Mooney's 28 points lead South Dakota over Montana State (Dec 18, 2016)

By AP
Published

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) Matt Mooney scored a career-high 28 points and South Dakota pulled away in the second half to beat Montana State 80-68 on Sunday.

Mooney was 8 of 12 from the field with four 3-pointers and went 8 of 8 from the line. Triston Simpson scored 14 points off the bench and Trey Burch-Manning added 13 points with six rebounds. The Coyotes (9-5) shot over 55 percent and hit 8 of 17 (47 percent) from beyond the arc.

Montana State (5-7) was led by Tyler Hall with 32 points on 10-of-15 shooting with four 3-pointers and six boards. It was his fifth game this season with 28-plus.

South Dakota trailed 36-32 at intermission and by as much as 10 in the second half. A 14-3 run midway through the second -culminated by a pair of free throws by Simpson- gave the Coyotes the lead with 9:07 left. An 11-0 run from that point gave South Dakota a double-digit lead with just over five minutes and Montana State couldn't find another run.