Fort Wayne guard Mo Evans scored a game-high 20 points and handed out nine assists to lead the Mastodons to an 85-65 win against South Dakota Wednesday inside Memorial Coliseum.
It was the sixth consecutive win for Fort Wayne (13-4, 2-0 Summit), ranked No. 25 in the Mid-Major Top 25 Poll this week. The Mastodons improved to 7-0 at home and avenged last year’s Summit League Tournament quarterfinal loss to the Coyotes all in the same motion.
Shy McClelland had 19 points to lead South Dakota (9-8, 1-2), but was the only Coyote who scored in double figures. D.J. Davis scored nine points and Tyler Flack, playing for the second time this season, had eight points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots during the final 12 minutes of the second half.
South Dakota senior guard Casey Kasperbauer hit a jumper near the midway point of the first half to become the 45th player in program history to score 1,000 points in a Coyote uniform. He buried a 3 shortly thereafter and finished with five points, 1,004 for his career.
Fort Wayne scored on eight of its first 11 possessions to jump out to an 18-11 lead. Brent Calhoun scored the first six points and had eight during the rally. He was 6 of 6 from the field on the night and finished with 15 points and seven rebounds.
South Dakota trailed 26-15 before Kasperbauer and McClelland combined to score 11 consecutive points to tie the game at 26-26 with less than six minutes to go in the first half. Fort Wayne responded by closing the half on a 21-7 run. The Mastodons made eight of their final nine shots of the half including four 3-pointers. Max Landis, who scored 15 points, knocked down two 3’s during the rally.
Fort Wayne began the second half on a 15-8 run to lead 62-41 with 15 minutes left. Landis had five points during the stretch. It was 74-45 Fort Wayne with nine minutes left.
The Mastodons shot 52 percent from the field (33 of 63) compared to 41 percent for South Dakota (26 of 63). Fort Wayne also earned a 43-30 edge on the glass. John Konchar had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Fort Wayne.
South Dakota had a season-high 14 steals in Sunday’s win at Oral Roberts. The Coyotes had no steals Wednesday.
The Coyotes return home to host Omaha at 4 p.m. Saturday inside the DakotaDome in the second game of a scheduled women’s and men’s doubleheader.
