Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS – South Dakota State returned to First Bank & Trust Arena and it was smoothing sailing for the Jackrabbits in the final three quarters as they came away with a 94-48 victory over North Dakota.
SDSU (19-6, 9-2) led UND (6-19, 3-9) 17-16 at the end of the first quarter and outscored the Fighting Hawks 77-32 the rest of the way.
“That was a good win,” said SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston. “We’ve kind of got a different recipe going than maybe we’ve had in the past. Our first five minutes of a game, first five minutes of the second half, we’re going to have to be a little bit better, a little sharper. You know, we just didn’t have a good rhythm there. But as the game went on, the first half went on, we were really good. As the second half went on, we were really good.”
SDSU scored the first five points of the second quarter to go up 22-16. The Fighting Hawks then scored five straight to cut the lead to one with 7:59 to go in the first half. UND would make a field goal the rest of the half as SDSU outscored the Fighting Hawks 21-1 and led 43-22 at halftime.
SDSU senior center Brooklyn Meyer said the Jacks got things going in the second quarter because they shifted their attitude.
“I felt like our defensive intensity picked up. Hadley [Thul] and [Madison Mathiowetz made some really good plays and got some steals and we got to run in transition. I feel like our attitude kind of shifted and we started to play better,” Meyer said.
UND would cut the lead to 52-30 with 5:36 to go in the third but the Jacks closed the quarter with a 9-2 run and led 61-32 heading into the fourth. SDSU opened the fourth with a 13-3 run. The Jacks’ largest lead was the final score.
This was the second game after Hadley Thul replaced Maggie Hartwig in the starting lineup. On Thursday night the starters combined to score 57 points and Johnston said he thought they worked well together.
“I think they’re really dynamic, really versatile. A lot of people that can make plays and shoot the ball around [Meyer]. … I like that starting group. That’s a long, athletic group. They’re versatile, very capable of scoring, and they were really good in that first half. So we need to lean into them more and get them comfortable in those roles,” Johnston said.
Meyer led SDSU with 21 points and 15 rebounds. The rebounds tied a career high. Madison Mathiowetz had 11 points and Katie Vasecka had nine points. Emilee Fox and Thul each had eight points and Hilary Behrens and Brooklyn Felchle each had seven points.
Johnston said this is the kind of offensive output he’d like to see. Meyer and Mathiowetz are the top two scorers and then there are a multitude of other players who will be third.
“We’re still young enough in a lot of those other positions, a lot of freshmen and sophomores, where I don’t know if it’s just quite, hey, we’re rolling with you and you’ve got to carry our team. That’s a tough thing for young players. I think Maddie’s going to continue to be a big part of what we do. And she was. She was really good. We saw her get to her mid-range. We saw her make threes. Maddie will continue to have to be a big part of it. But Molly, Katie, Emily, Hadley, We’re going to need more consistency from all of them,” Johnston said.
This was SDSU’s second-straight win after losing to South Dakota on Jan. 31. The Jacks are looking to keep pace with the Coyotes for second place in the Summit League. Meyer said
“I think we’re just working on bringing it every single day. We’ve been working on that in practice and we had some really good practices this week that were really competitive and we were making each other better. I feel like we’re just working on having that mindset more consistently,” Meyer said.
The Jacks will host Kansas City on Saturday at 2 p.m.
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