Game Preview: USD

Before I get going with the preview for tonight's game, I just wanted to say that I'm not going to be posting about what it's like/what we did last night here in Vermillion, SD.  The reason for this is there's not a whole lot to do here.  To give you an idea of what it's like, here's the view from our hotel window...

...as you can see, there's not a whole lot here.

Ok, let's get this rolling.  We've already played South Dakota once this year.  We beat them in Macomb by the score 67-44.  In that game, the guys struggled a bit in the first half but then went on to rout them in the second after they regained their focus.  In fact, they outscored them 39-17 in the second half and held the Coyotes to 24% shooting.  Obi Emegano went off for 20 points on 9 of 12 shooting, plus two free throws.  Ceola Clark managed to outshine him though, he had a great game as he dropped 19 points, was 7 of 10 shooting (including 5 of 7 from behind the three point line), had 7 assists, and also grabbed 3 steals.  Not too bad of a game if you ask me. 

Meanwhile, the Coyotes were lead by their main man Charlie Westbrook who dropped 18 points on 8 of 12 shooting.  While he did have himself a good game, the Leathernecks did a good job of making sure no one else hurt them because no other Coyote player had more than six points.

Now, despite the fact that the Leathernecks may have ended up routing the Coyotes last time, they can't come in to this game with the mentality that they're gonna do it again.  Especially after the way they've played in the last two games and considering the fact that USD is coming of a big win on Thursday when they beat IUPUI (a team we lost to earlier this year).  They need to really focus and get back to playing Leatherneck basketball.

This is the site for tonight's game:  The DakotaDome.

Entering tonights contest WIU sits at 9-8 (4-5 in the Summit) and is tied for fifth in the conference with Southern Utah.  USD is 7-11 (2-7 in the Summit) and is tied for last place in the conference with UMKC and IUPUI. Western still owns the best defense in the conference as they are only giving up 60.6 points per game.  They are still last in offense and are averaging 64.7 points per game.  South Dakota has both the seventh ranked offense and defense in the conference.  They score 69.9 and give up 74.1.

The guy to look out for is going to be Westbrook once again.  The other night against IUPUI he dropped a career high 32 points.  He's averaging just over 17 points per game and is the sixth leading scorer in the Summit League.  He is also third in the conference in steals and averages 1.8 steals per game.  The Leatherneck defense will need to do their best to lock him down.  The coyotes also boast the man who is leading the Summit in blocks this year, Ricardo Andreotti who is blocking an average of 1.6 shots per game. 

Game time is set for 7:30pm tonight following the Women's game.  GO 'NECKS!