The Basics
Score: No. 1 South Dakota State 86, No. 8 Denver 59
Records: South Dakota State (22-8), Denver (10-20)
Location: Denny Sanford PREMIER Center - Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – For the first time since 2020, fans were back at The Summit League Championship where top-seeded South Dakota State opened the 2022 event Saturday afternoon with an 86-59 victory over No. 8 seed Denver.
 
SDSU shot 50 percent from the field and buried nine 3-pointers in the game that saw three Jackrabbits reach double figures.
 
Myah Selland, who missed the previous two postseasons with injury, started 4-5 from the field en route to a game-high, 26-point performance. She finished 10-14 from the field overall and knocked down four 3-pointers.
 
Paiton Burckhard added 18 with four assists and a team-best eight rebounds, and Tori Nelson rounded out the top scorers with 15, going 2-2 from beyond the arc.
 
Denver’s Uju Ezeudu was a bright spot for the Pioneers, sinking 9-19 from the field and 6-7 at the charity stripe to finish with 25 points. Indeya Sanders also finished in double figures with 10.
 
The Jacks nixed any threat of a quarterfinal upset early on, answering Denver’s opening possession triple with a burst of 16 straight points. Selland, Nelson and Burckhard accounted for all of SDSU’s points in that rally as State leaned on its experienced front court early.
 
The team’s settled into a back-and-forth rhythm late in the quarter, and SDSU carried a 25-11 lead into the first reset.
 
That trend continued early in the second quarter before a Selland 3-point play sparked SDSU to a 9-0 (and eventual 15-2) rally to push its advantage to 42-18. Denver regained its footing and closed the quarter with a 7-2 run of its own but still trailed 44-25 at halftime.
 
South Dakota State kept its foot on the throttle through the third, doubling up the Pioneers 26-13 in the quarter thanks to separate bursts of eight, five and seven unanswered.
 
Ahead 70-38 as the final quarter began, the Jackrabbits and Pioneers traded buckets the rest of the way and SDSU closed out an opening-round win after falling in the 1-8 matchup a season ago.
 
Turning Point
Denver won the opening tip and sank a 3-pointer on its first possession, but the Jackrabbits responded with 16 unanswered—including 11 from Myah Selland—to take control.
 
Inside the Box Score

• Of the 13 Jackrabbits who appeared in the game, nine scored, 11 grabbed a rebound and 10 had an assist.
• SDSU tallied 22 assists on 34 made field goals.
• Kallie Theisen swatted four shots on the defensive end, matching her career high.
• South Dakota State, which boasts the league’s second-ranked defense, held Denver to four droughts of at least 2:40.

News & Notes

• SDSU has reached the semifinals in 13 of its 14 Summit League Tournament appearances.
• Myah Selland rose to No. 11 on SDSU’s all-time scoring chart with 1,483 career points. She is one shy of the top 10.
• Denver’s Uju Ezeudu became the fourth Pioneer in Denver’s Division I era to score 500 points in a season.