The Coyote men’s basketball team returned home to play in front of a fairly large student body crowd last night, defeating Nebraska-Omaha 81-70.
The sixth-ranked Coyotes connected on 11-of-12 free throws in the final two and a half minutes to hold off a Mavericks squad that had already knocked off two top 10 teams this season.
“We didn’t play poorly. They’re a good team and we had some problems, which they caused,” USD coach Dave Boots said. “It was a typical North Central game; you’re not going to blow out many teams in this league.”
The only free throw blemish down the stretch was a miss by senior Nick Morrell with 34 seconds left. Yet, by that time the USD lead was back up to 79-70.
“We’ve got experienced guys who aren’t afraid to step up there and take those shots,” said USD junior Dylan Grimsley, who scored 17 points and had eight rebounds. “When it really counted in the end, we hit them. That just shows how good we are.”
In all, the Coyotes had five players in double figures: Jesse Becker (19), Grimsley (17), Eric Hall (13), Morrell (12) and Tyler Cain (10). Hall also pulled down 10 rebounds and dished out five assists.
Yet, the two points off the bench by senior guard Dustin Little may have been the more important stat for the Coyotes. Little, who had been out three games after breaking a bone in his right hand, took just one shot in 13 minutes Thursday.
“We thought we could use him for a few minutes; not a ton,” Boots said. “For being out three weeks, he did great.”
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The back-and-forth game also featured one of the greatest dunks you’ll ever see in college basketball. Nebraska-Omaha 6-foot-5 junior Justin Petersen got the ball on a fastbreak, drove down the right baseline and dunked over USD 6-11 junior Steve Smith. That’s right, over.
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For more on the USD men’s basketball season so far, check out next week’s issue of The Volante.
- Jeremy Hoeck
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