Jacks advancing to NCAA’s second round

Sixth-seeded South Dakota State beats No. 11 Quinnipiac in 76-65 victory

Posted

Updated at 9:15 a.m. 3/25/19

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Macy Miller posted a double-double while scoring a tourney career-high 28 points and the Jackrabbits are moving on.

Sixth-seeded South Dakota State survived a late push by No. 11 Quinnipiac and advanced to the second round with a 76-65 victory in its NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament Portland Regional opener Saturday morning at the Carrier Dome.

“Well, we’re really fortunate and excited to have a chance to play again; that’s a special thing,” said SDSU coach Aaron Johnston, whose team won a first-round game for the third time in nine appearances. “Winning in the NCAA Tournament is hard and we’ve been on both sides of that so we understand it. So we’re really, really appreciative to the fact that we get to play again on Monday.

“We beat a really good team today. Really, the game was a tale of two halves. I thought the flow and everything in the first half was more in our favor; in the second half, it probably trended more towards their favor. They just do a great job defensively, make it really hard to get good looks; and I thought their defense in the second half was outstanding.

“You don’t get to know the other team through scouting, but watching them on film you can see they’re incredibly well coached; they play really hard together; they play like they have five seniors in that starting lineup. They’re just a really experienced group so we’re really pleased and proud of the fact we were able to get a win.”

South Dakota State (27-6), which has 17 consecutive victories, takes on host and third-seeded Syracuse (25-8) in the second round today at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN. The Orange beat No. 14 Fordham 70-49 in the first round Saturday.

The Jackrabbits led the Bobcats 22-18 after a back-and-forth opening quarter. They rattled off a 12-2 run in the second to open up a 14-point advantage.

Miller buried a jumper in the lane and canned a 3-pointer – in between, the Bobcats’ Jaden Ward hit a free throw – to leave the score at 32-24.

Miller then assisted on Tylee Irwin’s layup with 4:31 left; however, the senior from Mitchell went to the bench with two fouls soon thereafter.

Quinnipiac’s Paula Strautmane added a free throw.

Madison Guebert answered with a pull-up jumper. Her trey with 3:02 to go put SDSU on top 39-25.

“Coming out, you probably have those first-game jitters in the NCAA Tournament,” Miller said. “But I thought we did a great job just settling in and not taking the first shot and finding open people.

“That spurt really helped us get it going.”

It was 41-30 at halftime.

“Our first half is probably as well as we can play offensively,” said Johnston. “I think some of what we got going there was some transition. We got some stops, got some rebounds and we were kind of in a free-flowing game.

“And then in the second half, things slowed down and they did a good job with tempo. And when the tempo went in their favor, it’s hard to score on them 5-of-5 in the half court.”

The Jackrabbits shot 51.5 percent (17-of-33) in the first half but the Bobcats picked up the defensive intensity in the second, limiting them to 25.9 percent (7-of-27). SDSU was 20-of-24 from the foul line for the game, including 18-of-21 in the second half and 13-of-14 in the final stanza.

“They really ramped up their defense and we were kind of out of our flow for a little bit there,” Guebert said of the second half. “It was just a combination of them being that strong, solid defensive team that we knew that they were and we kind of got a bit flustered there for a little while; but we still held on.”

Quinnipiac cut the deficit to 58-51 at the end of three and made it a one-possession game – 62-59 – after Jen Fay’s layup capped a 6-0 spurt with 3:31 showing on the clock.

Irwin and Fay exchanged buckets.

Myah Selland and Irwin both tracked down offensive rebounds on SDSU’s ensuing possession. Irwin was fouled and went 2-of-2 at the stripe, making it 66-61 with 2:27 remaining.

Miller hit a huge 3-ball with 1:30 to go.

“I thought it was just a team thing,” she said when asked about the squad’s composure down the stretch. “We’ve been in this situation before, even in the Summit League.

“We brought each other in and said, you know, just stay strong in there and keep working hard on the offensive end – find the open person and things will come. Don’t get stressed out, because they’re a great team and we just have to keep doing what we’re doing.”

Miller was 0-of-9 on treys in four NCAA tourney games entering Saturday but went 4-of-5 from deep against the Bobcats.

Quinnipiac’s Paige Warfel hit two freebies to pull her team within 69-64 with 1:17 to go.

