Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
BROOKINGS – South Dakota State advanced to the Summit League Tournament championship for the 15th time on Saturday as the Jackrabbits beat South Dakota 74-59 in the semifinals at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
“Another great win for us,” said SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston. “Fun to be able to get out there in front of this great crowd and really play well. … It should be a fun game tomorrow [in the championship]. We should take some momentum into it, get ourselves ready to go for another chance at [a title].”
It was a game of runs in the first half. SDSU led 11-8 and then used a 7-0 run to go up 10 with 3:28 to go in the first quarter. The two teams traded baskets until USD scored six of the final eight points of the quarter to make it 24-18 heading into the second.
The run continued for the Coyotes in the second as they scored the first seven points of the quarter and took their first lead of the game with 8:11 to go in the first half. SDSU immediately took the lead back but then USD led 29-27 with 5:30 left. The Jacks then went on a 9-2 run to close the half and it was capped off by a contested lay up by Maggie Hartwig with one second left. That gave SDSU a 36-31 lead at halftime.
The Jacks then scored eight-straight points to open the second half and went up 44-31. SDSU senior center Brooklyn Meyer said her team knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, but they knew if they continued to play their game they would be able to pull away.
“I feel like [we talked about at halftime] just staying steady and staying locked into our plan. I mean, it’s a conference tournament, so no one’s going to go away easily. So we just wanted to make sure that our defense especially was locked in and that we just kept doing all the little things to get us to that point,” Meyer said.
USD did not go away after that, though, as the Coyotes cut the lead to 48-42 with one minute to go in the third. However, Meyer scored three points in the final 37 seconds to put the Jacks up nine going into the final quarter.
SDSU then led 60-49 with 5:45 to go and Hilary Behrens knocked down a three and made a free throw to extend the lead to 15 with 4:48 to go. Emilee Fox hit a mid range jumper and SDSU made four free throws to go up 71-54 with two minutes to go. Hadley Thul drilled a corner triple to put the exclamation point on the semifinal victory.
Madison Mathiowetz and Meyer combined for 47 points in the win as Meyer had 24 and Mathiowetz had 23. Behrens (8), Thul (7) and Fox (5) combined for 20 points and Meyer said it’s fun to see her teammates step up, especially in the conference tournament.
“It’s just been so fun to see. Hadley is a freshman, and she’s not playing like that anymore. It’s just really fun to see their confidence grow. Obviously, Hilary had a huge game for us in a bunch of ways that maybe don’t show up on the stat sheet and obviously, Emily and everybody else coming off the bench. It was just really fun to see them come in and give us momentum plays,” Meyer said.
Johnston, however, did give praise to his two seniors that dominated on Saturday. He also noted that he thinks they are motivated, knowing these are some of the last games in their career.
“I think they’re incredibly driven, as they always have been. But there’s always another level that seniors can get to. It’s an urgency of trying to maintain a career, trying to do something special, trying to be the ones that lead.
“Maddie and Brooklyn were just elite today, as they have been for a long time. It’s fun to watch those two compete out there and make plays and feed off of each other. … [In the] third quarter, fourth quarter, they were very involved and just seemed to feed everybody else’s confidence too. So that’s what you really want out of leaders. They’re vocal leaders for sure, but their presence, their confidence, their poise is really impressive.”
USD was led by Angelina Robles who had 18 points. Molly Joyce had 17 points and Elise Turrubiates had 12 points.
The No. 2 seeded Jacks will take on top-seeded North Dakota State for a third time this season in the title game on Sunday at 3 p.m. NDSU won the first meeting 76-68 in Brookings and SDSU returned the favor with a 59-44 victory in Fargo last week.
SDSU will have a chance to win its 13th Summit League Tournament title, while the Bison will be looking for their first. Johnston said the rivalry aspect always makes things more interesting in the championship.
“[When] you get a chance to [play a rivalry game] in the tournament, it adds a whole new layer. I mean, you’re really playing for everything. Right here at the end of the season with everything on the line. In this case, tomorrow, teams split and this will be a chance to play one more time. We’re looking forward to it. It’ll be good. We’ve enjoyed those games over the years,” Johnston said.
You can watch Sunday’s game on CBS Sports Network.
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