Summit League Preview: South Dakota at Fort Wayne

With a month left in the 2014 Summit League regular season, the University of South Dakota is looking for answers.

The Coyotes, once atop the conference standings after winning their first three, are now hovering toward the bottom, after dropping five straight Summit League games.

Things don't get a any easier this week, as USD stays on the road for game at Fort Wayne and IUPUI.

The latest Coyote setback came Saturday at Denver, where USD struggled with turnovers early against the Pioneers, allowed 13 3-pointers, and gave up 30 points to  Denver guard Brett Olson.

USD Head coach Joey James told me the Coyotes problems in that game began in the first half:

Week six of the conference schedule starts at Fort Wayne Thursday night, where, like the Coyotes, the Mastodons are in the midst of a losing streak.

Fort Wayne, the lone team to only lose once in the season's first half, has dropped back-to-back games to SDSU and NDSU to start the second half.

USD was responsible for handing IPFW its only first half loss, 75-61, in the DakotaDome last month.

In that game. the Coyotes held Fort Wayne's shooting percentage down early (35 percent in the first half), and got a big contribution from Karim Rowson (21 points and nine rebounds), while Trevor Gruis and Tyler Flack were hampered by foul trouble:

Coach James is looking for his team to duplicate that effort against the Mastodons Thursday night:

Tipoff is 6:00pm CST Thursday in Fort Wayne.