament by North Dakota State by 20 points. The Pioneers seemed to have started the 2022-23 season better as they entered conference play at 9-3 on the year with non-conference losses at No. 19 UCLA and two losses to Sacramento State. Since then, Denver got off to a rocky start in Summit League play at 1-5. The one win required three overtimes in an 85-83 win over Kansas City in Colorado. They finally snapped a four-game skid with a win against North Dakota last Saturday at home.

Wulbrun's team features five newcomers this season including four from the transfer portal. Tommy Bruner is the leading scorer for DU and is currently on his third collegiate team. The Jacksonville transfer averages 16 points per game and has scored in double-figures in 14 straight games. Bruner also distributes the ball well as he dishes out 4.4 assists per game - second-best in the Summit League. The Pioneers have five average double-figures including Tyree Corbett at 10.5 points per game. Corbett does more than just score for Denver as he leads the Summit League with 8.8 rebounds per game.
 
One Last Thing
The Coyotes will face one of the better rebounding teams in the conference Thursday night. The Pioneers average 35.4 rebounds per game and own a 4.6 rebound margin - second-best in the Summit. The rebounding numbers could very well tell the tale of the game after it's all said and done with Thursday night in Vermillion. USD is 5-2 this season when outrebounding their opponent and are 3-8 when being outrebounded. With a smaller sized team, rebounding is crucial in games such as these.