BROOKINGS A second quarter surge put the South Dakota State women in front on Saturday night and they didnt look back as they beat South Dakota 73-55 at Frost Arena.
Fifth year senior Tori Nelson led the Jacks with 15 points. She said it never gets old beating the in-state rival Coyotes.
I dont think it ever gets boring. Everytime were excited [for the game], were excited to get Frost packed and the crowd really helped us when we needed it. Having one last time against them in Frost was a good one and Im excited that we got the win, Nelson said.
USD jumped out to an 11-2 lead. SDSU then settled down and cut the lead to 21-14 at the end of the first quarter. Nelson scored seven of her 15 points in the first quarter and she said she felt like her and Paige Meyer needed to take control of the team after the poor start.
I think [the team needed my offense] a little bit. I’ve had experience in these games, Paige has played in quite a few too, so I think the two of us kind of just put it on ourselves to get everyone settled in, Nelson said.
SDSU then turned it on at the beginning of the second quarter. The Jacks went on a 15-0 run to start the quarter and turned a seven-point deficit into a 29-21 lead near the midway point of the quarter. Jackrabbit junior forward Brooklyn Meyer said the change in momentum was due to SDSU cleaning some stuff up in all facets of the game.
I think our defense needed to be better. We were giving up some offensive rebounds, so we talked about cleaning that up. On offense, we just had to get used to what they were doing and I thought we adjusted really well and that allowed us to pull away, Brooklyn Meyer said.
Brooklyn Meyer scored 13 points on the night but her biggest contribution was her four assists. USD began the game sending a double team on her in the post and she struggled with it in the first quarter. In the second quarter she adjusted and found her open teammates and they cashed in on four second quarter 3-pointers.
[She handled the double team] much better, Johnston said. She started finding who was going to be open. We had a couple dump passes for lay ups, but then she started finding people open for threes. [Passing out of a double team] is incredibly hard to do as a post player. Your back is to the floor and you catch it facing one side. No one is there and you start to dribble and are expected to throw a pass. Its hard, really hard. I think Brooklyn is a good passer. More teams will continue to do that, so shell have to continue to play out of that.
In total SDSU outscored USD 22-7 in the second quarter and led 36-28 at halftime. The Jacks led 47-37 when USDs leading scorer, Grace Larkins, picked up her fourth foul and that sent her to the bench. SDSU was able to push the lead to 13 at the end of the third and then led 66-41 with four minutes to play.
SDSU shot 48.1% from the field and was 9-of-22 from three. Eight of those 3-pointers came from Madysen Vlastuin, Ellie Colbeck and Jenna Hopp. Those three players have had more on their plate this season due to the season-ending injuries to Haleigh Timmer and Kallie Theisen. Nelson said she isnt surprised that they have stepped up as of late.
I dont think Im surprised. I think we all knew that they had that in them and they really embraced that challenge of stepping into those roles. We see it in practice all of the time and its been really fun to see them thrive in those roles, Nelson said.
Mesa Byom had 10 points and eight rebounds. Vlastuin and Colbeck each had nine points and Paige Meyer had eight points. Hopp had seven points.
USD shot 29.1% from the field and was 8-of-27 from three. Larkins led the Yotes with 18 points and five rebounds. Natalie Mazurek and Kendall Holmes each had seven points.
SDSU won its seventh-straight game and improved to 13-5 overall and 5-0 in the Summit League. The Jacks came into the year with a lot of question marks surrounding their team due to the injuries to Timmer and Thiesen. The seven-game win streak has come since Christmas and the schedule changed from non-conference to conference play. Johnston said all of his players are starting to fully come into their roles and hopes the Jacks can continue their strong play in the final two months of the regular season.
[Theyre] making shots, which is big, but theyre defending well and playing well. Theyre playing well together. Its a good group. I think were playing at a high level and well try to keep it going, Johnston said.
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