SIOUX FALLS The South Dakota State women will make their 12th appearance in the Summit League Tournament championship game after the Jackrabbits beat South Dakota 76-63 on Monday afternoon at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
Its fun to get a chance to play in another tournament championship game, said SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston. Thats kind of what we set out to do a long time ago and Im really pleased with the effort we played with today, but I think today is just another reflection of everything weve been doing all year, Johnston said.
No. 1 seeded SDSU led for most of the final three quarters and fended off the Coyotes with timely shots in the fourth quarter. USD cut the Jacks lead to five with 2:28 to play but Ellie Colbeck knocked down a three and free throws from Mesa Byom put SDSU up 71-61 with 1:24 left.
Another timely shot came at the end of the third quarter as USD cut the Jackrabbit lead to seven with 1:17 left in the third but Madison Mathiowetz hit a three at the buzzer to give the Jacks a 10-point lead heading into the fourth.
Colbeck and Mathiowetz combined for three fourth-quarter triples in Saturdays win over Omaha in the quarterfinals. The two combined for 19 points on Monday and both of their roles expanded this season after two starters suffered season-ending injuries before the year started. Johnston said its special to see players like that succeed in big moments.
What Ellie and Maddy have done, making shots for us and making plays for us, has been fantastic this year. Theyve made them in big moments and key times. Today, you saw that and theyve done that throughout [the season]. Those are really cool moments. That three that Ellie hit late on that inbounds, its a three and it goes down in the stats, but its a great moment for Ellie, Johnston said.
SDSUs experienced players had big games as well. Junior point guard Paige Meyer had 20 points and seven assists. Brooklyn Meyer, who won Summit League Player of the Year last week, had just seven points in the quarterfinals, but finished with 21 points and four rebounds on Monday.
Johnston said the Meyer duo is playing some great basketball at the right time.
Both Paige and Brookyln had great games. Exactly what you would expect from players of their caliber. I thought Brooklyn played really well today. I dont know if anyone plays through more double teams and triple teams than Brooklyn. Its just nice to know that we have someone like Brooklyn to play through. But also Paige. Paige does a lot on the perimeter too. Its a pretty good duo and theyre playing at a really high level, Johnston said.
It was a back-and-forth first quarter between the two teams. SDSU led 14-10 with 2:25 left in the quarter but the Coyotes scored four of the final six points and trailed 16-14 heading into the second.
USD evened the score just over a minute into the second quarter but the Jacks then went on a 15-2 run to go up 33-20 with 3:45 left in the first half. However, USD closed the first half with a 10-4 run and trailed 37-30 heading into halftime.
A 3-pointer from Nicole Avila-Ambrosi pulled the Coyotes to within four, but back-to-back buckets from Mathiowetz pushed the lead to 49-40 with 5:18 left in the third. That was the theme of the day as the Coyotes pulled to within two possessions multiple times but werent able to get over the hump.
USD head coach Kayla Karius said her team couldnt get closer in the second half because of turnovers.
It felt like untimely turnovers [were a killer]. You just have to be really tuned in and those are huge plays that it comes down to. Late in the game, I think we may have had three turnovers in the final 90 seconds. I think the turnovers hurt more [because] they converted on them more. We only had 11, but they turned it into 16 points and that was a big difference, Karius said.
SDSU shot 50% from the field and was 6-of-17 from three. Byom had nine points and seven rebounds. Tori Nelson had seven points.
USD shot 40.4% from the field and was 6-of-22 from beyond the arc. Avila-Ambrosi led the Coyotes with 16 points. Grace Larkins had 15 points and Carley Duffney had 12 points.
The Jacks had 29 rebounds and the Yotes had 26. SDSU had 10 turnovers and USD had 11. The Jacks were 20-of-24 at the free throw line and the Yotes were 11-of-14.
SDSU will play North Dakota State on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. The Jacks are looking to win their 11th Summit League Tournament title and punch their ticket to their 12th NCAA Tournament. Johnston said the routine for his team prior to the title game has not changed over the years and the Jacks have to figure out if they want to be the ones holding the Summit League championship trophy tomorrow afternoon.
I think for us, and this is us, Im not talking about other teams, but for us, its really about now and going forward, deciding if were going to make that choice to try and finish. Are we going to let fatigue, which has been asked of our team a bunch, or a short bench, adversity and all of these kinds of boulders coming down the hill at us, are we going to let these things impact us or not? Are we going to go out there and play our best game? [Were] trying to get the right mindset and thats what well really work on in the next 24 hours, Johnston said.
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