Coyotes to finish up season
With two games left in the season the fans of the University of South Dakota Basketball team will find out if the men’s basketball team is hungry or if they’re starving.
The answer to that question will be found over the next three days, as the Coyotes (9-17) close out their regular season with two consecutive home games.
On Feb. 23, the team will host Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne and then finish off the season with a home game on Saturday, Feb. 25 versus Oakland.
Assistant coach Joey James said the team will be looking to finish the season strong.
“The goal is always to win, so we’re hoping to come out of this week with two more wins,” James said. “We are going to go in and compete and we’ll see what happens.”
The Coyotes are currently on a three-game losing streak, which includes double-digit losses to North Dakota State University, Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis and then a heartbreaking onepoint loss for their ESPN Bracketbuster game versus Texas State.
The highlight of the Feb. 17 night’s game versus Texas State was the strong play of USD’s three seniors.
Senior guard Louie Krogman tied a career high with 37 points including six three pointers. He also dished off six assists and did his part in trying to earn the 10th win of the season for the Coyotes.
The other senior guard, Charlie Westbrook, scored a stellar 18 points despite fouling out of the game.
The third and final senior, Ricardo Andreotti had seven rebounds and a block on defense.
Coach James said those three players will definitely be missed next season.
“They really are three great kids,” James said. “They represented us very well and will be missed greatly.”
The Coyotes have a challenging task ahead of them with their next two games, as they lost to each school earlier this season.
In their earlier meeting versus IPFW, sophomore center Trevor Gruis scored a career-high 29 points.
In order to beat IPFW the Coyotes will have to focus more on rebounding, as USD had a solid 28 rebounds, however only six on the offensive side. Another thing to be noted is the Coyotes were on the road in their prior meeting, so hopefully the DakotaDome advantage plays a role.
The Coyotes, who currently have a conference record of 4-12, will be hoping to end their first full season in the Summit League Conference with a record of 6-12.
