South Dakota led by 20 points in the first half and made all six free-throw attempts in the final 19 seconds to hold off South Dakota State 74-71 Saturday in front of 5,000 fans inside the DakotaDome.
Juevol Myles scored 22 points and Brandon Bos added 16 for the Coyotes (7-10, 3-2 Summit), who have beaten their rival in two consecutive meetings dating back to last season. Casey Kasperbauer made four three-pointers and had 14 points and Trevor Gruis’ line read 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Nate Wolters scored 26 points on a night in which he became South Dakota State’s all-time leading scorer. Wolters scored 23 second-half points and passed Mark Tetzlaff on the all-time list with a 16-foot jumper near the midway point of the second half. He stands with 1,943 career points.
Dave Boots recorded his 500th career victory as head coach of South Dakota, his 600th career NCAA win and his 615th win as a head coach. His Coyotes shot 55 percent from the field and held Wolters to 1 of 8 shooting to take a 42-25 lead into halftime.
Wolters scored seven points during a 14-2 run that brought the Jackrabbits within single digits at 47-39 with 13:11 to go. The lead was 57-53 when Kasperbauer hit his fourth 3 of the game and Myles made two free throws that pushed the lead to nine, 62-53, with less than six minutes to go.
The Jackrabbits got within two, 68-66, following a 3 by Chad White with 1:13 remaining and Jordan Dykstra missed a wide open three-pointer with 23 seconds left that would have given SDSU the lead.
Dykstra did hit a 3 with 2.3 seconds left that made it 72-71 and the Jacks fouled Bos, who sank both free throws. SDSU’s inbounds pass from midcourt with 1.2 seconds left was stolen by Karim Rowson which sealed the win.
South Dakota, the fifth-best free-throw shooting team in the nation heading into this one, was 18 of 19 from the stripe.
The win moves South Dakota into fourth place in the Summit League standings. South Dakota State (11-6, 2-2) fell into fifth place.
Courtesy: Bryan Boettcher, USD
