Jackrabbits cruise to victory over Fighting Hawks

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BROOKINGS – Paiton Burckhard scored a career-high 27 points and led the South Dakota State women’s basketball team to a 99-64 victory over North Dakota Thursday night at Frost Arena.

The Jackrabbits have now won their last seven games and are 14-6 overall and 6-0 in the Summit League. SDSU scored 100 points in their last game against Purdue Fort Wayne and scored 86 points against Denver in the game before that. Jackrabbit forward Tagyn Larson said she thinks the offense is finally hitting their stride after struggling a little bit towards the end of non-conference play.

“I think our offense is really coming along. … I think people are getting a lot more comfortable and looking to score,” Larson said.

This was the third-straight game that Burckhard has scored over 20 points. Heading into the season SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said that the Jacks didn’t really have a go-to player. Now, he thinks Burkhard may be that player.

“Paiton really comfortable for her teammates to play through because she finishes well, she catches the ball well and she’s a great passer. You don’t see Paiton take bad shots. You don’t see her force anything when she’s double-teamed. I think that sets up really well for the rest of the team because we have a lot of good spot up shooters out there who are ready to space the floor and make shots,” Johnston said.

Larson had 17 points and seven rebounds on the night. Megan Bultsma had 11 points and nine rebounds. Tylee Irwin had nine points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Tori Nelson had 16 points and Lindsey Theuninck had nine.

The Fighting Hawks came into the game in third place in the Summit League with a 12-5 overall record and were 3-2 in conference play. Over the past decade it has been SDSU and South Dakota at the top of the conference and there has been a huge gap between them and the rest of the Summit League. UND head coach Travis Brewster said he wanted to see how close his team was to the two South Dakota schools.

“I wanted to see where we were at and what we have to do. You have to earn it though. No one is going to give anything to you. Obviously, two ball clubs that have had some success here. You can’t take that away from them, you have to earn it,” Brewster said.

The Fighting Hawks were led by Julia Fleecs who had 15 points. Kacie Borowicz had 11 points and Megan Zander had eight. Jaclyn Jarnot had nine points and seven rebounds.

The Jacks shot 50% from the field and were 6-22 from three. They held UND to 31.9& shooting from the field and the Fighting Hawks were 1-22 from deep. UND had 34 total fouls and the Jacks took advantage as they were 33-41 from the charity stripe.

Up next for the Jacks is one of the games that is circled on everybody’s calendars when the schedule comes out. SDSU will travel to Vermillion to take on USD Saturday. The Coyotes are ranked No. 21 in the AP Poll and are No. 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. USD is 16-2 overall and 5-0 in the Summit League.

“It will be a good game,” Johnston said. “It’s an important in the Summit League for standings. It’s a rivalry game, so that adds another layer to it. [USD] is just playing at a really high level. They’re rebounding well, defending well, they make shots. They’re just doing everything really well right now. For us, we’re going to have to defend. If they score a lot of points they’re hard to beat. Part of our defense is going to have to be rebounding. … We’ll have to do those two things well to give ourselves a chance.”
Larson added that the Jacks will have a bit of a chip on their shoulder with the Coyotes being ranked.

“Playing USD there’s always a lot of emotion behind it. It’s fun to see the state come together for that game. We’re going to really lock in for practice tomorrow and hopefully get a win on Saturday,” Larson said.

The Jackrabbits and Coyotes are scheduled to get things started at 1 p.m.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 99, NORTH DAKOTA 64

North Dakota (14-6, 3-2)

Julia Fleecs 6-13 3-3 15, Kacie Borowicz 4-12 3-3 11, Jaclyn Jarnot 2-5 5-8 9, Megan Zander 3-7 1-1 8, Olivia Lane 3-7 1-2 7, Lilly Keplin 2-11 2-2 6, Alaina Jarnot 1-4 2-2 4, Claire Orth 1-5 0-0 2, Aly VanLoo 1-3 0-0 2, Mikayla Reinke 0-1 0-0 0, Maggie Manson 0-3 0-0 0, Rachel Garvey 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-72 17-21 64.

South Dakota State (14-6, 6-0)

Paiton Burckhard 9-12 9-9 27, Tagyn Larson 5-8 6-7 17, Tori Nelson 3-7 8-9 16, Megan Bultsma 5-10 1-2 11, Tylee Irwin 3-6 3-6 9, Lindsey Theuninck 3-8 2-2 9, Rylie Cascio Jensen 1-5 1-2 4, Sydney Stapleton 1-4 1-2 4, Addison Hirschman 0-0 2-2 2, Jordan Ferrand 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-60 6-22 99.

Halftime – 43-25 SDSU. 3-point field goals – UND 1-22 (Zander 1-4, J. Jarnot 0-1, VanLoo 0-1, Garvey 0-1, Manson 0-2, A. Jarnot 0-2, Fleecs 0-2, Borowicz 0-4, Keplin 0-5), SDSU 6-22 (Cascio Jensen 1-3, Nelson 2-5, Stapleton 1-4, Larson 1-4, Theuninck 1-5, Irwin 0-1). Rebounds – UND 36 (J. Jarnot 7), SDSU 48 (Irwin 10). Assists – UND 7 (Borowicz, A. Jarnot 2), SDSU 22 (Cascio Jensen 6). Steals – UND 9 (Orth, A. Jarnot 2), SDSU 6 (Theuninck 2). Blocks – UND 1 (J. Jarnot), SDSU 5 (Bultsma 3). Turnovers – UND 11, SDSU 13. Total fouls – UND 33, SDSU 17. Fouled out – UND Fleecs, Lane. Technical fouls – none. A – 1,603.