South Dakota State’s Women Open Summit League 2-0

One weekend in to the 2014 Summit League season, the South Dakota State women are in a very familiar spot, at the top of the standings, heading on the road for the first time in conference play, at Western Illinois and at Omaha this week.

The Jackrabbits took two at home last weekend, starting with the team they had a score to settle with from last season: IUPUI.

SDSU's only two Summit League losses came at the hands of the Jags in 2013, and last Thursday, the Jacks got great bench play to beat IUPUI by six. This season, South Dakota State reserves are averaging 30 points a game.

Head coach Aaron Johnston on his bench and the IUPUI game:

Saturday, SDSU pulled away from Fort Wayne, winning by 17, despite giving up 26 to pre-season player of the year Amanda Hyde.  The margin of victory was especially impressive considering the Mastodons scored the first 14 points of the game.

Coach Johnston says despite the slow start, he never panicked:

While the players come and go over the years in college basketball, two things remain constant in the Summit League - competitive balance and home team supremacy:

This week it's SDSU's turn to try and grab some of the hard-to-come-be road wins, starting Thursday against Western Illinois.

The Leathernecks are putting up impressive numbers offensively, averaging 83 points a game.

In the Summit League opener against against Omaha, Western knocked down 11 3-pointers, 5 from Liz Skotowski, but the player to watch is Ashley Luke, who had 28 points and 12 rebounds in game one last weekend:

Tipoff is 7:00pm Thursday night in Macomb.