It’s amazing what 24 hours in March can do. 
 
A campaign that could have been chalked up as largely forgettable is now anything but for Kansas City as the Roos march into the semifinals of the Summit League Tournament. In dispatching No. 2 seed North Dakota State Saturday, the Roos created some instant notoriety as the league’s first ever No. 10 seed. 
 
But in the bigger picture, the extended stay in Sioux Falls has – however it ultimately plays out – added a positive epilogue to Dionnah Jackson-Durrett’s first season in Kansas City. 

While this will be the Roos’ second straight trip to the semifinals, they’ve gotten to this point in a markedly different way. The team came to Sioux Falls riding an eight-game losing streak while being exceedingly shorthanded due to a combination of injury, illness and a midseason transfer. Still, after a buzzer beating heave against Denver and gritty win over a balanced Bison team, the Roos are still alive. 
 
“This is what this time year of year is about, this is what happens,” Jackson-Durrett said after the win over the Pioneers. 
 
And while the run may be surprising in terms of seed line, it also is a culmination of the little moments the team has stacked on top of each other, bit by bit, all year. Just last week, the Roos pushed South Dakota to the limit at home, which was a step forward for a team that had lost its previous six games by double digits. 
 
Manna Mensah, who has donned a superhero cape in Sioux Falls, scored 23 points in that game, which now looks like a precursor to the 27.5 points per game she’s averaged in the two tournament wins. 
 
"You have to build your own confidence, you're in control of that,” Jackson-Durrett said after the two-point loss to the Coyotes in the regular season finale. “The more you get in the gym, the more you see the ball go through the hoop, the more your confidence builds."
 
Confidence was not in short supply for Sanaa’ St. Andre as she scampered down the court in less than four seconds to throw in the game winner against the Pioneers. In that moment, the junior guard looked every bit the lightning quick player she had been as she started the season on an all-league pace before losing nearly two months to injury. 
 
But more than anything else, all of the deficits and difficult moments the Roos faced this season have served them well. There were tying times in both games. 
 
Against DU, it was a frigid cold streak to start the game, as the Roos made just two field goals – and went 0-16 inside the three-point line – in the first quarter. In the quarterfinal, it was a talented and experienced Bison team whittling what had been an 11-point Kansas City halftime lead to just two as the horn sounded on a ferocious third quarter for NDSU. 
 
In both instances, Jackson-Durrett’s team responded. 
 
“We’ve gotten down big before and have managed to chip, chip away and not give up,” she said after the DU win. “This was just very reminiscent of what we’ve been through. When you’ve been through adversity you figure out how to face it, and how to overcome it.”
 
Throughout, the experience of Mensah and E’Lease Stafford, both of whom have played big roles at multiple programs over their respective college careers, shone through for the shorthanded Roos. There was the team skilfully bleeding the clock against the NDSU zone and shortening the game in the quarterfinal, or having the awareness to respond instinctively to Mikayla Brandon’s go-ahead basket and race down the court for the winner without a timeout. 
 
Earlier in that game – with the Roos unable to buy a basket – Mensah had a message for her teammates.
 
“I was just telling them, ‘we’re not getting anything today, just play with your heart and do everything you can and everything will play itself out.’” 
 
So far, that’s played itself out to the tune of some March magic.