Miller’s shot on the other end rimmed off with 50 seconds left, but Irwin corralled another offensive rebound and SDSU sealed the deal at the free-throw line down the stretch.

The Jackrabbits finished with 16 offensive boards and held a 49-34 advantage on the glass.

“We knew coming into the game they were a very good rebounding team, so that was something we focused on,” said Selland, who finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists. “Just making sure that all five of us were crashing the boards and being strong. Even when we got the rebound, they were still swarming us. Definitely towards the end, we made some toughness plays to secure the rebounds and make it work.”

Miller was 7-of-18 from the field and 10-of-12 at the line. She grabbed 11 rebounds.

Guebert totaled 11 points.

Irwin contributed eight points and six rebounds.

Paiton Burckhard scored eight points on 4-of-4 shooting in 11 minutes of action off the bench in her NCAA Tournament debut.

Tagyn Larson chipped in with five markers and seven boards.

Quinnipiac finished 26-7 after having its 21-game winning streak snapped.

Fay scored 18 of her 25 points in the second half before fouling out with 45 seconds to go.

Strautmane added 15 points and five boards. Aryn McClure was limited to 11 points in 27 minutes, fouling out at the 4:01 mark of the fourth.

Moving on

“It feels really great,” said Miller. “I give credit to Quinnipiac – they have a great defense. It felt almost like they had 10 people out there. You’d have a lane and then all of a sudden there are two or three people on you, and you pass it out and there are another two people on you.

“But a ‘W’ is a ‘W,’ and we’re excited to move on.”

Added Guebert: “To beat such a solid defensive team like Quinnipiac was something that was really exciting for us. We just knew coming into the game how aggressive they were going to be and how strong and physical they were. So I’m just really proud of our effort and how we just stuck with it throughout the whole game.”

Selland, a sophomore, said: “We have such a special group of girls and now just excited to have an opportunity to play another game with them.”

Notes

SDSU improved to 3-8 in the NCAA Tournament, also advancing to the second round in 2009 and 2016. … Miller now has 2,323 points in 142 career games. … Guebert has 1,798 points and 362 3-pointers in 132 career games. … Quinnipiac dropped to 3-5 in the NCAA Tournament. The Bobcats advanced to the Sweet 16 as a 12 seed in 2017 and to the second round as a No. 9 last year.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 76, QUINNIPIAC 65

Quinnipiac (26-7)

Jen Fay 10-18 5-6 25, Brittany Martin 0-6 2-2 2, Aryn McClure 5-19 1-2 11, Paula Strautmane 4-10 4-6 15, Edel Thornton 2-4 0-0 4, Taylor Herd 1-2 0-0 3, Jaden Ward 0-0 1-2 1, Paige Warfel 1-5 2-3 4, Mackenzie DeWees 0-1 0-0 0, Amani Free 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-65 15-21 65.

South Dakota State (27-6)

Tylee Irwin 3-9 2-2 8, Tagyn Larson 2-6 0-0 5, Myah Selland 4-9 7-9 16, Madison Guebert 4-13 1-1 11, Macy Miller 7-18 10-12 28, Rylie Cascio Jensen 0-0 0-0 0, Lindsey Theuninck 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Ferrand 0-0 0-0 0, Sydney Palmer 0-1 0-0 0, Paiton Burckhard 4-4 0-0 8, Sydney Stapleton 0-0 0-0 0, Megan Bultsma 0-0 0-0 0, Addison Hirschman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-60 20-24 76.

Quinnipiac              18  12  21  14    65

South Dakota State 22  19  17  18    76

3-point goals – QU 4-16 (Strautmane 3-4, Herd 1-2, McClure 0-1, Thornton 0-1, Martin 0-2, Warfel 0-2, Fay 0-4), SDSU 8-19 (Miller 4-5, Guebert 2-6, Larson 1-2, Selland 1-3, Irwin 0-3). Rebounds – QU 34 (Fay 9), SDSU 49 (Miller 11). Assists – QU 11 (Thornton 5), SDSU 14 (Selland 4). Steals – QU 8 (Fay, Thornton 2), SDSU 3 (Irwin 2). Blocks – QU 3 (McClure 2), SDSU 2 (Irwin, Selland 1). Turnovers – QU 7, SDSU 14. Total fouls – QU 20, SDSU 17. Fouled out – Fay (4:01 4th), McClure (:45 4th). Technical fouls – None.