The Basics
Score: No. 1 South Dakota State 93, No. 6 Omaha 51
Records: South Dakota State (28-5, 18-0 SL), Omaha (15-17; 8-10 SL)
Location: Denny Sanford PREMIER Center - Sioux Falls, S.D.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Jackrabbits are going back to the Big Dance. No. 1 seed South Dakota State put the exclamation point on a perfect season against conference foes by beating No. 6 seed Omaha, 93-51, to win the Summit League Women's Basketball Championship Tuesday at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
It is SDSU’s 10th League tournament title and first since 2019.
“We missed this feeling and we wanted to do it again,” said Jackrabbit redshirt senior Myah Selland.
Haleigh Timmer led the way for the Jackrabbits with 18 points and won the Championship MVP award. Fellow all-tournament team member Paige Meyer pitched in 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.
SDSU shot 62 percent from the field for the game, the fourth-best mark in league tournament history.
The Jackrabbits didn’t wait to build a big lead. Their league-leading defense was on display early, as the Mavericks struggled to get the ball into Elena Pilakouta in the post. SDSU forced the Mavericks into three straight turnovers to start the game and, on the whole, scored 19 points off 11 Omaha turnovers in the first half.
A pair of three’s by Polina Nikulochkina (8 points) kept Omaha close in the early stages, but SDSU’s offense was sharp from the opening tip. Timmer hit a corner three off an inbounds play with two minutes remaining in the first quarter to put the Jackrabbits up 18-8. She would then hit another three just before the buzzer sounded to stretch the lead to 13.
SDSU shot 65.2 percent in the first half, while the Mavericks went just 5-25 from the floor. This resulted in a 44-16 Jackrabbit lead as the teams went to the locker room.
It was more of the same in the second half as the Jackrabbits continued to blister the nets, shooting 68.4 from three for the game, the second best mark in league tournament history on a minimum of seven three-point makes.
“This team is really hard to defend because they are so unselfish and pass the ball really well,” SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said.
SDSU’s defense continued to give Omaha very little, with Kallie Theisen among a host of defenders that sealed off the paint to Pilakouta, the second team all-league center. In the end, the 42-point margin marked the largest in the history of the championship game.
Omaha heads south on I-29 with nothing to be ashamed of, having made a deep run in the Summit League Tournament for the second time in three seasons. The Mavericks knocked off No. 3 seed North Dakota on Sunday, and outlasted No. 10 Kansas City in the semifinals on Monday.
“I definitely think there were some nerves and I think they responded better in the second half and battled,” said Omaha coach Carrie Banks. “You just can’t dig yourself a hole against a team that plays that well.”
The Jackrabbits now await their seed in the NCAA Tournament as both the league’s regular season and tournament champion.
Turning Point
Timmer’s back-to-back three’s to end the first quarter were indicative of a red-hot shooting night for the Jackrabbits, and created separation that the Mavericks were never able to close.
All-Tournament Team
Paiton Burckhard, South Dakota State
Manna Mensah, Kansas City
Paige Meyer, South Dakota State
Elena Pilakouta, Omaha
Haleigh Timmer, South Dakota State (Championship MVP)
Inside the Box Score
- The Jackrabbits' 93 points were the most scored in a Summit League Tournament title game and just the fourth time a team scored 80-plus.
- SDSU's Haleigh Timmer scored a game-high 18 points and averaged 17.7 ppg in SDSU's three victories in Sioux Falls.
- Katie Keitges led the Mavericks with a season-high 11 points.
- Omaha’s 16 first-half points were the fourth-fewest SDSU has allowed to a league opponent in the opening stanza this season.
News & Notes
- SDSU moved into a tie with Gardner-Webb for the second-longest active winning streak in Division I at 21 games. They are only topped by South Carolina’s 38-game streak.
- The Jackrabbits are headed to their first NCAA Tournament since the 2020-21 season, where they earned a No. 9 seed and fell to No. 8 Syracuse in the opening round. This will be their 11th appearance in the NCAA Tournament since joining Division I.
- The Mavericks had a resurgent campaign in Banks’ fourth season at the helm, finishing with their most overall wins (15) since 2017-18 and most league wins (8) since 2016-17.
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