by Caleb Christensen, USD Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, MO. – The South Dakota Coyotes earned their fifth straight win of the season with a 68-62 victory over Kansas City Saturday inside the Swinney Center.
The Yotes (6-6, 4-0 Summit) and the Roos (5-8, 1-3 Summit) recorded another game that went down to the wire. South Dakota is 4-0 for the first time in Summit League play and will have a bye this upcoming weekend before traveling to Western Illinois on Jan. 22-23. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. both nights.
USD was led by A.J. Plitzuweit with 19 points on 6-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 from deep. He dished out six assists as well on the night. Stanley Umude and Mason Archambault (Standing Rock Sioux) each recorded 13 points. Archambault went 3-of-4 from deep on the night.
Josiah Allick led the Roos with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Brandon McKissic recorded 15 points and Demarius Pitts had 13 points. The Roos were without a key member in Marvin Nesbitt Jr. after he left the game at the 8:16 mark in the first half and didn’t return to the game.
“We talked about trying to win ugly games on the road and we did it again tonight,” head coach Todd Lee said. “I’m really happy for the guys and I know they are really happy and proud of the way they stayed in the game and got the win.”
The Roos gained their first lead of the series with an 11-10 advantage early on in the game. After pushing the lead to 17-13 in their favor, USD responded back to take a 21-19 lead with just under 10 minutes until half.
From there both teams were locked in a defensive battle, neither really gaining the upper hand the rest of the half. USD took a 34-33 lead into the break after a great first half showing from Archambault who went 3-for-3 from deep in the first 20 minutes. The largest lead for either team was four points in first stanza.
“Mason is feeling more comfortable in games recently,” Lee said about Mason Archambault. “He’s one of our best shooters and we need him to knock down shots. He also does some great things on the defensive end of the ball and sticks his nose in there. He gets his hands on the loose balls and does a good job off the ball defensively as well.”
The Coyotes started the second half on a 10-2 run with a four-point play from Umude and a pair of 3-pointers from Plitzuweit to extend their halftime lead to 44-35 early in the second half. During that stretch the Roos went 1-of-8 from the field.
Kansas City responded with a 10-2 run of its own to make it a one-point game at 48-47 at the under 12-minute timeout. The Roos then tied things up at 50-all before Plitzuweit went on a mini 6-2 run of his own to make it 56-52 with just over nine minutes on the clock.
As much as the Roos fought to stay in the game, things didn’t go their way down the stretch. An Umude jam from the baseline, McKissic fouling out and clutch free throws from USD in the closing seconds thwarted any chances the Roos had for a comeback.
For the game, USD shot 42.3 percent from the field (22-52) and 55 percent from deep (5-12). The Yotes got 17 points from the bench and held the lead for 28:41 of the game.
The Roos shot 42.6 percent from the field (23-54) and 30 percent from deep (6-20).
“We’ve got a lot of time to prepare for the Western Illinois game,” Lee said. “We’ll definitely get back in the gym, but whenever you have a bye week and you have 13 days off before your next game it feels great to get a win before.”
