Coyotes trip up Tommies 85-80 Wednesday night

VERMILLION, S.D. -- Miles Barnstable scored 16 points for St. Thomas men's basketball but 30 from South Dakota's Chase Forte led the Coyotes to an 85-80 win over the Tommies on Wednesday night.

The Tommies (20-8, 10-3 Summit League) fell back into second place in the Summit League standings as the Coyotes (17-11, 8-5 Summit League) improved to 13-2 at home this season.

Barnstable led the Tommies in scoring on 6-of-12 shooting and 3-of-8 from 3-point range while Kendall Blue and Carter Bjerke followed with 14 points each. St. Thomas made 51.7 percent (30-58) from the field and 34.8 percent (8-23) from long range, compared to 38.1 percent (24-63) overall and 35.1 percent (13-37) on 3-pointers for USD.

The Purple led by as many as 11, 20-9, midway through the opening half before South Dakota went on to win the rebound battle, 39-28, as part of its comeback. A 15-5 difference on the offensive boards led to 25 second-chance points for USD, while St. Thomas totaled just four second-chance points.

TOMMIE TIDBITS

St. Thomas fell to 0-4 all-time against South Dakota in Vermillion, S.D. Both Tommie wins in the series came in St. Paul.
Both teams have scored at least 80 points in each of the last three meetings, including a 119-104 victory by the Tommies during the first meeting this season.
St. Thomas is now 7-1 when holding its opponent to under 40 percent shooting from the field and 15-1 when shooting above 50 percent overall.
Miles Barnstable led the Tommies with 16 points, his second straight game with at least 16.
Kendall Blue scored 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting, finishing with double digit points in nine of the last 11 games. Carter Bjerke also scored 14 points, leading the bench, and led the team with five rebounds.
Drake Dobbs' three-game streak with at least 20 points came to an end as he scored 10 points on 2-of-4 shooting and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. He totaled three assists to one turnover as he holds a 3.4 assist-to-turnover ratio on the season.
Nolan Minessale has five assists in back-to-back games. Prior to that, he had five assists in a game twice this season. Minessale, the league's leading shot blocker, added another block on Wednesday.

UP NEXT
St. Thomas wraps up its final road game of the season Saturday, Feb. 22 at Oral Roberts with a 7 p.m. CT tip-off.

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-- St. Thomas Athletics --

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Team Stats

Miles Barnstable

Kendall Blue

Carter Bjerke

Drake Dobbs

Players Mentioned

Miles Barnstable

Carter Bjerke

Kendall Blue

Drake Dobbs

Nolan Minessale

University of St. Thomas Athletics