VERMILLION, S.D. — South Dakota used a 24-0 run spanning both the first and second half to eventually defeat Sacramento State, 72-56, on Saturday afternoon at the Coyote Sports Center.

The Hornets were playing well during the opening 16 minutes of the first half as an Eric Stuteville layup gave the team a game-high six point advantage (32-26) with 3:59 left. However, it was all South Dakota from there. The Coyotes ripped off a 9-0 run to close the half, and eventually pushed the spurt to 24-0 which mercifully ended with a pair of Jiday Ugbaja free throws at the 16:25 mark of the second half.  South Dakota led by at least 15 points the rest of the way.

The Coyotes improved to 8-4 overall, 6-0 at home, and 3-0 against Big Sky Conference teams. South Dakota also defeated Big Sky opponents Montana (72-67) and Montana State (74-57) earlier this season at home. In fact, the win over Montana State occurred on Wednesday night. South Dakota also beat the Hornets last season at the Nest by a 96-90 score in the the first meeting ever between the two schools.

Sacramento State has now lost five of its last six games while falling to 2-7. That record is the program's lowest mark since the 2008-09 squad also began the year at 2-7. Sacramento State, which is 2-0 at home this year, dropped to 0-7 away from home, including 0-4 on the road (0-3 at neutral sites).

During the game-changing 24-0 run, the Hornets missed all nine of their field goal attempts while turning the ball over four times. Meanwhile, South Dakota scored on seemingly every possession as six different Coyotes put up points during the run, including Trey Dickerson who dropped in eight of his 13 points during the spurt. Tyler Flack, who scored a game-high 20 points, had six points during the run.

After Sacramento State had started the game shooting 14-of-27 from the field, the Hornets went just 8-for-30 the rest of the way and finished the game shooting .386 (22-57) from the field and .269 (7-26) from the 3-point line. The Hornets also had a season-high 16 turnovers and South Dakota outscored Sacramento State in points off miscues, 16-7. South Dakota shot .412 (28-68) from the field and .333 (8-24) from the 3-point line. Only 21 fouls were called during the game as the Coyotes went 8-for-9 from the free throw line and the Hornets 5-for-6.

Closing the first halves of games continues to be  a problem for the Hornets. In each of the team's last four losses, Sacramento State let late first half leads lessen or completely disappear during the period's final few minutes. Today was no different as South Dakota closed the final 3:02 on a 9-0 run to erase a six-point deficit and go into the break with a 35-32 lead. USD then outscored the Hornets, 37-24, in the second half and held a lead as large as 25 points before settling for the 16-point win. The Hornets' 56 points were the second lowest output of the season, trailing only the 53 scored at Colorado in the season opener.

Stuteville had yet another strong effort, finishing with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting go go along with season highs in blocks (3), rebounds (9) and minutes (30). The fourth-year senior center and team tri-captain has scored in double figures in three straight games, and over that stretch, is averaging 14.3 points. Fourth-year senior forward Nick Hornsby had five rebounds and now has 548 during his career, the most by a Sacramento State player in the program's Div. I era (1991-pres.). The previous leader was forward Alex Bausley (546) who played from 2003-07

Besides Stuteville, the only other Hornet to score in double figures was swingman Grant Dressler who had 10 points, three assists and two rebounds in 16 minutes. Leading scorer Justin Strings, who had poured in at least 12 points in every game, finished with just three points. That also snapped a streak of 20 straight games in double figures for Strings. The forward buried a 3-pointer with 16:49 left in the first half, but was held scoreless the rest of the way. Sophomore guard Jeff Wu had a season-high eight points while burying a pair of 3-pointers.

The Hornets' top three scorers of Strings (3), Hornsby (2) and Marcus Graves (4) combined to score just nine points today. All 13 active players on Sacramento State's roster played in the game and 10 of those players scored. Guard Jiday Ugbaja, who missed three of the last four games with injury, had seven points, an assist and a steal in 13 minutes. True freshman Chibueze Jacobs had season highs in points (4), rebounds (6), blocked shots (2), steals (1) and minutes (14).

Stuteville (3), Jacobs (2) and redshirt freshman Joshua Patton (2) combined for seven of the Hornets' season-high eight blocked shots.

For South Dakota, Flack (20), Dickerson (13) and Tyler Peterson (10) combined to score 43 of the Coyotes' 72 points.

Sacramento State has just two non-conference games remaining on the schedule, the first of which comes a week from today (Dec. 17) at home against Abilene Christian at 7:05 p.m. The Hornets' final non-league game is Dec. 21 at Washington State before opening Big Sky play at home against Northern Colorado on Dec. 29.