SDSU women's basketball roll Oral Roberts, secure spot in Summit League Championship
For the fifth time in six years, the South Dakota State women's basketball team is headed to the Summit League final after a 87-60 win over Oral Roberts.
For the opening minutes, Oral Roberts (12-19) seemed to keep the Jackrabbits (27-5) somewhat in check, holding them to just a one-point lead at the first media timeout. That’s when the Jackrabbits put their feet on the offensive pedal, extending their lead to as big as 26 near the end of the second quarter. From there, they didn’t look back.
The Jacks continued with their offensive efficiency in the both the third and fourth quarters. Later on, with less than 2 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, the Jacks’ lead grew to 28 – its biggest of the game.
Here’s how the Jackrabbits remained unbeaten in conference play and earned their right to play for an automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s March Madness Tournament.
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Golden Eagles use defensive pressure early, Jackrabbits overcome
Early on, the Jackrabbits and Golden Eagles battled with both teams creating turnovers. By the time of the first media timeout of the first quarter, the two teams combined for 11 turnovers in a one-point game.
That's when the Jackrabbits started to get things going on the offensive side, growing their lead to 10 points heading into the second quarter.
"I thought just the style today probably created quite a few turnovers and that's to Oral Roberts' credit. They did a really good job of that. I really think that's what played into it," South Dakota State Head Coach Aaron Johnston said. "... We got through some of that just early nerves and really settled in and played well. I think all year in conference we're averaging around 11 turnovers a game, so I feel good about where we're at there. I think today had a lot more to do with style than it had to do with us not handling it well."
The Jackrabbits finished the game with 18 turnovers.
"I think just the first couple of minutes we were both kind of just flying up and down the floor. So we knew we just had to kind of get composed, slow down a little bit and just pass it and find the open teammate," Paige Meyer, SDSU's sophomore guard said after the game.
Going into the game, first-year head coach Kelsi Musick said they knew her team had to speed the tempo of the game up.
"I feel like they have a couple ball handlers overall. When Paige Meyer gets loose, she's quick. She's a really good passer. We didn't do a good job at the very beginning of keeping it out of the middle floor," Musick said. "We allowed them to pass it up a little bit more than we needed to ... I just don't feel like we pressured them enough and we didn't keep them up the sideline as much as we needed to."
Defensively, the Jackrabbits forced 16 Oral Roberts turnovers and held a plus-19 rebound advantage. The Golden Eagles shot it at a 30.3% clip from the field. After the game, Johnston expressed his approval of the defensive effort.
"I thought our team was really locked in defensively, played so well defensively," Johnston said. "... Really, for the majority of the game, our defense was excellent."
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South Dakota State women extend lead with big second quarter run
Heading into the second quarter, the top-seeded Jackrabbits were in the driver's seat with a 10-point lead. But, they didn't stop there.
Coming out of the break, the Jackrabbits spread the ball around en route to a 14-0 run. Oral Roberts eventually broke that run when Ruthie Udoumoh connected on a three-pointer; cutting the Jackrabbit lead to 21.
Going into the halftime break, South Dakota State held a 24-point lead, one they wouldn't relinquish throughout the second half; despite outscoring the Jackrabbits by four points in the third quarter.
With just over eight minutes to play, Oral Roberts cut the Jackrabbit lead to 16 points.
But, the Jackrabbits would swiftly slam the door shut on any chances of a comeback with sophomore guard Haleigh Timmer adding eight points to grow the lead back to 24 with just under six minutes to play.
After a couple of buckets from Oral Roberts, South Dakota State answered with three long distance shots from Timmer and Madison Mathiowetz, effectively putting the game away.
Jacks use balanced scoring attack, Haleigh Timmer has career day
The top-seeded Jackrabbits got scoring contributions abound, with a total of 23 team assists. Meyer had a team-high five assists.
While the scoring was spread out, Timmer had a career-day, with a high of 25 points. She added six rebounds and three assists.
"It just goes to show the strength of our team and how well we pass it," Timmer said.
Tori Nelson had 14 points and three rebounds while Meyer finished with 11. Myah Selland had nine points, while Mathiowetz finished with eight. Nine of the 12 Jackrabbit players that saw playing time on Monday recorded a bucket. Now, the Jackrabbits will await the winner of the second semifinal game between Kansas City and Omaha. The final is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls.
The last time the Jackrabbits were victorious in the Summit League final came back in the 2018-2019 season.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota State women's basketball advances to Summit League final
