BROOKINGS — South Dakota State outscored North Dakota State 8-0 in the final three minutes on Wednesday night and that gave the Jackrabbits a 63-55 win over the Bison.

“That was a really important win for us,” said SDSU head coach Aaron Johntson. “To get through the first half of the conference [schedule], to be 8-0, we feel really good about that. It was a fun home game for us. I thought the crowd was fantastic. … Really proud of our team for making plays down the stretch.”

The Jacks (18-3, 8-0) and Bison (14-7, 6-2) were tied 55-55 with 3:15 to play. Katie Vasecka then hit a three to give the Jacks the lead. Vasecka was in the game due to foul trouble on Haleigh Timmer and it wasn’t the first time that the freshman has hit a big shot down the stretch of a game. SDSU senior point guard Paige Meyer said the team trusts Vasecka a lot in big moments despite her being in her first season in the yellow and blue.

“She definitely doesn’t look like a freshman out there. She has a lot of confidence in herself and we have a lot of confidence in her, so I think having her know that we just trust her to make those plays [helps] and she’s been doing a great job with it,” Paige Meyer said.

Paige Meyer had some big buckets of her own in the fourth quarter. She made a lay up after Vasecka’s 3-pointer and scored seven points in the final five minutes. Johnston said she was more decisive in the fourth quarter and is someone that is going to will her team to victory.

“How they were handling her with ball screens was tough. … She just wasn’t hesitating in that fourth quarter. She just went instead of trying to set things up so much. She just got to the ball screen and got off of the ball screen and kind of created for herself. She made a couple of big plays there and I just saw her play without hesitation. … She’s someone who knows how to win and I’m glad she’s a Jackrabbit,” Johnston said.

It was a game of runs between the two teams. They traded baskets in the first four and half minutes of the game as it was 10-10. NDSU then scored five straight points and took a 15-13 lead into the second quarter.

The Bison would hit a three 15 seconds into the second quarter and then it was all Jackrabbits. SDSU proceeded to score 18 straight points and led 31-18 with 1:22 left in the first half. During the quarter the Jacks held the Bison scoreless for nearly nine minutes and led 31-20 heading into halftime.

Johnston said his defense propelled the large run in the second quarter, paired with quality possessions on offense.

“Our defense was really good [in the second quarter]. I thought we forced them into a lot of tough shots. We rotated well, doubled well, helped well. It was just difficult for them. Then offensively, we were efficient. I think the first quarter we turned it over five or six times and then in the second quarter we took care of the ball and got back to going inside and establishing Brooklyn [Meyer] down low,” Johnston said.

The third quarter was a different story for SDSU. The Jacks led 37-27 with 4:46 left in the third and then the Bison went on a 14-0 run to take a 41-37 lead with 54 seconds left in the quarter. The run consisted of four straight three’’s and a mid-range jump shot.

Johnston said his team was trying to take away the Bison’s inside game and that left shooters open on the perimeter in the third.

“... The third quarter we just weren’t as sharp as we needed to be. They made a lot of three’s. They did a good job. We had been helping inside taking away some of their post touches and they countered with some three’s there. We also weren’t good offensively,” Johnston said.

SDSU would trail 41-39 heading into the final quarter. The Jacks opened the quarter with a 6-1 run and a Timmer three gave SDSU a 45-42 lead. The Bison then scored four straight to regain the lead. The Jacks then trailed 51-49 and Paige Meyer scored five straight points to put the Jacks up 54-51 with 4:40 to play. Abby Schule hit two free throws, Brooklyn Meyer knocked down one of two at the line and Abbie Draper made a jumper to tie things up and set up the final three minutes of play.

SDSU shot 46.2% from the field and was 3-of-9 from three. Brooklyn Meyer led the Jacks with 24 points and nine rebounds. Paige Meyer and Timmer each had 13 points. Mesa Byom had four points, five assists and 10 rebounds.

NDSU shot 37.5% from the field and was 9-of-20 from three. Schulte led the Bison with 14 points. Draper had 13 points and eight rebounds. Molly Lenz had nine points and Avery Koenen had eight points.

The Jacks had 15 turnovers and the Bison had 18. There were a total of 31 fouls called in the game. SDSU was 12-of-16 at the free throw line and NDSU was 10-of-16.
Paige Meyer said the Jacks knew it was going to be a physical game and they just needed to make sure they answered.

“We knew it was going to be a physical game. I thought we matched that well. We’ll do a little recovery tomorrow but we knew it was going to be physical,” Paige Meyer said.

Johnston has preached over the years that the Jacks play a hard non-conference schedule because they want to be ready for close games like this come March. This time it came in late January and he said it’s important that his team responded to the pressure of a close game the right way.

“That was a conference tournament intensity I thought,” Johnston said. “The teams were really competing for something [and it didn’t feel like] a typical game on a Wednesday night. You have to [have experience in high intensity games]. We’ve been on both sides. We’ve had some games where we lost and learned from those and what we didn’t do well, but also had some of the success when you win.

“We’ve won a lot of close games this year. I always feel like the difference between great and good year’s is winning close games. That’s the reality. This one was a big one for us tonight and I was really happy with how they responded. They were really big down the stretch.”

SDSU has now won 23 straight games over NDSU. The Jacks’ last loss to the Bison came on Jan. 4, 2015, in Fargo.

The Jacks have now won 55 straight Summit League games. They’ll look to continue their streak on Saturday when they take on Omaha on the road at 2 p.m.