South Dakota stuns Pitino's Gophers in double overtime
MINNEAPOLIS -- South Dakota has four players who were raised in Minnesota. The head coach, too.
Trailing by six with 95 seconds left in the first overtime, the Coyotes didn't fold. Their Big Ten opponent wilted down the stretch instead.
Tre Burnette had 14 points and the go-ahead layup with 35 seconds left in the second extra session, lifting South Dakota to an 85-81 victory over Minnesota on Saturday afternoon.
"We didn't drive this far to lose," said Shy McClelland, who had 14 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for the Coyotes (5-3) including a 3-pointer with 1:14 remaining in the second overtime.
Casey Kasperbauer led South Dakota with 17 points, making four free throws in the final 7 seconds to seal the biggest win for the program in seven years playing Division I.
"I've watched games here forever. It's just so hard to win here," said coach Craig Smith, who grew up in Stephen, a tiny town in the northwest corner of the state.
Not only did South Dakota beat Minnesota for the first time in 14 all-time meetings, the Coyotes ended a 47-game nonconference home winning streak for the Gophers. That was the second-longest in Division I behind Duke.
"I know it means a lot to their guys when they come in here and play," Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said.
Jordan Murphy had 19 points and 17 rebounds for the Gophers for his second straight double-double, tying the game on a tip-in with 1 second left in regulation, but he later fouled out.
Nate Mason scored 11 points with a tying 3-pointer in each overtime session, but he had four turnovers without an assist and launched another long shot with 11 seconds remaining when the Gophers could have played for the last shot.
"We've got to run something better than that," Pitino said. "That's on me."
Eric Robertson, who's from the Minneapolis suburb Wayzata, hit the tying baseline jumper with 7 seconds left in the first overtime and finished with 16 points for South Dakota, which used ball screens and effective spacing to continually penetrate a vulnerable Minnesota defense.
Pitino said he was concerned by a sluggishness he saw in practice after a win here Monday over Clemson.
"We can't come out and sleep on any team," Mason said. "I feel like this teaches us a lesson that we can get beat by anybody."
The Coyotes made clear from the start this was going to be a competitive game, taking a 35-29 lead at the break and a 50-40 advantage on Kasperbauer's 3-pointer. The Gophers answered that with 10 straight points and looked like they'd be able to take control in overtime after Murphy's well-timed tip-in.
"I'm not going to lie to you. It hurt a little bit," Robertson said. "But we all came together."
Said McClelland: "We've got a tough group of guys."
South Dakota made the NCAA playoffs in each of its last five years in Division II before moving up to Division I in 2008 and went 22-10 in the 2009-10 season, but success has been harder to come by lately. They finished 17-16 last season, Smith's first, for their first winning record since joining the Summit League in 2011.
"The way regulation ended, where Murphy gets the tip-in essentially at the buzzer, a lot of teams would've folded right there," Smith said.
TIP-INS
South Dakota: The Coyotes beat a Big Ten team once before, a 58-56 victory at Wisconsin on Dec. 1, 1956. They have five wins over Nebraska all-time but not since 1942, some 69 years before the Huskers joined the conference. The Coyotes play at Illinois on Dec. 19. They beat the Gophers once in football, a 41-38 victory on Sept. 11, 2010.
Minnesota: The Gophers' three best returning players, Joey King, Mason and Carlos Morris, combined to shoot 9 for 38 from the floor. King finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, but he was 0 for 3 from 3-point range.
BORDER STATES
South Dakota's campus in Vermillion is a 300-mile drive from Williams Arena. This was the first meeting between the teams since 1985.
UP NEXT
This was the second of three Summit League opponents on the schedule for the Gophers, who barely beat Omaha 93-90 last week, this season. They host preseason conference favorite South Dakota State on Tuesday.
