Watch even a little of South Dakota women's basketball game and there’s one thing that jumps out: what the Coyotes get from Grace Larkins in the first minute, is the same as what they get when the game is on the line. There’s an intensity to the USD guard that is simply always there. 
 
Look no further than the Coyotes’ overtime win at Loyola Marymount, where a pair of Larkins’ steals and breakaway layups in the fourth quarter flipped the game in USD’s favor just when it was starting to get away from them. Yet an hour earlier, Larkins was doing the same thing. Five minutes into the game she stole an LMU inbounds pass – that had resulted from her diving on the floor for a loose ball – for an easy layup. 
 
That all-in, all-out effort is what defines the junior star. 
 
“I would describe myself as hard-working,” she earlier in the year at the Summit League's Basketball Media Day event. “I’m a gritty player, I get really into the game and try to do what it takes to win.” 
 
She would likely be too modest to do it, but you could add superhuman to that list too. 
 
She had a historic season last year, becoming the first Summit player to finish in the top-five in the league in four statistical categories. From a scoring, rebounding and assists standpoint she produced at a level only bettered by the face of the sport, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark. This year she’s doing it again (16.3 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 4.5 apg), but there does seem to be one important difference.
 
The Coyotes don’t necessarily need her to be superhuman, and that could be a problem for opponents.
 
Head coach Kayla Karius’ second team doesn’t – at present – have a second player averaging double figure scoring, but it has nonetheless proven to be deep and capable. That was the plan all along as Karius and the Coyotes looked to take the next step with Larkins leading the way.
 
“We as a staff knew we had to put more pieces around her, and more pieces that were ready to play so she had more of an outlet and teams couldn’t focus on her as much,” Karius said at the preseason event. 
 
One of those additions was DePaul transfer Kendall Holmes (9.5 ppg), who was instrumental in USD’s biggest win-to-date, against her former team in the Battle 4 Atlantis. It was Holmes’ eight-point spurt in the third quarter that blew the game open against the Blue Demons. Remarkably, while Larkins scored 23 points in that game, six other Coyotes scored at least seven points. 
 
That also included Saginaw Valley State transfer forward Tori DePerry (9.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg), who has been a big addition to a USD frontcourt that has plenty of returnees also chipping in, like Walker Demers (7.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg) and Alexi Hempe (6.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg). 
 
In the road win over the Lions, it was Hempe that sank the game-tying three in the final seconds off a play drawn up for her. Against UT Martin – a game USD similarly win in overtime – it was Holmes that drilled the game-tying three in regulation. Last year, the ball in anyone’s hands but Larkins in those moments might have seemed impossible, but that has tied into something her coach emphasized with her star this summer. 
 
Karius said she and Larkins talked at length about the importance of making the right reads and becoming a better decision maker to take her game to the next level. 
 
“She doesn’t have to force a shot anymore,” Karius added. “We talked quite a bit about how she scores, a lot of it was because we relied on her and we really needed her to score that much.”
 
The results have already popped on the stat sheet.
 
Larkins is taking nearly three fewer shots per game than she did last year, but converting those attempts at a much higher rate. She’s added almost 10 percentage points to her field goal percentage (51.7%) as she’s evolved into an even more dangerous scorer. Moreover, that’s taken place alongside junior guard Nicole Avila-Ambrosi averaging a career-high in assists (1.9 apg), creating a versatile ball handling trio between her, Larkins and Holmes.
 
On the whole, the team has  scorched the nets through the season’s first five weeks. Between their group of frontcourt players and Larkins’ crafty work around the basket, they’re among the best teams in the country scoring within the three-point arc, currently sitting at 36th in two-point percentage (53.1%) per herhoopstats.com. 
 
Their overall shooting is also top tier (44.8 FG%), despite having arguably their two best three-point shooters – Holmes and Avila-Ambrosi – yet to hit their stride from deep. That may be turning around, as Holmes went 5-for-7 from distance in the dramatic win over UT Martin. 
 
Put together, it has the Coyotes at 9-3 and, at least in the hyper-early going, back in the conversation they’re used to: showing up in Charlie Creme’s latest bracketology as a No. 14 seed. There is a long way to go, but Larkins’ continued growth and USD’s depth has been nothing less than encouraging in their bid to return to the top of the league.

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