Summit League Men’s Preview: Jackrabbits Host Denver, Coyotes Host Oral Roberts

We move past the halfway point of the Summit League season Saturday as the South Dakota State and South Dakota men play at home.

The Jackrabbits are the hottest team in the conference, currently sporting a seven-game winning streak, after Wednesday's 86-64 victory over Omaha at Frost Arena. Deondre Parks scored a career-best 26 points for State.

SDSU (7-2) will be looking to avenge of their first half losses when they host Denver Saturday afternoon. The Jacks got off to a slow start against the Pioneers, falling 76-69 on the road in week one.

• Summit League Women's Preview: Oral Roberts at USD, NDSU at SDSU

In game one, Denver hit 11 three-pointers against the SDSU defense, but head coach Scott Nagy says there's another aspect to the Pioneers offense that makes them difficult to play:

Tipoff is 4:30 PM Saturday afternoon in Brookings.

At that same time, South Dakota tips with Oral Roberts at the DakotaDome.

The Coyotes have hit their first snag in Summit League play this season, losing back-to-back games, and three of four in conference play, after starting 3-1.

USD's latest loss came at home Thursday, 66-55 to Fort Wayne. Mastodons center Steve Forbes continued his hot play against the Coyotes this season, hitting 8-of-10 from the floor for 21 points, giving him 45 points on 19-of-23 shooting in a pair of games against South Dakota.

Saturday, USD welcomes Oral Roberts to the dome to close out the Summit League's first half.  The Golden Eagles, like the Coyotes, started strong, winning four of their first five in the conference, before dropping their last two Summit League games.

ORU is tops in the league in three-point shots (eight made per game) and three-point percentage (44%), and boasts two of the top four scorers in the league in Obe Emegano and Korey Billbury.

USD head coach Craig Smith on the match-up:

Tipoff is 4:30 PM Saturday in Vermillion.