SIOUX FALLS South Dakota State is heading to the NCAA Tournament for a 12th time after the Jackrabbits pulled away from North Dakota State on Tuesday afternoon in the Summit League Tournament championship game.
SDSU led 47-46 with six and a half minutes remaining in the game and the Jacks then went on a 14-0 run to put the game out of reach. In total they outscored the Bison 20-8 in the final 6:30 and SDSU won its 11th Summit League Tournament title with a 67-54 victory.
Senior forward Tori Nelson scored seven straight points during the 14-0 run in the fourth quarter and one of her baskets was a second-chance 3-pointer.
She said making those shots in a big moment during her last season made her celebrate more than usual.
Honestly I just got open looks and we moved the ball. I just wanted to do well for my team and thats what weve been doing all season. Finding the open looks and making the plays when we need to. … I think that was the happiest I had been to see a three go down. I was pretty happy after that one, Nelson said.
Nelson became the only senior that played this season after Kallie Thesien suffered a season-ending injury before the season began. She finished the game with nine points and three rebounds and SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said it was fitting that she was the one that put the game on ice in the fourth quarter.
She looked very determined. It wasnt like she just got it and threw something up. Tori was commanding those moments. I thought just watching it, youre trying to coach and trying to move forward, but there was absolutely a part of me that was like, yeah Tori. Lets go. It was awesome to see and was a great moment for Tori as a senior in a pretty big event, Johnston said.
Thiesen isnt the only player that is sidelined with a season-ending injury this year as Haleigh Timmer, Madysen Vlastuin and Hillary Behrens have all been on the end of the bench. Johnston said the adversity that his team has gone through needs to be acknowledged, but it doesn’t make this tournament title any different than the others.
I think everyone wants [this tournament title to be more special], but I feel like they all are pretty special. Every team goes through different things to get here. Nothing is ever easy to get to this point. Some things are very visibly hard and some things are kind of out of the spotlight. I just want to celebrate this team for what they did. I think it is remarkable what they did. Im not minimizing it at all. I think its exceptional. But Im going to stop short of comparing it to others Johnston said.
The first half was a rock fight between the two teams as SDSU led 22-20 at halftime after outscoring NDSU 11-10 in both of the first two quarters. The two teams combined to go 18-of-56 from the field in the first half and Johnston said his team just needed to find a way to get better offense in the second half.
I thought we were defending well. I felt like we were in a pretty good place defensively, but we needed to find a way to get something going offensively. That was obviously a struggle for us. And we tried a lot of things and late we found some good luck and some rhythm at the same time, Johnston said.
A turning point in the second half came in the third quarter when SDSU was trailing 35-32. The Jacks had the ball and Paige Meyer received a pass near midcourt with four seconds left on the shot clock. She took a couple dribbles and tossed up a desperation shot and it banked in and tied the game with 3:37 to play in the quarter.
The shot clock was coming down there so I did just kind of throw it up there, Paige Meyer said. But it went in and got us going a little bit.
SDSU ended up taking a 42-39 lead into the fourth quarter. The banked-in three wasnt the only momentum play that Paige Meyer made as she sparked the 14-0 fourth-quarter run with a steal at half court and an easy lay up on the other end.
She ended up with a team-high 18 points and had five assists and seven rebounds. Paige Meyer was named Tournament MVP after averaging 20.6 points, 5.3 assists and and five rebounds in the three games. Johnston said the way she played on Tuesday was exemplary of how his team played throughout the tournament.
Paige was pretty resilient, as our whole team has been. Not going back to injuries, but on the court and playing. The Omaha game [in the quarterfinals] was a tough game. Our USD game [in the semifinals] was a tough game. Today was a tough game. There were plenty of times where we couldve folded and we didnt. We were really tough-minded, Johnston said.
SDSU shot 44.2% from the field and was 8-of-17 from three. Summit League Player of the Year Brooklyn Meyer had 15 points and nine rebounds. Madison Mathiowetz had 12 points and Mesa Byom had 11.
NDSU shot 32.8% from the field and was 8-of-17 from three. Heaven Hamling had 16 points and six rebounds to lead the Bison. Elle Evans had 13 points and five rebounds.
The Jacks will find out where theyre headed for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at 7 p.m. SDSU is down to 10 players, but has only been playing seven extended minutes for the past two months. Brooklyn Meyer said going into the tournament she feels the team is more confident than ever, despite the injuries.
I think all of the things that weve had to go through and all of the adversity has definitely made us stronger as a team. I dont think we look back and reflect on that every day, but I think weve definitely responded well to it and its made us so much closer and confident as a team, she said.
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