The Air Force Falcons and the South Dakota Coyotes meet Sunday in college basketball action from Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Air Force is 5-2 overall this year and sitting on a four-game win streak following a Wednesday victory versus VMI. As for South Dakota, they beat Northland in their last game, improving to 4-2 on the year. Check out our Air Force vs South Dakota Prediction.
Air Force Falcons
The Falcons didn’t start out the season very well, hitting a 1-2 run out of the gate with losses to Portland State and Delaware. Air Force would kick off a win streak with victories over Lindenwood, William & Mary and Omaha in their next trio, however. In the win over the Mavericks, the Falcons held the opposition to just 35.1 percent shooting from the floor.
Air Force was able to keep it going with a win over VMI on Wednesday. The Falcons were up by 16 points going into the second half and cruised from there for a 64-54 result. Leading the scoring were Beau Becker (eight rebounds) and Ethan Taylor (eight rebounds; three assists).
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South Dakota Coyotes
Over on the South Dakota side, they started out 2-0 with wins over Mount Marty and UTRGV this year, then lost two of their next three to DePaul and Fort Wayne. Matched up against the Mastodons, the Coyotes coughed up 16 turnovers but rebounded (40) and shot (52.7 percent) very well in a 93-81 defeat.
The Coyotes got back to business in their last game versus Northland. South Dakota jumped out to a 51-36 edge at halftime, then hit a 49-12 advantage in the second half for a 100-48 win. Kaleb Stewart led the way on 18 points with two boards, while Paul Bruns added 14 points and nine rebounds.
ANDREW’S FREE SOUTH DAKOTA VS AIR FORCE PREDICTION
I’ll stick with South Dakota. You could make a case either way, though. This should be a pretty interesting matchup. The Coyotes are coming off a pretty routine win versus an overmatched opponent, and a lot of the bench got to contribute significant minutes. South Dakota boasted a ridiculous 61-24 rebounding edge, but needless to say it’ll be tougher to pull down errant shots in this one.
As for Air Force, they shot 44.6 percent from the field with 34 rebounds and 16 assists during a pretty well-rounded effort in their last outing. I like the Falcons to hang with the Coyotes for most of the game before a late South Dakota Cover/win here.