BROOKINGS – After suffering their worst loss of the season Thursday, the South Dakota State women’s basketball team took their frustrations out Saturday on the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons.
The Jackrabbits never trailed and cruised to a 89-43 victory. SDSU scored the first 15 points of the game and led 26-8 at the end of the first quarter. The Jacks lost their second game in Summit League play against and used it as motivation heading into the matchup with PFW.
“We talked about [the Denver game]. We talked about some things that maybe that game exposed in our team and we can improve on offensively, defensively, but then just mentality-wise. That game, I thought we really hung on to plays that didn’t go well. We didn’t play in the present, we didn’t play in the moment. We were more frustrated in that game and we weren’t connected and ready to make the next play. We certainly talked a lot about that,” SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said.
The Jacks dominated inside as they outscored the ‘Dons 62-2 in the paint. SDSU outrebounded PFW 39-31 and forced the Mastodons into commiting 19 turnovers. PFW did not attempt a free throw and SDSU was 11-11 from the line.
“I think we’ve been working on [scoring in the paint] all season, but it also comes from our guards doing really well on the outside and creating that open space in the inside. Cutting off the post, playing inside-out,” Paiton Burckhard said.
SDSU (19-8, 11-2) was led by Burckhard who had 23 points. Tylee Irwin had 16 points, six rebounds and six assists. Tori Nelson and Megan Bultsma had 11 points each. Tagyn Larson had eight points, seven rebounds and eight assists.
The Jacks shot 56.1% from the field and was 4-11 from the field. They had 29 assists and only eight turnovers.
Johnston said the blow out win against Fort Wayne was important confidence booster before heading into the final week and a half of the season.
“I think just offensively seeing the ball go in. That’s really where, we’ve defended really well this year, we’ve rebounded really well, we’ve taken care of the ball. We’ve done a lot of good things. There’s been some games where we just haven’t made enough shots. Sometimes it’s been free throws early in the year, sometimes it’s the 3-point line. I just think it’s a huge part of that [Denver] game. Now, things contributed to us missing those shots, but our team has just been a little bit up and down with putting the ball in the net and that makes it hard. So good to have a game that went our way,” he said.
SDSU has three games remaining in the regular season and sits in second place in the Summit League. They are two games back of No. 20 South Dakota who comes to Brookings on Saturday. The Jacks will travel to North Dakota and play the Fighting Hawks at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 89, PURDUE FORT WAYNE 43
Purdue Fort Wayne (5-21, 1-12)
Hannah Hess 4-9 0-0 12, Hannah Albrecht 5-13 0-0 10, Riley Ott 2-7 0-0 6, Anna Lappenküper 2-8 0-0 5, Michelle Nicholls 2-5 0-0 5, Shayla Sellers 1-5 0-0 3, Ellie Dykstra 1-3 0-0 2, Jazzy Hughes 0-8 0-0 0. Totals 17-58 0-0 43.
South Dakota State (19-8, 11-2)
Paiton Burckhard 11-14 1-1 23, Tylee Irwin 7-11 0-0 16, Tori Nelson 5-7 1-1 11, Megan Bultsma 5-13 1-1 11, Tagyn Larson 4-7 0-0 8, Rylie Cascio Jensen 1-1 4-4 7, Lindsey Theuninck 2-3 0-0 5, Sydney Stapleton 0-7 4-4 4, Jordan Ferrand 2-2 0-0 4, Addison Hirschman 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Rongisch 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 37-66 11-11 89.
PFW. 8 12 18 5 – 43
SDSU 26 19 19 25 – 89
3-point field goals – PFW 9-33 (Ott 2-4, Nicholls 2-4, Hess 4-9, Lappenküper 1-5, Sellers 1-5, Dykstra 0-1, Albrecht 0-3, Hughes 0-4), SDSU 4-11 (Cascio Jensen 1-1, Theuninck 1-1, Irwin 2-3, Nelson 0-1, Stapleton 0-5). Rebounds – PFW 31 (Lappenküper, Hess, Hughes 5), SDSU 39 (Bultsma 8). Assists – PFW 13 (Albrecht 6), SDSU 29 (Larson 8). Steals – PFW 3 (Albrecht, Ott, Dykstra), SDSU 11 (Irwin 4). Blocks – PFW 2 (Dykstra, Nicholls), SDSU 3 (Irwin 2). Turnovers – PFW 19, SDSU 8. Total fouls – PFW 15, SDSU 4. Fouled out – none. Technical fouls – none. A – 1,627.
