Men’s Basketball Eyes Summit League Tournament

The South Dakota men’s basketball team rebounded from a Sunday afternoon loss to South Dakota State with an 85-80 victory over Summit League leader St. Thomas on Thursday night. 

In the contest, Chase Forte led the Coyotes with 30 points, but it was senior Max Burchill’s 3-pointer with 32 seconds remaining that proved to be the deciding basket. Forte also led the team in rebounds and assists with nine and four, respectively.

South Dakota started slow as St. Thomas opened the game on an 11-2 run and extended its lead to as many as 11 with 13 minutes remaining in the first half. The Coyotes outscored the Tommies 49-42 in the second half to improve to 17-11 overall and 8-5 in Summit League play.

This is the sixth time since joining the Summit League in 2011 that South Dakota has won at least 17 games in a season. The 17 wins mark the most for the program since the 2021-22 season. The victory also gives South Dakota the most home wins in the conference, as the Coyotes are now 13-2 at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center this season.

On Saturday, South Dakota nearly pulled off a second double-digit comeback against Omaha but fell short in a 93-85 loss. Forte recorded his second straight 25-point game, shooting 9-of-15 from the field with two 3-pointers. Dre Bullock added 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

Omaha built an early lead with a 15-3 run, extending its advantage to 17 points in the first half. South Dakota cut the deficit to nine at halftime but fell behind by as many as 21 after a 17-5 Mavericks run to start the second half. The Coyotes responded with a 14-4 run to close the gap to four points with 2:25 remaining, but Omaha held on, handing South Dakota its sixth conference loss of the season​.

With two games left in the regular season, South Dakota will travel to Fargo on Wednesday to take on North Dakota State before closing the season at home against North Dakota on Saturday, March 1. The Coyotes currently sit in fourth place in the Summit League standings as they prepare for the conference tournament.