Coyotes defeat in-state rival Augustana, 75-51

The South Dakota men's basketball team (18-8, 6-5 NCC) remained undefeated at home in North Central Conference play with a 75-51 win over in-state rival Augustana (12-15, 5-7 NCC) Feb. 23 at the DakotaDome. With the win, the Coyotes secured a first round home game in the NCC/Wells Fargo Finals on March 1.

Led by four players in double figures, USD used 30 points in the paint and 14 second-chance points to defeat the Vikings.

Augustana held just two leads in the game and neither was by more than one point. The last Viking lead was at the 11:29 mark of the first half, when Dave Medema hit a jumper to put Augustana ahead, 12-11.

From that point, the Coyotes went on a 22-4 run down to the 4:27 mark to lead by 17 points on three of redshirt freshman Jesse Becker's (Plymouth, MN) game-high 16 points.

The lead was 14 points, 35-21, in favor of USD at halftime after Becker connected on a pair of free throws with 35 seconds to play.

Out of the break, the Coyotes missed a basket and Augustana's Nick Olson hit a three-pointer 25 seconds into the half to cut the lead to 11, 35-24. That was the closest the Vikings would get as USD built its lead to 20 points by the 13:48 mark and maintained it from the 11:18 mark on.

For the game, USD, who defeated Augustana for the sixth-straight time in the DakotaDome, shot 46.4 percent (26-of-56) from the field, including 9-of-30 (30 percent) from three-point range. At the foul line, the Coyotes helped themselves by making 14 of its 16 attempts (87.5 percent). For the second-straight game, USD outrebounded its opponents with a 39-35 advantage over the Vikings.

Outside of Becker's 16 points, senior All-American Turner Trofholz (Schuyler, NE) reached double figures for the 61st straight game and 87th time in his career. Trofholz completed his 26th career double double (13th this season) with a game-high 10 rebounds.

Senior David Nour (Armour) added 12 points, while freshman Ross Winnekins (Plymouth, MN) also scored 12 points, a career-high.

Sophomore Dustin Little (Castlewood) played an excellent all-around game by scoring nine points, collecting nine rebounds (six offensive), adding a career-high seven assists and recording three steals.

Augustana shot 34 percent from the field on 18-of-53 shooting and was 5-of-23 (21.7 percent) from beyond the three-point arc. At the line, the Vikings made 52.6 percent (10-of-19) of its attempts.

Nick Olson was the lone player in double figures for Augustana with 15 points.