VERMILLION, S.D. — South Dakota basketball hits the road for a pair of Summit League games this week starting Thursday night at Denver at 8 p.m. CT / 7 p.m. MT.

Quick Hitters

• The Coyotes have found their footing away from the Sanford Coyote Sports Center with three straight road wins. All three games were decided by single digits, with an average margin of win of 4.0 points, including an overtime victory at Kansas City 82-75. South Dakota's win at SDSU on Feb. 7 was just the second win in the D1 era for the Yotes in Brookings.
• South Dakota's seen its fair share of adversity this season, but despite that the Yotes are No. 5 in the Summit League standings with a 6-6 record. The Coyotes have won three of their last five games, with all five games decided by seven points or fewer including two overtime games.
• Over the last three road games, the Yotes have slowed the game down and held their opponents to 68.7 points per game. The only game where they allowed 70+ points was in the overtime win over Kansas City (82-75).
• Uzziah Buntyn has continued to step into larger roles as the season has progressed in his freshman season and has scored 20+ in three of the last five games. Last Wednesday's game against UND was Buntyn's first game under 10 points since January 17, a streak of six games.
• After a streaky start to the year scoring the ball, Jordan Crawford has found his footing in the Coyote offense with 10 straight games in double-digit scoring. Crawford's poured in 22 or more points in four of the last nine games, including a career-high effort of 33 points with seven 3-pointers against NDSU (Jan. 31).
• Since the start of league play, Cameron Fens has been dominant down low averaging 17.6 points and 10.7 rebounds per game while shooting 61.8% from the field.
• Fens notched his 10th double-double of the year Wednesday night with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Fens has seven double-doubles in league play and has three straight double-doubles (19.7 pts, 12.0 rebs/game).
• After playing in only four conference games a season ago, Cameron Fens has been one of the best in the paint to open the Summit League slate. He is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double in Summit League play.
• In conference play, the trio of Fens, Crawford and Buntyn rank inside the top-13 in scoring with Fens at No. 7 (17.6), Crawford at No. 8 (17.3) and Buntyn at No. 13 (14.4).
• South Dakota goes to the line frequently, ranking No. 15 in the NCAA in free throw attempts per game (25.9) and are No. 14 free throw makes per game (19.3). Through 10 Summit League games, USD is averaging 17.9 makes and 22.8 attempts.
• Eric Peterson is in year four as the head coach of the South Dakota men's basketball team and holds a 57-66 overall record.  

How to Follow

• Thursday's matchup between the Coyotes and the Pioneers will be available on Midco Sports Plus and the Summit League Network.
• The radio call by John Thayer can be found on the Coyote Sports Network on the Varsity Network app.

Series History

• South Dakota won the season opener 82-72 over the Pios on January 17 inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center to extend its win streak to four over Denver.
• After the score was tied at 37-37 at the half, the Coyotes outscored the Pios 45-35 in the second half.
• Cameron Fens had a monster game for the Yotes with a 23-point, 12-rebound double-double. Fens also blocked four shots and was 10-of-12 from the field.
• Gabe Oldman, the No. 2 rebounder (9.1/game) in the conference behind Fens, had a double-double with 24 points and 13 rebounds while going 9-for-9 from the field.
• Outside of Oldman's perfect day from the field, the Yotes held the rest of the Pioneers to 19-of-56 from the field (33.9%).
• Carson Johnson, the conference's leading scorer, was limited to 11 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

Coyote Country

• For just the second time in the Dl era, the Coyotes picked up a win over South Dakota State in Brookings Saturday 68-67.
• The win also snapped a 10-game skid against the Jackrabbits.
• The trio of Jordan Crawford, Cameron Fens and Uzziah Buntyn combined for 48 of 68 points. Crawford led the way with 19 points and five 3-pointers, while Fens secured his ninth double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
• The Coyotes connected on 10+ 3-pointers for the 12th time this season, while their 13 free throw attempts are the lowest amount they've attempted in a game this year.

