.—South Dakota scored 14 of the game’s final 17 points to pull away from IUPUI and earn a 69-57 win Thursday night inside the DakotaDome. The Coyotes (7-9, 2-0 Summit) have won all four games of a season-long five game home stand, which concludes Saturday against Fort Wayne.
Brandon Bos and Trevor Gruis had 21 and 18 points, respectively, to lead South Dakota, and combined to out-score IUPUI 25-24 in the second half. The duo made 14 of 23 field goals. Bos was 4 of 6 from three-point range. Gruis had six rebounds and four assists while becoming the 10th player in program history to score 1,200 points (1,207) and pull down 700 rebounds (701).
IUPUI’s top duo of Ian Chiles and Mitch Patton combined to score 15 points. Only two players in the nation had attempted more shots than Chiles, who entered with a 17 points per game average. With Karim Rowson guarding him most of the night, Chiles was held scoreless in the first half and finished with seven points on 2 of 10 shooting. Patton battled foul trouble to score eight points on 2 of 7 shooting.
IUPUI (5-15, 0-3) closed the first half on a 10-0 run to take a 33-32 lead into halftime. The Jaguars made half of their 28 shots in the first half, but were 7 of 24 in the second.
Donovan Gibbs scored all 11 of his points in the first half for IUPUI. Khufu Najee had 10 points at the break and finished with 12 to lead the Jaguars.
South Dakota got contributions from just about everyone. Tyler Flack had nine points, including a two-handed dunk and a put-back down the stretch as USD closed out the win. Flack also had seven rebounds. Eric Robertson came off the bench and grabbed a career high six rebounds. IUPUI had four offensive boards and just as many second-chance points.
The Coyotes led 55-54 with 5:30 to go. Bos and Karim Rowson scored on back-to-back possessions and a designed high-low play from Gruis to Flack led to an open dunk that made it 61-54 with three minutes remaining.
P.J. Hubert answered with a 3-pointer with 2:37 left that made it 61-57. Hubert had eight points and made two of the Jaguars’ five three-pointers. IUPUI missed its final five shots of the game.
Flack’s tip-in of a Bos miss with a minute left made it 63-57. Point guard Trey Norris, Gruis and Bos each made a pair of free throws to close out the win.
