SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Of all the recent Coyote calamities in the Summit League men’s basketball tournament, this one might sting the most.
No. 3 seed South Dakota blew a 69-60 lead with five minutes remaining and watched No. 6 seed North Dakota — who the Yotes beat twice in the regular season, including 77-67 last week in Vermillion — finish the game on a 14-2 run for a 74-71 win that dashed the NCAA Tournament hopes of a talented senior bunch that had accomplished everything they could imagine in their USD careers besides a Summit tourney title.
Peterson, All-Summit first team guard Tyler Hagedorn, point guard Triston Simpson, transfer guard Cody Kelly, and forward Brandon Armstrong won over 80 games and a Summit League regular season title, but finish bitterly short of taking another step toward achieving their ultimate goal. Had USD won, it would have faced in Monday’s semifinal a No. 7 seed Purdue Fort Wayne team it hammered by 23 in late January.
Instead will UND play the Mastadons, who knocked out No. 2 South Dakota State 77-74 on Saturday.
No. 1 seed North Dakota State, which survived its own upset scare in edging No. 8 Denver 71-69 on Saturday, will play the other semifinal at 6 p.m. against Oral Roberts, who blew out No. 5 Omaha on Sunday.
Hear “Sports Talk with Craig & John” on entyKWSN Monday for plenty of reaction to both the Jacks and Yotes men’s losses. The broadcast will follow the doubleheader of both USD and SDSU women’s semifinal games KWSN will air and live stream.
Here is a summary of the USD-UND game from Summit League PR:
Down one with 10 seconds left, North Dakota’s Marlon Stewart hit a go-ahead jumper that put the No. 6 seed Fighting Hawks up by one. USD coach Todd Lee called a timeout and drew up a play for senior Tyler Peterson, a drove to the rack in traffic, missed a chip shot, and didn’t get a foul call.
Stewart finished with a team-high 21 points in a game where the Fighting Hawks led by as many as 14 in the opening seven minutes and trailed by as many as 11 seven minutes into the second half.
It was a game of momentum swings and UND owned the first one and claimed the final one. North Dakota used an early 10-0 run to build a double-digit advantage and led 21-7 after a three-pointer by Stewart, but the Coyotes settled in after that.
After trading baskets again for a few minutes, Tyler Hagedorn scored seven straight points, part of a 9-1 run to cut the Fighting Hawks lead down to 26-21 entering the under eight media timeout.
South Dakota’s Cody Kelley knocked down a trey to spark an 11-0 USD run that gave the Coyotes their first lead at 35-34 with two minutes left in the half.
North Dakota ended the run and retook the lead on a De’Sean Allen-Eikens layup, then added a pair of Kienan Walter free throws before Hagedorn completed an old-fashioned three-point play on the other end though, which sent the game to the half tied at 38.
The Coyotes came out hot in the second half, scoring the first seven points. Add that to the final three points of the first half, and the 10-0 run put them up 45-38 and prompted a timeout from the UND bench just two minutes into the final frame.
South Dakota played with the lead throughout the half until North Dakota used a 10-0 run to retake the lead at 70-69 on an Allen-Eikens put back with 2:14 remaining. Tyler Peterson then put the Coyotes back up after a pair of free throws with 1:10 left.
Neither team scored again until Stewart’s step-back, 17-footer with 10 seconds to go. Peterson then had an attempt at the game-winner, but his shot rolled off the rim with two seconds left and Fighting Hawks’ freshman Brady Danielson sealed the win from the free-throw line.
Stewart led a balanced North Dakota offense that saw all five starters reach double figures. Allen-Eikens added 14 points, Brown collected 13 points and both Walter and Filip Rebraca totaled 11 points in the win.
Hagedorn led four Coyotes in double figures with 17 points with Stanley Umude adding 15, Peterson 14 and Kelley 12 points in the loss.
The Fighting Hawks advance to play No. 7 seed Purdue Fort Wayne in the semifinals on Monday at 8:30 p.m CT.
Turning PointTrailing 69-60 with exactly five minutes left, North Dakota went on a 10-0 run to retake the lead and even though they lost that lead briefly, it put the Fighting Hawks in position to win the game at the end.
