Box score
VERMILLION, SD—The University of South Dakota celebrated its newly-minted Great West Conference regular season men's basketball championship with an 83-49 win Sunday night against visiting NJIT in the DakotaDome, as the teams met in the final regular season contest of 2009-10
South Dakota, 20-9 overall and 11-1 in the Great West, has won its last 11 games and is 14-1 in the last 15 games going back to January 9. Two of those 11 consecutive wins came against NJIT, with Sunday's victory preceded by a 68-58 decision over the Highlanders in Newark on February 25 in the Prudential Center.
Sunday's game was a makeup of the original February 13 date that was postponed due to flight cancellations out of Newark related to a major winter storm.
NJIT closes the regular season with an overall record of 9-20, including 4-8 in the Great West.
Both teams will participate in the first Great West Conference postseason tournament, to be contested March 10 to 13 on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, UT. NJIT, seeded #6, will face #3 North Dakota on Wednesday at 7:30 pm MST. South Dakota, as the top seed, receives a first-round bye.
On Sunday, South Dakota showed a balanced and potent offense, getting double-figure scoring totals from five individuals, paced by senior center Steve Smith, who scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while blocking three shots and altering others with his hulking 6-foot-11, 265-pound presence around the basket.
Smith's classmate, power forward Tyler Cain, who averages a double-double on the season (15.2 points, 10.1 rebounds), got 11 points and 14 boards against the Highlanders. Roman Gentry added 16 points for the Coyotes; Louie Krogman came off the bench for 14 points, 12 of which came on three-point baskets, plus a game-high seven assists; and, Kendall Cutler scored 10 points.
NJIT did some good things, such as committing just 10 turnovers and getting 16 offensive rebounds as a team, the second-highest total all season for the Highlanders against a Division I team (the high was 18 vs. Seton Hall in November).
However, the Highlanders shot a season-worst .282 from the field (20-71) and that fact prevented them from keeping up with or even making a serious run at South Dakota beyond the opening minutes.
Among the individual NJIT players, only freshman Chris Flores had a good shooting night. He scored 19 of the team's 27 first-half points and finished the game 10-for-20 from the field, including 4-for-6 on three-pointers. His 26 points against South Dakota were a career-best, topping the 25 he reached previously at Wagner on December 28 and again at North Dakota on February 23.
Jheryl Wilson, who had scored 26 points in each of the previous two games and was averaging 22.8 points in the previous five games, finally had a rough shooting night (4-14), but he nonetheless was NJIT's only double-figure scorer Sunday aside from Flores. Wilson ended with 10 points and led NJIT on the boards with eight rebounds. He also made three steals.
Flores made a steal on the first possession of the game and opened the scoring with a three-pointer that gave the Highlanders what would be their only lead of the night.
South Dakota answered with the next seven points and first got its lead to double-digits, 20-10, on a three-pointer for Krogman with 11:35 left in the first half. The first-half lead gradually got as high as 16 before the Coyotes finished with a 40-27 halftime advantage.
The door appeared to open just a crack for the Highlanders at the start of the second half when a steal by Wilson set up an Isaiah Wilkerson dunk 30 seconds in that trimmed NJIT's deficit to 11.
The Highlanders got a defensive stop on the next possession, but they missed their next five shots and if the door was ever open it certainly slammed shut when South Dakota ran off 10 straight points for a 50-29 lead 3:48 into the second half.
The South Dakota lead fluctuated between the high teens and low twenties most of the rest of the way and stood at 18, 65-47, after Flores scored for NJIT with 6:14 left. The Coyotes then finished up 18-2 for the final winning margin.
NJIT, which improved from one win in 2008-09 to nine overall wins so far this season, did most of its winning at home, 8-5 in Newark, but just 1-15 on other teams' courts. However, Wednesday's Great West Conference Tournament opener against North Dakota will be something new this season for the Highlanders—a first neutral site contest. The teams split this regular season, with North Dakota winning at home, 90-78, on February 23 and the Highlanders turning the tables, 91-73, on February 28 in Newark.
