USD-SDSU Women’s Preview
The South Dakota Showdown, presented by South Dakota Corn, moves to Frost Arena in Brookings today for South Dakota - South Dakota State women's basketball.
This is the 71st meeting between State and the U. The Jackrabbits have won 16 straight in Brookings. The last Coyote win at Frost Arena came 23 years ago (1990).
State and the U are tied for first in the Summit League, both 2-0. The Jacks have won four in a row, seven of their last eight. The Coyotes are looking to string together 3 wins for the first time this season.
SDSU has a host of familiar faces back from last season’s team that won the Summit League regular season and tournament championships. Senior guard Ashley Eide (Washington High School) was on the pre-season all Summit League first team.
USD has a new head coach, Amy Williams, and is down to 10 players on the roster with 5 season ending injuries, including 3 returning players (Kelly Stewart, Taylor Moore, McKayla Knudson). The Coyotes have two first-year players in the starting lineup (Nicole Seekamp and Polly Harrington). The pair is averaging a combined 27 points and 10 rebounds a game.
Both have played tough non-conference schedules. The Jacks with games against Villanova, Washington State, Nebraska, Marquette, Penn State, and Georgetown; the Coyotes have squared off against Cleveland State, Drake, Northern Iowa, Pepperdine, Seton Hall, Kansas State, and Utah State. Both teams have losses to Creighton this year.
The teams split last season. SDSU won at home 59-51, rallying from a 3 point halftime deficit. The Jacks bench outscored the Coyotes 21-0 in the first meeting.
In Vermillion a month later, USD won 59-53 in overtime, rallying from a 10 point halftime deficit.
Free throws played a big part in both games. In Brookings, State outscored the U by 11 at the line. USD shot just 2 free throws in the 2nd half. In Vermillion, the Coyotes outscored the Jacks by ten at the line. SDSU shot 4 free throws the entire game, making just 1. This year both teams are shooting around 69%.
The Jacks (10-5 overall/2-0 in Summit League play) beat Kansas City Thursday night 82-47. The win was #300 for head coach Aaron Johnston. SDSU was down 5-0, scored the next 12 and led 40-15 at the break. State dominated in the first half, outscoring the Roos 19-0 off the bench and 16-0 on 2nd chance points. Megan Waytashek had her 2nd double-double of the season with 15 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Leading scorer Ashley Eide was held to a season-low four points and was 0-3 on 3-point shots.
The Coyotes (7-8/2-0) trailed by as many as 13 in the first half at North Dakota State Thursday before outscoring the Bison 52-18 the rest of the game to win 73-52. USD had 17 offensive rebounds and outrebounded NDSU 44-26. The Coyotes outscored the Bison 38-20 in the paint, 18-2 on 2nd chance points, and 20-7 off the bench. Nicole Seekamp was 7-of-14 from the floor with 20 points. She’s scored in double figures in 12 of the 15 games this season. Margaret McCloud grabbed 13 rebounds (5 offensive) and has 6 double digit rebounding games this season, even though she averages less than 20 minutes a game.
USD is plus 9 in rebounding per game this season, 28th best in the nation. The Coyotes have at least 10 offensive rebounds in every game this season. They’ve only been outrebounded twice. SDSU is plus 4 on the boards.
Some key USD players to watch:
Nicole Seekamp has scored in double figures in 12 of the 15 games this season; the Yotes are 6-1 when she scores at least 15.
Margaret McCloud (Rapid City Stevens) has 6 double digit rebounding games this season, even though she averages less than 20 minutes a game. She’s also hitting 50% of her shots in the 2nd half.
Tempestt Wilson has scored 11 or more in each of the last 5 games.
Alexis Yackley is 20th in the nation with a 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio. She was 2-12 shooting vs. Jacks in 2 games last season, 0-9 from 3.
Some key SDSU players to watch:
Ashley Eide is averaging a team-best 15.3 points per game and leads the squad with 32 three-pointers. She enters the weekend with 857 career points. She’s scored 20 points or more 5 times this season. In the most recent NCAA statistics, she ranks 12th among Division I players this season for three-point shooting at 45.9 percent (34-for-74).
Megan Waytashek made a successful missed most of her first two seasons due to knee injuries. She has scored in double figures in 11 of 15 games this season, with a pair of double-doubles.
Katie Lingle (Pierre) returned to the Jackrabbit lineup last weekend after sitting out the Dec. 21 game at Georgetown, and scoring one point in the SDSU victory over North Dakota State on Dec. 30. She suffered a head injury that required stitches in the Dec. 18 matchup against Delaware State.
Rachel Walters (Washington High School) has developed into a three-point specialist for the Jacks. In her two seasons, 111 of Walters’ 118 shot attempts have been from three-point range. This season, all but one of her 39 shot attempts have come from long range.
Tipoff is 2:00pm today.
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