by Evan Maldonado
South Dakota shot 57 percent from the floor and allowed a season-low in points to run over Kansas City 82-48 Saturday night in Vermillion.
It was the final regular season game of the year and the Coyotes played arguably their best game of the season. With the win, USD earned the No. 6 seed at next week’s Summit League Tournament. South Dakota finished the regular season at 12-18 (7-11 Summit) while Kansas City finished at 11-20 (7-11 Summit).
Five senior players were honored before the game, and they certainly left their mark in the final game inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Of the 82 points scored by South Dakota tonight, 71 of them came from the five senior players. Tasos Kamateros led all scorers by tying a career-high 24 points. He went 9-of-15 from the floor and 3-of-5 from deep and grabbed six rebounds. It was back-to-back 20-plus point scoring outings for Kamateros and his fifth of the season. Kruz Perrott-Hunt added 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Perrott-Hunt also went 4-of-8 from three and dished out three assists. He scored 20-plus points for the sixth time this year. Tonight was the first time since Jan. 22, 2022 that two Coyotes scored in the 20’s in the same game.
Mason Archambault had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and picked up two steals. Damani Hayes had seven points and six rebounds while A.J. Plitzuweit scored six points and had a team-high five assists. Paul Bruns had eight points off the bench and a team-high seven rebounds. Max Burchill hit a three-pointer to round out the scoring efforts for South Dakota. USD also shot 52 percent from the three-point line and made 12-of-18 free-throws. The Coyotes tied a season-low in turnovers with four while recording 16 assists.
It was all Coyotes from the opening tip as they led wire-to-wire in Saturday’s game. Kamateros opened the scoring with a three-pointer from the wing and USD never surrendered the lead from there. Hayes converted a layup at the 8:24 mark of the first half to push South Dakota’s lead to double digits. That lead never dipped below double-figures for the remainder of the game. The Coyotes put the game away for good with seven minutes to go in the game with a 13-0 run. A pair of free-throws from KC’s Promise Idiaru trimmed the USD advantage down to 20 with 7:44 left on the clock. The run started after that with five straight points from Perrott-Hunt. A three-point play the old fashion way from Kamateros added to the run before Plitzuweit sank a jumper in the paint. The run was capped off by another layup from Kamateros and a free-throw from Plitzuweit and South Dakota found themselves with a 33-point lead under four minutes to go. In the end, the Coyotes were able to send their seniors off the right way with a 34-point win over Kansas City. The 34-point advantage was USD’s largest margin of victory this season over a Division I opponent.
After scoring 28 points in the previous matchup, South Dakota held RayQuawndis Mitchell to 13 points on 5-of-15 shooting. Mitchell was the lone Roo to reach double-figures tonight. Jeff Ngandu and Tyler Andrews were the next highest scorers with nine points each. Kansas City shot 36.7 percent from the floor and 26.3 percent from the three-point line. USD turned KC over 13 times tonight as well.
South Dakota will play North Dakota State in the first round of the Summit League Tournament. The game is scheduled to tip-off at 8:30 p.m. Sunday night in Sioux Falls. The Coyotes and Bison split the season-series this year, but USD won the previous matchup on Feb. 2 in Vermillion.