Next Man Up

• South Dakota has seen eight players go down and miss extended time with injuries this season.
• Despite that the Coyotes still find themselves in the middle of the Summit League standings with a 6-6 conference mark.
• Jake Brack made his return to the court for the first time since December 18 (vs. Dakota State) in the Jan. 21 game at Omaha.
• Silas Bennion and Trent Hudgens were added to the roster prior to the first meeting with St. Thomas and have plugged right into the rotation.
• Vince Buzelis returned to the court for the first time since the December 28 game against Mount Marty in Thursday's win over Oral Roberts. Buzelis pulled down nine rebounds and had three assists in 26 minutes of action. Buzelis has started the last four games and set a new career high of 17 points last Wednesday against UND with 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
• The trio of Cameron Fens, Uzziah Buntyn and Jordan Crawford have increased their scoring output over the last seven games and have combined to score on average 64.8 of USD's 75.4 points per game over that stretch.
• Fens has been a monster in the middle for the Yotes, averaging 20.0 points and 11.4 rebounds over the last five games with four double-doubles. He's shot 39-for-64 over that stretch (60.9%).
• Buntyn's role continues to evolve in his freshman season and is averaging 17.6 points over the last seven. He's 53-of-61 from the free throw line during this stretch.
• Crawford scored in double-figures in 10 straight games and has knocked down three or more 3-pointers in eight of those contests. He leads the Summit League with 42 made triples in conference play (3.5/game).

Gritty

• Each of the last five games for the Yotes has been decided by single-digits points, including two overtime games and back-to-back overtime contests.
• The last two games have been decided by a single point. The Yotes left Brookings with a 68-67 win over the Jackrabbits (Feb. 7) but fell 71-72 to North Dakota in the SCSC in their most recent game (Feb. 11).
• Playing without one of the NCAA's top scorers in Isaac Bruns for the first time this season, the Coyotes picked up a gritty road win at Omaha 68-64 three weeks ago.
• It was the first road win of the season for USD. Since then, the Coyotes have won three straight road games.
• In the absence of Burns, Jordan Crawford let it fly on his way to a career high 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting with five 3-pointers. Uzziah Buntyn and Cameron Fens had 17 and 16 points, respectively as the trio combined to score 60 of USD's 68 points.
• Silas Bennion made his first career start as a Coyote and had a team-high four assists in a season-high 32 minutes of action.
• South Dakota held Omaha to 1-for-19 (5.3%) from the 3-point line in the game.
• The trio of Crawford, Fens and Buntyn scored 39 of the 40 second half points.

Finding the Range

• After averaging just 6.0 3-pointers made in the first 13 games of the year on a 32.4% rate, the Yotes averaged 9.0 3-pointers per game at a 40.3% clip over the next nine games.
• Last Thursday against ORU was the first game where the Yotes were held to under seven made 3-pointers since Dec. 18 (vs Prairie View A&M).
• The Yotes have made 10+ 3-pointers in five of 12 Summit League games, shooting over 40.0% in three of those games.
• USD has been streaky from deep in the last four games, with two games with 10 3-pointers (vs NDSU and SDSU) and two under six triples (vs KC and UND).
• Since the January 17 game where Jordan Crawford knocked down six 3-pointers on eight attempts, the junior guard has 4.0 made 3-pointers per game on a 42.7% from deep.
• Crawford rewrote his career highs for points with 33 and 3-pointers with seven Saturday's game vs NDSU.

Man in the Middle

• Cameron Fens had a monster night in the Coyotes home win over Kansas City. The Coyote center set new career highs of 31 points and 15 rebounds on 10-of-14 shooting.
• Fens' 15 rebounds are the most by a Coyote since Lahat Thioune's 19 rebounds against North Dakota State (12/29/23).
• Fens has now set career highs in both points and rebounds in the same game twice this season, as he scored 22 points and had 14 rebounds earlier this season against Prairie View A&M.
• After playing in just four Summit League games a season ago due to injury, Fens has averaged 17.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks while shooting 61.8% from the floor in Summit League play.
• Fens has scored 10+ in 19 of the last 21 games with 10 double-doubles.
• Fens has put together three straight double-doubles for the second time this season, averaging 19.7 points and 12.0 rebounds per game over the last three contests.
• He had three straight double-doubles (1/10-1/17) where he averaged 22.3 points and 13.7 rebounds per game while shooting 75.8% from the field.
• Fens ranks No. 35 in the NCAA and leads the conference in total rebounds (230), No. 29 in field goal percentage (61.5%) and is No. 28 in the country with 10 double-doubles.