RIVERSIDE, CA (KELO.com) — South Dakota lost an 18-point lead in the second half, but regrouped and got 29 points from Tyler Hagedorn to pull out an 84-83 road win at California Baptist Wednesday at the Events Center.
The Coyotes improved to 6-1 overall and 1-1 on this four-game road trip, their longest of the season. The game was part of the WAC-Summit League Challenge, which The Summit League now leads 2-1. The Lancers, who are in their second year of a transition to Division I, fell to 3-4.
The game featured two preseason players of the year in Stanley Umude for South Dakota and Milan Acquaah for CBU. And while Umude was just dandy with 18 points and six boards, it was co-star Hagedorn who shined brightest. Hagedorn was 11-of-13 from the field and had a game-high 10 rebounds. He totaled seven points in the final four minutes including back-to-back buckets that broke a 72-72 tie and put USD ahead for good.
Acquaah scored 37 points, but needed 29 shots to get there. He willed his team back from a 50-32 halftime deficit, netting 25 points after the break with four of the Lancers’ nine triples. He also had seven rebounds and seven assists.
“I was proud of the fact that our guys hung together,” said USD head coach Todd Lee. “The toughest thing in sports to do is win a road game in college basketball and our guys found a way to get a W. Not the way we wanted to, but we ended up gutting it out at the end.
Lee’s Coyotes shot 64 percent in the first half and made 6-of-12 from beyond the arc to take the 18-point lead into the break. Hagedorn had 16 in the opening half on 7-of-8 shooting and Cody Kelley chipped in 10 points with two 3s. Acquaah had 12 at the break, but was 3-of-10 from the field and the Lancers made 2-of-10 from three-point range in the first half.
The script flipped quickly in the second half. Acquaah scored six straight points and the lead was cut to 54-47 less than five minutes out of the break. A 3-pointer by Ty Rowell with 8:30 to go and the lead was gone.
“We talked about winning the first four minutes of the second half and that didn’t happen,” said Lee.
“Whenever you got a team down like that, you want to come out with the same intensity as the first half. We didn’t do that so that was disappointing.”
The home team led 66-63 on a hook shot by Dejon Davis with 7:21 left that proved to be the Lancers’ largest lead of the game. A 3-point play by Brandon Armstrong on the other end tied the game again at 66-66 and the teams went back and forth until Hagedorn’s heroics down the stretch.
A terrific find by Tyler Peterson to Umude led to a Coyote dunk with 24 seconds left that made it 81-77 and Hagedorn made 1-of-2 from the line with 17 seconds left that made it 82-77. Rowell countered with a 3, but Kelley calmly sank two free throws with seven seconds left that made it 84-80.
Acquaah struck one last time on a 3 with 1.5 seconds left, but the Lancers were without a timeout and USD quickly inbounded to Peterson to run off the final ticks.
South Dakota did not make a 3 in the second half, but did make 12-of-18 from the line. CBU finished 11-of-27 from downtown and the Lancers were averaging 11 triples a game. Kelley finished with 12 points for South Dakota and Peterson and Triston Simpson finished with nine points each.
The Coyotes next travel to Flagstaff, Arizona, for a noon (1 p.m. CST) tip against Northern Arizona (2-1).
The Lumberjacks have a blowout loss to Arizona and two blowout wins against non-Division I teams on their résumé.
