Sweetest win ever!

South Dakota State beats Syracuse 75-64, reaches Sweet 16

Posted

Updated 9:30 a.m. 3/26/19

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Dance continues for the Jackrabbits!

South Dakota State is heading to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history after beating the host and third-seeded Orange 75-64 in a back-and-fourth NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament second-round game Monday night at the Carrier Dome.

The No. 6 Jackrabbits (28-6) – the highest seeded team in Summit League history – pushed their winning streak to 18.

SDSU faces second-seeded Oregon in a Portland Regional semifinal Friday.

“It’s a great, great, great day to be a Jackrabbit,” said SDSU coach Aaron Johnston. “I’m so proud of what this group has accomplished and what they’ve built on over several years. I’m excited to share it with the fans and people that were here; I’m excited to share it with people back home. Just a great step for these young women and what they’ve accomplished.”

Johnston added with a chuckle: “We’re going to have to work on our celebrations a little bit. I sustained a fat lip in our postgame locker room celebration. You can see it; that’s what happened. But other than that, everybody’s doing great and really enjoying this one.”

Syracuse pushed up the pressure to open the fourth quarter, using a 10-0 run to move ahead 57-53.

Miranda Drummond scored and then turned a steal into another basket.

Tiana Mangakahia and Kiara Lewis followed with steals and layups, prompting an SDSU timeout.

“Coach just told us that we needed to fight harder and have that fight that we had earlier in the game,” SDSU’s Madison Guebert said of the timeout. “We just kind of got a little bit loose. Again, it wasn’t a sense of panic, it was just a ‘we have to fight harder every possession if we’re going to win this game.’ So that’s kind of what fueled us coming out of that timeout.”

Drummond got loose again with 7:20 left to make it a four-point game.

Later, the Jackrabbits moved on top for good with nine points in a row.

Macy Miller converted a pair of free throws.

Guebert canned a pair of huge 3-pointers, the latter resting softly on the rim before falling through the net. That put the Jackrabbits ahead 67-62 with 2:59 showing on the clock.

Myah Selland’s drive and dish resulted in a Tagyn Larson layup with 54.5 seconds remaining. Selland was fouled and made both freebies to push the margin to 71-62 with 35.9 seconds to play.

That pretty much sealed the deal as the Orange made just one of their final 10 shots.

“Our team is a very poised team and we always stay composed and there really wasn’t ever a sense of panic for us even when they had a few runs there,” said Guebert. “We just had confidence in each other and confidence in our players. Again, there’s just not really a sense of panic and we knew that if we kept in our system and moving the ball that we were going to knock down shots and that we were going to be all right.”

The third time was the charm for the Jackrabbits.

They lost their previous two second-round games in dramatic fashion, falling by two to No. 2 Baylor in 2009 and by one at No. 4 Stanford in 2016.

“To be honest, I’m on Cloud 9 right now,” said Miller. “I don’t even have time to think about the game. The second half just went by so fast – I kind of blacked out during it. But, you know, I’m very proud of our girls and very proud we got it done. We’re excited for the Sweet 16.”

Guebert finished with six treys and scored a game-high 20 points against the ‘Cuse. She corralled six rebounds.

Selland added 17 points to go with eight rebounds and five assists.

Miller posted a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds while adding five assists. She had just one turnover against the Orange’s pressure.

Paiton Burckhard had another big game off the bench, scoring 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting in 19 minutes of action.

Larson contributed eight markers, six boards and four dimes.

SDSU finished plus-8 on the glass and committed 13 turnovers while forcing 11.

The Jackrabbits shot 45.8 percent (27-of-59) and the Orange ended up at 40.6 percent (26-of-64).

Both teams attempted 21 shots from long range – SDSU made nine and SU five.

Miller came up with a steal and found Selland for a bucket in transition on the first play of the game as the Jackrabbits built an early 6-2 advantage.

SDSU was up 17-14, when Lewis, a reserve, scored eight points during a 10-3 Syracuse run to close the quarter that made it 24-20.

