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VERMILLION, S.D. (KELO.com) — In a game that included 16 lead changes and nine ties, South Dakota closed out its home schedule with a big 78-65 victory over Western Illinois Saturday evening inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
The Coyotes (17-10, 10-6 Summit) picked up their fourth straight win and have now won 10 or more games in conference play for the third consecutive season. The Leathernecks (15-13, 6-11 Summit) have lost their sixth straight contest against USD.
Tasos Kamateros led all scorers with a career-high 24 points tonight by shooting 57 percent from the field. Kamateros used the three-point ball to his advantage and knocked down 6-of-9 triples. Kruz Perrott-Hunt cashed in 18 points while Mason Archambault added 12 points and two steals. Xavier Fuller provided 10 points off the bench for USD to round out the double-digit scoring efforts.
South Dakota and Western Illinois were locked neck-and-neck for the first half and headed to the locker room tied at 35. After Western Illinois shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, the Coyotes held their own defensively in the second half and limited the Leathernecks to 33 percent shooting including 0-for-9 from the three-point line. Damani Hayes tied a career-high in minutes tonight and was assigned to 6’10” Luka Barisic for a majority of the second half. Barisic was held to just six points in the second stanza after scoring 10 in the first.
“Can’t say enough about the play of Damani Hayes,” said USD head coach Todd Lee. “Barisic has been playing at a high-level recently for Western Illinois and I thought Damani did a great job on him.”
Midway through the second half, neither the Coyotes nor the Leathernecks managed to pull away enough to take over the game. The largest lead for both teams up to that point was four points. With the game tied at 50 apiece at the 10:45 mark, USD went on a quick 10-0 run to take the lead for good. After checking in to the game for the first time, Erik Oliver tied the game with a layup. Oliver followed that with a steal on the defensive end the next possession and Perrott-Hunt rattled in a long three-pointer to give USD the advantage. On the next offensive possession, Hayes drop-stepped and slammed home the pass from Archambault to ignite the Coyote crowd. Archambault then drew a charge on the other end before Xavier Fuller capped the run with a three-pointer in the corner. USD had built their lead to as much as 17 late in the second half to record their 11th win at home this season.
South Dakota had an efficient night shooting 46 percent from the field and used the long ball effectively for a 55 percent mark from downtown. The Coyotes took advantage of scoring points from the charity stripe by finishing 15-of-18 from the line including a perfect 12-of-12 in the second half.
The Coyotes are in fifth place in the conference standings heading into the final week of the regular season. South Dakota will face two teams ahead of them in the standings next week on the road before the Summit League tournament. USD heads to Kansas City first on Thursday before a date with Oral Roberts in Tulsa Saturday night.
