Thioune leads South Dakota against UC Irvine after 23-point performance

Published Dec. 15, 2023 3:43 a.m. ET

Associated Press

South Dakota Coyotes (7-3) at UC Irvine Anteaters (6-4)

Irvine, California; Saturday, 10 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: South Dakota takes on the UC Irvine Anteaters after Lahat Thioune scored 23 points in South Dakota's 78-73 win over the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners.

The Anteaters have gone 2-0 in home games. UC Irvine has a 0-1 record in one-possession games.

The Coyotes are 1-1 in road games. South Dakota ranks second in the Summit League shooting 37.4% from 3-point range.

UC Irvine makes 48.1% of its shots from the field this season, which is 8.4 percentage points higher than South Dakota has allowed to its opponents (39.7%). South Dakota averages 7.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.0 more made shots on average than the 5.7 per game UC Irvine gives up.

TOP PERFORMERS: Justin Hohn averages 2.0 made 3-pointers per game for the Anteaters, scoring 13.9 points while shooting 38.5% from beyond the arc. Derin Saran is shooting 55.3% and averaging 11.4 points for UC Irvine.

Thioune is scoring 14.8 points per game and averaging 9.4 rebounds for the Coyotes. Paul Bruns is averaging 11.5 points and 4.4 rebounds for South Dakota.

___

The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.