Casey Kasperbauer’s career-high 23 points led six South Dakota players in double figures as the Coyotes beat Oakland 97-78 Saturday inside O’rena. The win pulls South Dakota (8-12, 4-4 Summit) even and into fourth place in the Summit League standings.
Kasperbauer, who missed Thursday’s game with an ankle injury, started Saturday and scored 16 points during the final 10 minutes of the first half to help the Coyotes turn a 30-16 deficit into a 48-40 halftime lead. Kasperbauer hit four three-pointers during the 32-10 run. He added a fifth trey in the second half and finished 7 of 9 from the field.
Kasperbauer countered the early shooting display put on by Travis Bader, the league’s top three-point shooter, who made his first five from beyond the arc Saturday as the Grizzlies built their lead. Bader cooled and missed all 10 of his three-point attempts the rest of the way. He led Oakland with 19 points on 7 of 18 shooting.
“We knew we had to score a lot of points to beat these guys,” said Kasperbauer. “We let Bader get hot early, but he didn’t do much the rest of the game. I think that speaks to our defense tonight.”
Juevol Myles scored 13 second-half points and finished with 17 for South Dakota. He scored seven in a row early in the second half and finished 7 of 11 from the field. Brandon Bos had 13 points. Jordan Boots hit three treys and had 11 points. Trevor Gruis (11 points) finished one rebound shy of a double-double and Karim Rowson (10 points) was three rebounds short of the feat.
Drew Valentine had 18 points and 11 rebounds for Oakland (8-13, 3-4), which has dropped four of its last five. Duke Mondy added 17 points and Corey Petros chipped in 10.
It took three minutes for Oakland to trim a 77-55 deficit to 81-72. Mondy was set to cut into the lead further, but was called for traveling before watching his shot go in with 3:16 to go. Oakland head coach Greg Kampe was hit with a technical foul during the ensuing media timeout and that’s where the Grizzlies’ run ended.
Kasperbauer hit both technical free throws and Gruis made it a four-point trip with a bucket in the lane. Kasperbauer then picked off a Ryan Bass pass near midcourt and scored an easy layup that made it 87-72 with less than three minutes to go. Oakland was outscored 18-8 following the technical foul.
The 97 points are a season high for the Coyotes, who equaled their best shooting performance of the season at 57 percent. South Dakota was 10 of 19 from beyond the arc and 19 of 20 from the free-throw line. It’s the second time in four games that USD has missed one free throw on at least 19 attempts. South Dakota was the third-best free-throw shooting team in the nation heading into the weekend.
Courtesy: Bryan Boettcher, USD
