By Cody Thorn | Special to the Brookings Register
FORT WORTH — Brooklyn Meyer had one of the better games of the season for South Dakota State.
However, scoring 29 points was not enough to extend the career of the highly decorated senior another game.
South Dakota State couldn’t overcome a career game from Avery Howell, who led Washington to a 72-54 win Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Schollmaier Arena.
“They have a lot of different people that can make plays and they made it hard for us today,” South Dakota State Coach Aaron Johnston said. “I think their length and physicality made some of our offensive things difficult. So they deserve a lot of credit for how today went.”
The Jackrabbits dominated early, racing out to a 13-3 lead following a Euro-step layup in the paint from Meyer. That was the second straight possession on which Meyer had scored inside the paint, and with 5 minutes, 18 seconds left, the Jackrabbits faithful who made the trek to Fort Worth were fired up.
The 10-point advantage carried into the media timeout with 4 minutes left in the first quarter.
After that, Washington (22-10) went on a 12-2 run and tied the game on a 3-pointer from Avery Howell with 50 seconds left in the opening quarter. The game was tied at 15-15 after the opening 10 minutes.
Howell, a transfer from USC, then hit a 3-pointer 55 seconds into the second quarter to give the Huskies the lead for the first time.
It turned out to be the last time that the Jackrabbits held the lead.
Meyer on the following possession to make it 18-17, but Hannah Stines and Howell hit back-to-back 3s and all of a sudden, a 10-point lead at one point was now a 7-point deficit for the Jackrabbits.
Washington was 2-for-8 from the 3-point line before draining that flurry of 3-pointers — a byproduct of South Dakota State switching to a zone defense.
“We were in a little bit of foul trouble and I don’t think that helped our cause,” Johnston said. “Also, they started making some easy uncontested shots. They weren’t really having to move off all screens or handoffs like they were when we were matched up against them. So I think that got some momentum and confidence from that and then we had to dig ourselves out of it a little bit and we weren’t good enough offensively in that second quarter. We’ve got to find a way to play through those a little bit better. But that’s what costs us today.”
Emilee Fox hit a 3-pointer for the Jackrabbits at the 6:02 mark to right the ship a bit. The next time South Dakota State scored, it came at 1:33 left on a layup in the paint from Meyer. During that 4 1/2-minute span, a 4-point lead for Washington expanded to 14 points.
Washington took advantage of the play inside by 6-foot-5 center Yulia Grabovaskaia and 6-foot-3 post Brynn McGaughy. The latter, a freshman, had 8 of her 14 points in the final 4 minutes of the first half and gave Washington a 38-24 lead at the break.
“I felt in the first quarter we were running in transition more and just getting quicker looks,” said Meyer, who had 29 points in the loss. “(In the second) they were being more aggressive and taking more open shots and as it went on, we just got a little more stagnant.”
The 14-point lead for Washington was one that coach Tina Langley admitted crossed her mind. Playing Columbia last year, the Huskies were up by 13 at halftime and lost by 3 to Columbia in a “first-four” game.
McGaughy scored on a layup only 12 seconds into the third quarter, making it 40-24.
Then momentum shifted and the lead was trimmed.
The Jackrabbits, winners of 10 straight coming into this game, rattled off an 8-0 run. And by the Jackrabbits, it was Meyer.
She had a layup, a three-point play and then another layup in the paint. Less than a minute into the third quarter, the Jackrabbits seemed to have found a spark against the sixth-seeded Huskies.
Two minutes later, the Jackrabbits were down by 15 again.
“I thought our defense picked back up and we settled down,” Johnston said of the third-quarter run. “We stopped turning it over and we made some simple plays that looked like we could get ourselves going offensively. We just couldn’t stop them. They started making shots and we got a little bit out of our plan. We just couldn’t quite get through the screens the way we needed to.”
Two big numbers told the tale of the game: offensive rebounds and turnovers.
Washington had a 40-25 advantage on rebounds, including 14 on the offensive side. The extra possession always seemed to be dangerous.
Following the run to get the deficit to nine, twice Washington grabbed rebounds off missed shots and drew fouls to go to the line. Another was a missed layup inside by Grabovskaia, who grabbed her miss and kicked out to Powell, who drained a 3-pointer. Washington took an 18-point lead into the fourth quarter.
The Jackrabbits actually had a higher shooting percentage — 44.2% — than Washington’s 41.5%, but had 18 turnovers.
The Huskies scored 16 points off those miscues.
“We did a really good job of putting some ball pressure on them and forced a good bit of turnovers,” Langley said. “That’s a team that really doesn’t beat themselves; so to make them turn the ball over is a credit to the way you saw us defending tonight.”
Howell was 3-for-3 on 3s and had 11 of her career-high 30 points in that third quarter. Howell dropped 30 — above her normal 13.7 points per game production — and added 9 rebounds. She was 7-for-13 on 3s, a new career high in makes.
South Dakota State shut down Sayvia Sellers, who had 4 points, well below her 18.5 points per game average. The guard was a first-team All-Big Ten pick this season.
Each team had two players scoring in double figures.
Fox added 14, including hitting 4 of 5 from the 3-point line, for South Dakota State.
The Jackrabbits, who had advanced to the second round in two of the past three NCAA tourneys, finished the year with a 27-7 mark. South Dakota State won the Summit League title for the fourth year in a row and earned the No. 11 seed in the Sacramento 4 portion of the bracket.
It was also the last game for seniors Ellie Colbeck, Madison Mathiowetz and Meyer, a finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year award and All-American on both the Associated Press and U.S. Basketball Writers Association lists.
“I’m absolutely proud of our team,” Johnston said. “I thought this was just another fantastic year for our program. We did a lot of really good things. I got three seniors sitting next to me … I’m just really honored they’ve been Jackrabbits and helped us achieve so many things. It’s really becoming rare to see young people stick and commit and this group has been fantastic for us. They are great leaders and great examples of what we’d like our program to continue to look like.”
Washington faced third-seeded TCU on Sunday in the round of 32.
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