The final game of my Dakotas tripleheader was in Vermillion, home of the University of South Dakota. The Coyotes (pronounced kai-oats here, unlike the former Arizona hockey club) play at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center on campus. It opened in 2016 and holds 6,000 fans, half of the population of the town itself.
The venue is attached to the Dakota Dome (below), which used to host basketball and is still the home of Coyote football. There is a large parking lot in front of the complex as I arrived, I saw people leaving, which meant the women's game that was scheduled for 5:30 had gone long. So I didn't need to leave the previous game a few minutes early. Aaargh. At least I had time to tour the venue, though in the end, there wasn't much to see.
Tickets here were a surprisingly expensive $25 regardless of location. Tip was scheduled for 8 but with the previous game going to overtime, didn't get started until almost 8:30. I only had an hour drive back to Sioux Falls, but still was getting quite tired after a long day of driving and basketball, so hoped for a quick affair.
I found this place reminiscent of
Alabama A&M, where you enter the venue downstairs and walk up to a large concourse that encircles the seating bowl beneath it.
The school joined D-I in 2008 but have yet to make the tournament, so there are few banners to see. Those that are there are along the top of the middle three sections of the seating bowl and are barely visible in the photo above.
Red is the dominant colour here, with chairbacks along the sidelines and baseline benches. Attendance was 2,013 in honour of my NFL Road Trip, which I appreciated.
There are a couple of concession stands serving a few items, but having already eaten stadium food twice, I decided to wait until afterwards for a very late dinner.
There is no scoreboard above center court, but there are two videoboards at either end along with a very detailed stats board (above). And that's about it. SCSC is a very simple venue that only sicko sports road trippers will visit.
The Game
The Southern Jaguars from Baton Rouge were in town to open the season, making this the second Louisiana at South Dakota game of the day for me. I really liked the powder blue and gold uniforms that the Jaguars wore as they contrasted very nicely with the white and red of the Coyotes.
The first half started well for USD as they stormed to a 12-2 lead, with the refs calling the first six fouls on the visitors. The Jaguars fought back to get within three, but no closer. South Dakota went to the line 14 times in the half but only sank 6 of those and they were up 40-28 with three minutes to go, but then both teams went cold with a buzzer-beating dunk by Southern's Brentay Noel making it 40-30 at the half. Below is another dunk by DaMariee Jones as Southern certainly liked attacking the rim.
Midway through the second half, a trey and dunk from Noel got Southern within 5, but they would draw no closer. There were 25 fouls in the half leading to 37 free throws as the game sputtered to an obvious conclusion.
After a Jones layup made it 60-53, the Coyotes went on a 22-11 run culminating in back-to-back dunks from Cameron Fens (above) and Quandre Bullock. The final few minutes were academic as South Dakota romped 93-79, making it a state sweep over the swamp dwellers.
The Coyotes were the better shooters on the night, hitting on 51.6% of their shots (41.7 from downtown) compared to 43.8% and 25% for Southern. The game took a long time but at least both coaches left two timeouts in their pockets and I got back to my hotel before midnight.
Notes
My favourite thing about South Dakota is chislic (essentially marinated meat served in cubes). After driving back to Sioux Falls, I went to a dive bar next to my hotel and was delighted to find it on the menu. If you are ever in the Mount Rushmore State, make sure to try this local delicacy.
Best,
Sean
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