BROOKINGS – South Dakota held off South Dakota State for a 67-61 victory in a matchup of teams undefeated in Summit League play on Thursday night at Frost Arena.
The Coyotes led by as many as 13 points in the third quarter and took a 54-46 advantage into the fourth. Ciara Duffy’s 3-pointer made it 57-46 with 9:24 showing on the clock.
The Jackrabbits rallied with 10 consecutive points – including six by Macy Miller – to pull within 57-56 with 5:25 remaining.
Kate Liveringhouse, who scored 18 of her game-high 20 points in the first half, made her only bucket of the second with 5:12 left to make it 59-56.
Miller made 1-of-2 free throws 18 seconds later, before Duffy’s layup put the Coyotes on top 61-57 with 4:02 to go.
SDSU again cut the deficit to two points via a Madison Guebert shot in the paint; however, Jaycee Bradley’s basket with 2:01 left gave the visitors a 63-59 cushion.
USD continued to get stops on the defensive end, while Allison Arens and Duffy both went 1-of-2 at the charity stripe to make it 65-59 with 27 seconds to play.
“I thought that certainly was a hard-fought, intense battle and we feel real fortunate to come out on top,” said USD coach Dawn Plitzuweit. “I thought we started the game really well. Kate (Liveringhouse) really took advantage of maybe some over helping and really got us feeling comfortable; she knocked down a lot of shots for us. I thought South Dakota State really did a nice job in the second half of continuing to take it at us. I thought they had a great run. We were fortunate enough to kind of weather the storm and come out on top.
“But it’s an opportunity for us to learn and to grow because offensively, our half-court offense wasn’t able to create as many good opportunities as we like it to. South Dakota State’s really, really tough defensively and that got them back into the game. To our players’ credit, I think we’re a much better defensive team than we were last year and ultimately that kind of kept us in the game when our offense wasn’t scoring as efficiently as we wanted it to.”
The teams were tied at 19-all after a quarter, before the Coyotes scored the first 12 points of the second period.
The Jackrabbits chipped away the remainder of the half, pulling within 39-34 at the break. The Coyotes came out strong in the third, moving ahead 49-36 3 minutes into the stanza.
Duffy totaled 17 points and Arens 13 to go with eight rebounds and five assists. South Dakota improved to 16-5 (7-0) heading into a matchup at Denver on Saturday at 2 p.m.
“It was a good win for (USD), they played really well,” said SDSU coach Aaron Johnston. “They hit a lot big shots throughout the game, started off really well. Kate (Liveringhouse) had a really nice beginning to the game and really settled them in, and then they hit some just big shots throughout. Even as we made a run there late, it seemed like every time we got close they hit a big shot. They did a great job getting the ball to the basket and they did a nice job on us defensively.
“So, overall, just a good win for them. They were a little bit sharper, I thought, throughout than we were.”
Miller paced SDSU with 18 points, six rebounds and three assists. Guebert added 17 points before fouling out late.
South Dakota State (16-5, 5-1) plays host to IPFW in the front end of a Pork Classic doubleheader on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Notes: SDSU dropped to 80-8 in home Summit League games, the last loss also coming against USD 63-58 on Jan. 17, 2016. Thursday’s setback snapped a 17-game winning streak in such games. Four of the losses came during the 2010-11 season. … Miller moved from a tie for 22nd to 19th in Summit League history in career points with 1,503, breaking a tie with Oakland’s Jessica Pike (1,485 from 2005-09) while also passing IUPUI’s Jernisha Cann (1,489 from 2005-09), Valpariso’s Sarrah Stricklett (1,498 from 1996-2000) and Oakland’s Bethany Wattersworth (1,502 from 2009-12). … Guebert moved into 29th place on SDSU’s career scoring chart with 1,160 points, while Thompson also jumped one spot to 32nd with 1,131.
SOUTH DAKOTA 67, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 61
South Dakota (16-5, 7-0 Summit)
Kate Liveringhouse 9-13 0-0 20, Jasmine Trimboli 2-6 1-2 5, Allison Arens 4-11 4-5 13, Madison McKeever 3-6 0-0 8, Ciara Duffy 6-15 1-2 17, Monica Arens 0-0 0-0 0, Jaycee Bradley 1-3 0-0 2, Taylor Frederick 0-2 0-0 0, Chloe Lamb 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 26-58 6-9 67.
South Dakota State (16-5, 5-1 Summit)
Tagyn Larson 2-3 2-2 6, Ellie Thompson 2-6 1-2 5, Alexis Alexander 0-3 0-0 0, Madison Guebert 6-13 2-3 17, Macy Miller 7-17 3-4 18, Rylie Cascio Jensen 1-1 0-0 3, Tylee Irwin 3-9 0-1 7, Sydney Palmer 1-2 1-2 3, Sydney Tracy 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-55 9-14 61.
USD 19 20 15 13 – 67
SDSU 19 15 12 15 – 61
3-point goals – USD 9-24 (Duffy 4-9, McKeever 2-2, Liveringhouse 2-4, Arens 1-4, Lamb 0-1, Trimboli 0-2, Bradley 0-2), SDSU 6-18 (Guebert 3-6, Cascio Jensen 1-1, Irwin 1-3, Miller 1-4, Thompson 0-1, Palmer 0-1, Alexander 0-2). Rebounds – USD 31 (Trimboli, Arens 8), SDSU 39 (Thompson 9). Assists – USD 15 (Arens 5), SDSU 10 (Miller 3). Steals – USD 7 (Arens 3), SDSU 1 (Alexander 1). Blocks – USD 2 (McKeever, Frederick 1), SDSU 2 (Larson 2). Turnovers – USD 5, SDSU 11. Total fouls – USD 21, SDSU 16. Fouled out – Guebert (:17.8 4th). Technical fouls – none. A – 3,091.
