Coyotes Look to Build Summit League Lead

It's now a full two-game lead for the South Dakota women's basketball team in the Summit League standings with a single game on the Coyotes' schedule this week.

USD ran their win streak to a conference best four games with a sweep of Fort Wayne and North Dakota State last week.

In Friday's 91-80 win over the Mastodons, the Coyotes got a perfect start from Lisa Loeffler, who hit her first six shots, plus 11 first half points and six assists from Nicole Seekamp, as the Coyotes shot 56 percent over the first 20 minutes.  Head coach Amy Williams says it was a complete half of basketball:

Sunday in Fargo, USD again hit better than 50 percent in the first half, while holding the Bison to 36 percent from the floor.  Raeshel Contreras had 15 first half points as the Coyotes raced out to a 16-point halftime lead, before hanging on to win 83-79.  Coach Williams says the play of her veterans was a key in this one:

Thursday night, the Coyotes look to run their home record to 12-0 on the season as they host Omaha.  USD beat the Mavericks 64-48 in Nebraska back in early January, thanks to a defense that held UNO to 35 percent shooting, and a plus-20 point edge in the paint.  Those are the kinds of numbers Coach Williams is looking for in the rematch:

Tipoff is 7:00 PM Thursday in Vermillion.