Summit League Preview: South Dakota Women Host Mount Marty, Fort Wayne

There have been a lot of highlights for the South Dakota women's basketball team during their time in the Summit League, including a pair of regular season championships and a conference tournament title.

But this year's USD team has managed to do something no other Coyote squad has done, start a Summit League season with three straight wins.

South Dakota (11-5/3-0 Summit League) will take a brief break from conference play when they host Mount Marty, Wednesday night (January 10), at 7:00 PM in Vermillion.

After that the Coyotes will try to extend their league win streak to four games when they host Fort Wayne, Saturday (January 13).

The Mastodons (3-13/0-3 Summit League) are the only team to not post a conference win so far, losing seven straight overall.

Fort Wayne has struggled on both sides of the ball, shooting under 40 percent from the floor, while allowing opponents to shoot better than 49 percent.

The Mastodons average nearly 20 turnovers a game.

This is a very young team that has started 11 different players so far this season.

Junior De'Jour Young is one of the few veterans on the roster. She is Fort Wayne's leading scorer and rebounder.

Tipoff is 1:00 PM, Saturday in Vermillion.

The Coyotes swept a pair of games on the road last week, starting with an 82-67 win against North Dakota State, Tuesday (January 2) in Fargo.

Both teams shot the ball well - USD 50%, NDSU 52% - but the Coyotes outscored the Bison by 15 points from behind the three-point line, hitting 13 triples on the night..

Jaycee Bradley led the charge with five three's. On the night, she was 8-of-9 from the floor for a a season-high 21 points.

Jasmine Trimboli grabbed nine rebounds for USD.

The Coyote defense forced 22 turnovers, which led to ten more shot attempts for the USD offense.

Thursday (January 4), South Dakota was again red hot from long range - hitting 15 three-pointers - in a 82-58 win at defending Summit League champion Western Illinois.

The Coyotes made three three's in the first four minutes of the game to score 18 of the first 27 points.

USD blew the game open with a 22-3 run to open the third quarter.

Ciara Duffy lead all five Coyote double figure scorers with 21 points. She also added nine rebounds. Trimboli had 19 points and nine boards. The two combined for nine of USD's 14 offensive rebounds.

Trimboli also had five steals as the South Dakota defense scored 22 points off of 17 Leatherneck turnovers.

I talked with USD Coach Dawn Plitzuweit about last week's sweep and this week's match-ups with Mount Marty and Fort Wayne: