Summit League Women: South Dakota State Starts Hot, Routs South Dakota

All through the first half of the Summit League basketball season, there have been two certainties: South Dakota State has been unbeatable and South Dakota has been unable to stop teams from torching them from behind the three point arc.

Both trends stuck Sunday in Brookings, as the Jackrabbits hit seven early triples and never looked back, beating the Coyotes 88-69.

The win caps a perfect seven game run through the Summit League for the Jackrabbits, who have a one game lead on IUPUI heading into the second half of the season.

Coming into Sunday's game, SDSU was one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the conference, hitting just 28 percent from behind the arc, but USD has been making just about every team look good from long range this season, giving up a Summit League high 39 percent on three point attempts.

The Jackrabbits were obviously well read on the scouting report, as they came out firing early and often from long range, with 11 of their first 19 field goal attempts from behind the arc.  Seven of those found the mark in the first 11:30, giving SDSU an early 12-2 run and a 12-point lead.

The lead grew to 18 at the half, as the Jacks finished with nine 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes and led 53-35 at intermission.

SDSU shot 53 percent from the floor in the first half, 50 percent from three.  Megan Waytashek with 11 first half points, including a pair of threes.  Gabby Boever and Chynna Stevens also hit a pair of triples each in the first half.

The Coyotes did a much better job of defending the three point line in the second half, as  the Jacks were 0-of-5 from three and hit just 1-of-6 from the floor to start the second half, as USD cut the lead to 13.  But SDSU responded with an 11-2 run to push the lead back to 22.

Waytashek led all scorers with 20 points.  Boever added 15, Steph Paluch 13.  Nicole Seekamp led USD with 13 points, Bridget Arens had 12.

South Dakota State (16-7/7-0) opens the second half of the Summit League schedule at Fort Wayne Thursday at 6:00pm.

South Dakota's (11-11/2-5) next game is at home Friday with Denver at 7:00pm.