VERMILLION, S.D. — South Dakota men's basketball is back in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center Sunday to face Mount Marty at 2:00 p.m. The Coyotes are 2-0 in the SCSC to begin the season after earning wins over Southern and Texas A&M-Commerce earlier this week.
 
Where To Watch
Monday's game can be found on Midco Sports and the Summit League Network.
 
Quick Hitters

• For the second straight season, the South Dakota men's basketball team has opened the season 2-0. The Coyotes will look to make it three in a row Sunday when they welcome Mount Marty to the Sanford Coyotes Sports Center.
• Through two games, the Coyotes have spread the wealth offensively with five players averaging 11 or more points per game, and seven averaging over eight per game.
• After pouring in 23 points Wednesday against Texas A&M-Commerce, Chase Forte leads the Yotes at 18.0 points per game. Forte is all over the court for the Yotes, as he also averages 5.0 assists, 3.0 steals, 3.0 rebounds and holds a .588 field goal percentage.
• Isaac Bruns (12.5), Paul Bruns (12.0), Cameron Fens (11.0) and Dre Bullock (11.0) also average double-figure scoring.
• The Coyotes connected on 10-of-24 (.417%) attempts from deep against Southern. Paul Bruns and Bullock each knocked down three treys each.
• In the 2023-24 season, the Yotes connected on .400 percent of their 3-point attempts in 11 games.
• The Coyotes have been among the best in the NCAA in three-point shooting over the past five seasons, ranking in the top-25 as a team each year.
• USD finished the 2023-24 campaign with the 16th best three-point percentage (.376).
• The Coyotes ranked No. 2 in the NCAA in three-point shooting on the road, knocking down .386 percent of their attempts from deep in road venues.
• The Coyotes added four transfers to the roster in Chase Forte, Dre Bullock, Ashton Smith and Cameron Fens.
• Dre Bullock and Kaleb Stewart spent the 2022-23 season together at LA Tech, while Bullock and Chase Forte both prepped at Word of God Christian Academy in Raleigh, N.C.

Series History vs. Mount Marty

• South Dakota is 13-0 all-time against Mount Marty and 12-0 vs the Lancers in Vermillion.
• The Yotes won 85-53 in last year's season-opening meeting.
• Paul Bruns knocked down five 3-pointers as he poured in 16 points. Isaac Bruns added 12 points off the bench with a pair of treys.
   

Everyone Scores!

• The Coyotes have gone 11 players deep in each of their first two games to start the season.
• In the win over Texas A&M-Commerce, six Coyotes reach double-figure scoring, led by Chase Forte's 23 points.
• It was Forte's first game leading the Yotes in scoring, and was just two points shy of a career-high.
• His career-high of 25 points was set last season, against Texas A&M-Commerce.
• Forte knocked down a career-best 13 free throws on 16 attempts against TAMC
• He also added four boards, four assists and a pair of steals.
• Cameron Fens added a career-high 14 points, his first game in double-digits this season, on 6-of-10 shooting with five rebounds.
• Isaac Bruns (13), Dre Bullock (11), Kaleb Stewart (10) and Paul Bruns (10) also reach double-digits against the Lions.
• Eight Coyotes connected on over .500 percent of their field goal attempts in the season opener against Southern.
• Five Yotes reached double-digit scoring against Southern, led by Paul Bruns' 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting with three treys.

 
Second Half Outburst

• The South Dakota offensve exploded for 59 second half points against Texas A&M-Commerce Wednesday night in the SCSC.
• Chase Forte paved the way with 16 of his 23 points in the second half against the Lions.
• The Coyotes point guard went 3-of-5 from the field, 10-11 from the charity stripe, dished out three assists and two boards in the final 20 minutes of play.
• Isaac Bruns Chipped in 11 second half points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Paul Bruns grabbed all seven of his game-high rebounding total in the final 20 minutes.
• After shooting .333 percent from the field in the first half, the Yotes offense found its rhythm in the second half, connecting on 19-of-33 attempts (.576 %) and went 19-for-23 from the free throw line.

 
Coyote Debuts

• Five Coyotes made their debuts in the red and white in transfers Chase Forte, Dre Bullock, Cameron Fens, Ashton Smith and redshirt freshman Shey Eberwein.
• Forte did a little bit of everything on both side of the ball, pouring in 13 points to go with six assists, four steals and two rebounds.
• In addition to a monster dunk, Bullock reached double-digit scoring with 11 points and had four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
• Fens tallied eight points, three boards and rejected a pair of Jaguar shots.
• In 17 minutes off the bench, Smith scored nine points and grabbed four boards.
• Eberwein scored one point and handed out an assist in 11 minutes.

 
Defensive Pressure

• Behind a full court press, the Coyotes came away with 10 steals, led by Chase Forte's four, on 17 Southern turnovers
• It was the first game with 10+ steals as a team since 2/18/23 when the Yotes had 10 steals at Denver.
• Isaac Bruns and Dre Bullock also tallied multiple steals with two each.

