Coyote men defeat UMKC, look forward to CSU Bakersfield
The Coyote men defeated University of Missouri-Kansas City 79-70 in their first game after their Minnesota game upset this past weekend.
After a shaky first half, USD rallied and put a win together.
Second-year head coach Craig Smith realized that after the Minnesota game, the transition would be tough.
“Coming off of the emotion of the Minnesota game on Saturday and only having a one and a half day prep for all of the things that UMKC runs, that’s not an easy turnaround. That’s not an easy turnaround mentally, you don’t have all the time you want to prepare for some of those things, so you hope the preseason comes through and the players do some of those things. All in all we’ll take this thing and run with it,” Smith said.
The rough going early on could have been a product of the short prep time, but the team was able to come together and play hard down the stretch.
“We weren’t focused on going out there and having anything to prove. We just wanted to go out there and play as hard as we could. We knew if we did that than we would take care of a few things,” senior guard Tre Burnette said.
Burnette scored 18 points for the Coyotes and added seven rebounds.
One player that came out and played hard for the Coyotes was senior guard Trey Norris.
Norris was a spark plug off of the bench. After only scoring two points in the first half, Norris came out strong in the second scoring 17 points, going a perfect three for three from three-point range and only missing one of his six total shots.
Two of those threes came late in the second half to help secure the Coyote win. Norris helped carry the scoring as Kansas City was able to lock down leading scorer senior guard Casey Kasperbauer.
“I know they played Casey (Kasperbauer) pretty tight, so that always opens driving lanes and opens shots for everyone else. I knew they were playing Casey tight on the left-hand side and the shot just found me a couple times and I knocked it down,” said Norris.
Smith praised Norris’ ability to turn around his game after a rough opening.
“I thought he had just an atrocious start to the game –over dribbling, wasn’t handling the press. Normally against the press he is great. Tight with the ball, makes great decisions but he was fumbling the ball, it looked like he had scissors attached to his hands for a stretch,” Smith said. “We got after him pretty good in one timeout and he can take tough coaching and he really responded well. I thought he had a really good last 30 minutes of the game and certainly down the stretch he was huge.”
Reigning Summit League Player of the Week senior forward Eric Robertson had another strong outing. Robertson scored 12 points, grabbed nine boards and added two blocks to help anchor the Coyotes down low. Coach Smith noticed the work Robertson was putting in.
“Eric Robertson hit some big shots from that 15 to 17 foot range against the zone. Really hurt them when we were making our run,” said Smith.
Another big help in the post is true freshman forward Dan Jech. Jech has helped play big on a Coyote team that currently is lacking in height.
Jech scored 10 points to go along with six rebounds and two blocks. Despite his freshman status, Jech is playing a crucial role for the Coyotes this season.
“Dan Jech is going to be really good. He’s really kind of rounding out. He still does some freshman things and you kind of get on him about it but he’s starting to get through that freshman stage. He just really anchors us defensively in particular. He can really alter shots and finish possessions,” Smith said.
With the win the Coyotes improve to 6-3 on the season and are currently enjoying a five-game win streak.
Up next, they face a 4-3 Cal State Bakersfield team, who are looking to avenge last year’s loss after the Coyotes just managed to squeak by with a win.
“I know this – they have the Aly Ahmed kid who is a really good big guy. They were up 13 on us last year at their place and he was just killing us,” Smith said. “He was destroying us and he got a technical and another technical and got kicked out of the game. Thank goodness and we were able to win by one. They play like three point guards so they really handle it well and they signed some really good junior college kids last year.”
The Coyotes take on CSU Bakersfield on Saturday in the DakotaDome. Tip off time is 5:30 p.m. and the game is the first leg of a double header that wraps up with the Coyote women taking on Washington at 8 p.m.