Later, back-to-back 3-pointers by Drummond and Gabrielle Cooper gave the Orange a 36-24 cushion midway through the second.

The Jackrabbits countered with a 12-2 spurt to finish the half.

Miller got it going with a traditional three-point play with 4:45 showing on the clock.

Selland set up a Burckhard layup and Burckhard later returned the favor on a Selland hoop. In between, Guebert canned a trey.

Burckhard’s basket with 1:05 to play cut the deficit to 38-36.

The Orange built a five-point lead after the break, before SDSU rattled off 12 consecutive points.

Selland started it with a jumper.

Guebert sandwiched 3-balls around a Burckhard putback and Sydney Palmer added a trey to make it 53-45.

It was 53-47 heading to the fourth.

For Syracuse (25-9), Mangakahia had 18 points, eight assists, four boards and five turnovers.

Lewis added 13 points and Drummond 11.

History – Reaching the Sweet 16!

“It really was just an unreal feeling,” said Guebert. “To be part of such a special team like the one we’re a part of right now. Coming into this program for all of us, years and years before we ever got here there have been players and teams that kind of laid the groundwork for us and set the expectations (high). So coming in, the expectation was to work hard and we knew that this was going to be possible. … It was such an unreal feeling and I couldn’t be more proud to be on this team right now.”

Miller added: “Just kind of going off that Stanford game (in 2016) and how close we were then. And having that feeling and this feeling. It’s just something so great with this group of women and it just shows what kind of year we had and we’re excited to move forward.”

Selland, a sophomore, noted: “It’s just so special. These two (Guebert and Miller) are special seniors; we have Sydney Palmer, who is a special senior. So to be able to keep playing with those three is a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to (the Sweet 16).”

Notes

SDSU improved to 4-8 in the NCAA Tournament, including 1-2 in second-round games and 1-5 in true road games. … Miller has 115 points in six NCAA Tournament games. … Miller now has 2,334 points in 143 career games overall. … Guebert moved from 11th to ninth in Summit League history with 1,798 points in 133 career games. She’s made 368 treys.

SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 75, SYRACUSE 64

South Dakota State (28-6)

Madison Guebert 6-12 2-2 20, Myah Selland 7-14 3-4 17, Macy Miller 3-9 5-7 11, Tagyn Larson 3-6 2-2 8, Tylee Irwin 1-6 0-0 3, Paiton Burckhard 5-6 0-0 10, Rylie Cascio-Jensen 1-4 0-0 3, Sydney Palmer 1-1 0-0 3, Lindsey Theuninck 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-59 12-15 75.

Syracuse (25-9)

Tiana Namgakahia 6-18 4-4 18; Miranda Drummond 5-13 0-0 11, Gabrielle Cooper 2-6 0-0 6, Digna Strautmane 3-4 0-0 6, Amaya Finklea-Guity 3-6 0-0 6, Kiara Lewis 5-11 3-6 13, Maeva Djaldi-Tabdi 1-4 0-0 2, Emily Engstler 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 15-29 7-9 64.

SDSU 20  16  17  22    75

SU     24  14    9  17    64

3-point goals – SDSU 9-21 (Guebert 6-10, Selland 0-1, Miller 0-3, Irwin 1-3, Cascio Jensen 1-4, Palmer 1-1, Theuninck 0-1); SU 5-21 (Mangakahia 2-4, Drummond 1-9, Cooper 2-6, Strautmane 0-1, Lewis 0-1). Rebounds – SDSU 40 (Miller 10); SU 32 (Drummond 5, Strautmane 5). Assists – SDSU 21 (Selland 5, Miller 5, Larson 4); SU 12 (Mangakahia 8). Steals – SDSU 7 (Guebert 2, Selland 2, Miller 2, Irwin); SU 6 (Mangakahia 2). Blocks – SDSU 2 (Selland 2); SU 3 (Djaldi-Tabdi 2, Cooper). Turnovers – SDSU 13; SU 11. Total fouls – SDSU 12; SU 19. Fouled out – Mangakahia. Technical fouls – None. A – 2,474.