 
Bench Mob

• South Dakota went 11 deep in the season-opening win and received over half of its point total from the bench mob.
• Isaac Bruns and Max Burchill led the bench unit with 12 points each.
• Isaac Bruns was also the Yotes leading rebounder with six, while Burchill connected on both of his 3-point attempts.
• Dre Bullock added 11 points and knocked down 3-of-4 attempts from deep.
• Bruns led the Coyotes in rebounding (6), as Bruns, Bullock, Burchill and Ashton Smith combined for 19 of the Yotes 32 rebounds.

 
Dialing It In From Deep

• The Coyotes have been among the NCAA's best in three-point shooting over the previous five seasons.
• The Yotes have connected on .373 percent or higher on three-point attempts in each of the last five seasons.
• The Coyotes converted .376 percent of their attempts from deep a season ago, good for 16th across the NCAA.
• USD ranked No. 4 in three-pointer percentage 2019-20 with a .388 clip.
• Kaleb Stewart led the team in 3-pointers a season ago with 66 on a .426 percentage.
• Paul Bruns followed Stewart with 59 triples of his own a season ago and begins the season with 170 in his career.
• Isaac Bruns and Max Burchill knocked down 32 and 31 treys, respectively.
• The high-flying transfer, Dre Bullock, can also knock it down from deep as he connected on 38 treys last season at Niagara with a .500 percentage.

Lights Out on the Road

• Road venues didn't intimidate the Coyote sharpshooters a season ago, as USD knocked down 103 treys in 14 road contests with a .386 3-point percentage on the road.
• The Yotes ranked No. 2 in the NCAA in road 3-point shooting (.386%).
• Kaleb Stewart was especially lethal from range on the road with 34 triples on a .472 conversion rate.

Senior Season Loading for Stewart

• Kaleb Stewart returns for his senior season and was named to the All-Summit League Preseason First Team in October.
• Stewart is the conference second leading returning scorer after pacing USD at 15.6 points per game.
• At Denver last season, Stewart scored the most points in a single-game by a Coyote, 44, since 1967 and the fourth most in school history.
• Stewart was red-hot from deep against the Pioneers, knocking down 8-of-13 attempts from beyond the arc.
• He finished the regular season with 22 double-digit performances and scored in double-figures in all but two conference games.
• Stewart held shooting splits of .454 from the floor, .426 from deep and .829 from the charity stripe.
• He was named to the Summit League All-Newcomer Team and an All-Summit Honorable Mention in his first year at USD.
• Stewart was named South Dakota's Male Rookie of the Year at USD's annual athletic awards banquet, The Charlie's.

Mad Max

• Max Burchill was one of two Coyotes to start and play in all 32 games a season ago.
• The senior from Sioux Falls, S.D. averaged 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds per game a season ago and totaled 54 assists and 18 steals.
• Burchill had nine games with 5+ rebounds and nine with double-digit points, including a career-high 18-point performance against Purdue Fort Wayne (11/18/23).
   

Bruns Bros

• After standout careers at Dakota Valley HS, the Bruns brothers, Paul and Isaac took the floor once again together last season as Coyotes.
• Paul Bruns enters his senior season, and third with the Yotes, and reached 1,000 career points last season. Paul started 28 of 32 games for USD last season and averaged 10.2 points per game.
• Isaac Bruns appeared in all 32 games in his freshman season, averaging 6.3 points per game. He knocked down 32 triples at a .337 clip and grabbed 55 rebounds.

Coyotes in Europe

• South Dakota traveled to Europe for an 11-day tour of Italy at the end of July/early August.
• In addition to some sightseeing, the Coyotes held a 3-0 record against the Italian Select, Pro Camp (Italy) and Bassano del Grappa.
• The NCAA allows teams to participate in foreign tours once every four years.
• An added benefit of the foreign tours, is that it allows for an additional 10 extra days of practice.

The New Guys on the Block

• The Coyotes welcomed four transfers to the roster in Chase Forte, Dre Bullock, Ashton Smith and Cameron Fens.
• Dre Bullock and Kaleb Stewart spent the 2022-23 season together at LA Tech, while Bullock and Chase Forte both prepped at Word of God Christian Academny in Raleigh, N.C.
• USD added three freshmen in Oliver Kokal, Porter Ihnen and Evan Anderson.
• Forte made 29 starts in 32 appearances for Northwestern State where he averaged 9.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.7 steals per game for the Demons.
• Forte recorded a double-double and set career highs in points (25) and rebounds (10) against Texas A&M Commerce (3/6/24).
• South Dakota hosts Texas A&M Commerce in the second game of the year at the SCSC.
• Dre Bullock transfers in from Niagara where he played in 32 contests with nine starts. Bullock averaged 8.5 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. He knocked down 38 triples at a .500 shooting percentage.
• Bullock poured in a career-high 26 points against Quinnipiac (2/18/24) last season.
• Ashton Smith joins the Yotes from Oral Roberts where he played in 18 games for the Golden Eagles. The junior forward averaged 2.3 points and 1.2 rebounds in his only season at ORU.
• Cameron Fens spent his first two seasons at Illinois-Chicago where he appeared in 52 contests and made 15 starts. Fens averaged 2.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.

Hey I Know You

• Former teammates' paths have crossed once again at USD this season in Dre Bullock, Chase Forte and Kaleb Stewart.
• Bullock and Forte prepped at Word of God Christian Academy together.
• Stewart and Bullock spent a season playing together during the 2022-23 year at LA Tech.