South Dakota Coyote Men Pick Up Statement Win vs. Wyoming

The USD Coyote Men are off to a very strong start this season, and that continued on Tuesday Night.

The Yotes remained perfect at home and narrowly defeated the visiting Wyoming Cowboys 82-81.

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It took all 40 minutes, but the South Dakota men's basketball team remained perfect at home with an 82-81 win over Wyoming Tuesday night in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. The Coyotes improve to 7-0 at the SCSC and were led by Chase Forte who posted his fourth 20-plus point game of the season.

After getting into foul trouble in the first half, Forte made up for missed time in the second half with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting with five boards and three assists. For the game, Forte had a new season-high 25 points to go with five assists, five rebounds and a steal. Kaleb Stewart added 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and had a pair of steals, while Dre Bullock was the other Coyote in double-figure scoring with 14 off the bench.

While neither team shot it well from deep, the Yotes were more productive in the paint holding a 42-30 edge in points in the lane. USD surrendered 16 offensive rebounds to the Cowboys but were able to turn Wyoming over at a high rate with 19 Cowboy turnovers. USD scored 17 points off those turnovers and held a higher shooting percentage .450 to .429 percent.

Cameron Fens got the Yotes rolling early as he slammed home the first points of the night and had a putback tip-in on the next possession. Forte followed with back-to-back buckets and the Yotes led 8-3 four minutes in. Wyoming answered with five straight, as the lead changed hands 10 times in the opening 20 minutes. The game was tightly contested from tip to final buzzer, as South Dakota's six-point lead early in the half would be the largest by either team in the first frame. With the Yotes dealing with foul trouble of three starters with two fouls, Stewart kept the Coyote offense moving with 13 first half points on 5-of-6 shooting with one triple. The two teams went into the halftime intermission deadlocked at 37-37.

Forte wasted little time getting his offense going again in the second half, as he scored eight of the team's first 12 points to give USD a 49-45 lead five minutes in. The Cowboys briefly took the lead, for one possession, before Forte put the Yotes back ahead and USD would stay in front for nearly 19 minutes of the second half. South Dakota took its largest lead of the half, eight, twice near the midway point of the half off a free throw from Ashton Smith and another Forte bucket, but Wyoming would battle to keep the deficit to single digits. With the Yotes leading by one, 79-77, Paul Bruns connected on 4-of-4 attempts from the Charity stripe in the final 10 seconds to hold off the Cowboys for an 82-81 win.

The Coyotes are back in the SCSC on Saturday when they welcome Western Illinois for an 11:00 a.m. tip-off.

7 Famous Athletes from South Dakota

South Dakota may have a small population, but our state's contributions to sports have been pretty big.

People born in the 605 have gone on to be in the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, WWE, WNBA, and in the Olympics.

Meet seven of the most famous:

South Dakota Born NFL Players of this Century

While not a traditional powerhouse Nation Football League feeder, South Dakota has produces a fair number of football players that went on to the big time in the NFL.

Here are some that have played on various teams over the last couple of decades.