All five South Dakota starters scored in double figures as the Coyotes moved into a tie for first place in the Summit League following an 84-69 win against North Dakota State Thursday.
South Dakota (13-4, 3-1 Summit) improved to 7-0 at home while North Dakota State (7-10, 3-2) dropped to 0-8 on the road. Raeshel Contreras led the Coyotes with 17 points while Nicole Seekamp added 14 points and nine assists. Tia Hemiller added 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Margaret McCloud and Lisa Loeffler rounded out USD’s starting five, scoring 11 points and 10 points respectively. Bridget Arens come off the bench to score 10 more.
Kate Liveringhouse led the Coyotes in rebounds with nine while Arens finished with seven rebounds.
The Bison were led by Brooke LeMar’s 23 points and Holly Johnson’s 14 points. Johnson also added 10 rebounds to record her second-straight double-double.
South Dakota never trailed, outscored the Bison 40-26 in the paint, 21-7 in bench points and held a 44-35 advantage in rebounds.
USD scored the first seven points of the game and led by as many as 24 in the first half. McCloud led the Coyotes in the half with nine points on 4-for-4 shooting while Contreras added eight points. The Coyotes shot 52 percent (18-of-34) from the field and held NDSU to a shooting percentage of 27 percent (8-of-29) to take a 44-26 lead into halftime.
LeMar led NDSU in the first half with 15 points.
NDSU outscored USD in the second half 43-40, but couldn’t cut the lead to single digits until there was 3:49 remaining in the game (74-65). USD responded by finishing the game on a 10-4 run.
The Coyotes next host South Dakota State at 2 p.m. Saturday.
