South Dakota senior center Margaret McCloud swished a pair of jumpers in the opening minute to set the tone as the Coyotes defeated Oral Roberts 78-61 in the Summit League Tournament semifinal on Monday.
South Dakota (26-5) advances to its fourth consecutive Summit League Tournament championship game. Oral Roberts (14-16) outscored the Coyotes 38-36 in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to overcome a 19-point first half deficit.
“We did a good job of sharing the basketball,” said head coach Amy Williams. “Oral Roberts is a tremendous defense. They present a lot of problems and I thought we did a good job of finding ways to attack them.”
South Dakota started the game off on an 11-3 run including McCloud’s first two buckets. The Coyotes came out of the first quarter media timeout with freshman guard Jaycee Bradley and senior guard Tia Hemiller swishing a pair of back-to-back threes to extend the lead to 14.
“We really wanted to throw the first punch and come out hard early,” said South Dakota senior guard Kelly Stewart. “Sometimes we have struggled coming out, but to get off on that run in the early part of the game, that was huge for us. It really built our momentum and we carried it through.”
McCloud went 6-for-6 from the field in the first half. She scored her 14th and final point off a jumper from the left block with 8:30 to play in the third. McCloud’s 14 points were a season high and also the most she’s scored in a single tournament game. Her previous tournament best was 13 against South Dakota State in the championship game a year ago.
Senior guard Nicole Seekamp sent an over-the-head hook pass to McCloud on the left block with 1:15 remaining in the first quarter to end a short scoring drought. Seekamp scored 14 points and handed out four assists.
Hemiller dished the ball to junior guard Jasmine Trimboli on the right wing for a 3-pointer with 4:37 to play in the second quarter. It was Hemiller’s 300th career assist and one of four in the game. Hemiller added 10 points and six rebounds against the Golden Eagles.
With 48 seconds to play in the first half, Stewart swatted Golden Eagle forward Faith Ihim’s layup and collected the defensive rebound. Stewart took it to the other end, where she drilled a three from the top of the key. Stewart scored 12 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out a trio of assists and had three blocks. Stewart’s three blocks were a USD tournament single-game record.
Oral Roberts had three players in double figures with guard Jordan Doyle and forward Maria Martianez each tallying 13 points. Forward Faith Ihim scored 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting from the field and two made free throws.
