Youngstown State outshoots USD Friday, wins 87-79
Hot shooting at the end of the game and a late-rally wasn’t enough for the Coyotes to get a win in front of the home crowd Friday night.
South Dakota fell to Youngstown St. 87-79 in a game that featured lots of offense and not so much defense.
This was the Coyotes second home game of the year, but the first for many students to see since the home opening win against Wayne St. was during Thanksgiving Break. USD trailed by four at halftime and saw their deficit fall all the way to 15 with just over 11 minutes left in the game.
But the game was far from over.
“Our guys showed a lot of resiliency, which we’ve done all year,” head coach Craig Smith said. “We’ve got some fighters on this squad and they have a never-say-die attitude.”
Thanks to clutch buckets down the stretch from junior guards Casey Kasperbauer and Trey Norris and senior guard Tyler Larson, Smith’s team battled all the way back to make it a one-possession game with under a minute left.
Unfortunately, the rally came up short and the Coyotes fell by eight points after some late Penguin free throws.
“We started getting stops, but we couldn’t maintain that over 40 minutes” Kasperbauer said. “Coach said they shot 58 percent and that’s not OK, especially on our home court. We’ve got to tighten up our defense.”
The team actually finished shooting 53 percent, but Kasperbauer’s point was felt.
Kasperbauer finished with 18 points, including going 5-9 on three-pointers. He said the question at the end of every game is ‘Did the team get better?’
“Offensively we definitely got better,” Kasperbauer said. “Defensively, we didn’t do a horrible job, but we’ve got to do a better job and clean it up.”
Larson finished with a team-high 21 points, nine rebounds and five assists. The senior, who wore a brace on his knee while recovering from two surgeries last year, is now brace-free. He described it as a “big difference” being on the court without the brace on.
“I feel like my old self, like I was coming out of junior college,” Larson said. “I feel 100 percent. Also, my coaches have a lot of confidence in me, so that helps as well.”
Both coach Smith and the players repeated that respect has to be handed to Youngstown St. Seemingly every time the Coyotes hit a big bucket down the stretch, the Penguins matched it with a bucket of their own. USD shot 48 percent in the second half of the game, but the Penguins one-upped them by shooting 58 percent in the final 20 minutes.
Kasperbauer and Larson both played the majority of the game, with 37 and 36 minutes played, respectively. Last year under interim head coach Joey James both saw their minutes fluctuate often. Now they are getting heavy minutes and it’s proving dividends.
Despite the playing time increase, both agreed with each other that playing a lot of minutes in a loss isn’t a great feeling.
“It’s never been about how many minutes of how many points we’re getting per night,” Kasperbauer said. “We’re trying to do whatever it takes to win the game. I’d take playing zero minutes in a win than playing forty minutes in a loss. It’s never a good feeling to get a loss.”
Larson nodded in agreement with Kasperbauer.
“37 minutes in a loss is bad. Zero minutes in a win would feel way better, honestly,” Larson said. “It was tough out there. Late we started finishing and that’s what got us back in it. We just have to put it together. We’ve got a big one coming up against Creighton. We’ve just got to finish the game.”
The Coyotes travel to Creighton Tuesday and then head north to play The Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV in the Pentagon Saturday night.
“It gets a lot easier, doesn’t it?” Smith joked. “But, no, it’s an exciting week and it will be two incredible tests for our guys and we’ll find out what we’re made of.”
Caption: Junior guard Trey Norris holds off a Youngstown State player as he goes in for a layup Friday in the DakotaDome. (Photo by Megan Card)
Scroll down to see photos from the University of South Dakota men’s basketball game Friday against Youngstown State. USD lost 87-79 in the DakotaDome.
