Raeshel Contreras tallied a career-high 32 points as Tia Hemiller scored all nine of her points in the last 3:26 to lift the South Dakota women’s basketball team past South Dakota State 82-78 in the DakotaDome on Saturday afternoon.
The win moved the Coyotes (14-4, 4-1) into sole possession of first place in the Summit League standings.
Contreras scored 23 of USD’s 48 second half points. She shot 5-of-7 from the floor, 3-of-4 from 3-point range and 10-of-12 from the free-throw line in the half. Her previous career-high was 29, which she set on Dec. 21 against North Dakota.
Hemiller hit her 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to spark a game clinching 12-4 run for USD over a three minute span. Her first trey gave the Coyotes a 71-69 lead with 3:26 remaining, and the second 3-pointer increased the Coyote lead to five with 2:28 left. Hemiller also hit the game sealing free throw with three seconds remaining.
Nicole Seekamp was USD’s second leading scorer with 12 points, but also added five assists. Heidi Hoff came off the bench to score a season-high 11 points while Lisa Loeffler scored seven points and led the Coyotes in rebounds with eight.
SDSU (12-7, 3-3) was led by Macy Miller’s 25 points and five steals. Chynna Stevens recorded the lone double-double in the game with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Mariah Clarin added 13 points and six rebounds.
The Jacks did not have Megan Waytashek, who leads the team in scoring at 14 points per game this season. She did not make the trip due to illness.
SDSU had a better shooting percentage than USD (42.9 percent to 40.7), made more baskets (27-22) and held the advantage in points in the paint (34-20). However the Coyotes shot almost twice as many free throws, going 30-of-41 from the free-throw line while SDSU was 18-for-22. USD also had two more 3-pointers than the Jacks (8-6) and held an edge in bench points (20-16).
The Jacks led by as many as 10 twice in the opening half, including after a 20-5 run over a six minute stretch put them up 24-14 with 11:11 remaining in the period. The Coyotes closed the gap to 35-34 with 17 seconds left in the half, but Clarin added a basket for the Jacks with one second remaining to give the Jacks a 37-34 lead at the break.
