GWC Tourney

[yotemeal]

Houston Baptist on Wednesday. Full tourney bracket: www.greatwestconference.org/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/gwfc/sports/w-baskbl/auto_pdf/GWC_Bracket

[Coyote Fan]

IMO The Coyote Women have the best chance of the two USD teams to win the tourney. I believe it would be a good idea if the Yotes go out and take out the Huskies early and often because it would be nice if they didn't have to spend alot of energy getting through the first round game.

I will put on the prognosticater hat for a bit.

Houston Baptist vs South Dakota. I do think the Coyotes win this one fairly comfortably. 67-44. Just way too much of an advantage all around the court for the Yotes.

North Dakota vs New Jersey Tech. The Highlanders are just not very good but UND has struggled for alot of the season. UND would really have to have an off game to drop this one. I will go with the Sioux 73-57

Utah Valley vs Texas-Pan American. This could be a good one as these two teams were seperated by one game in the standing. If this game was on a neutral floor I would be tempted to take the Broncs but in Orem I am going with the Wolverines 58-48

2nd Round

The tourney might actually be decided in this round. Whichever team spends the least amount of energy and emotion in this game could be in the best shape to win the tourney. Basically anyone not named USD is probably going to be quick work for the Cougars.

North Dakota vs South Dakota. I cannot stress enough how badly USD needs to take care of the Sioux as fast as possible. I have never been more confident in the last 2 decades that USD is better than UND as I believe is true this year. Even during 2008 the Sioux were still very formidable. But unfortunately when these two teams have played in the last several years one team rarely blows out the other. I think USD will take this game 74-68 but this will be the game where the tourney took a turn by spending way too much emotion and energy to get by the Sioux.

Utah Valley vs Chicago State. Even on the home court of the Wolverines I don't think they can stay with Chicago State. Coyote fans need to really cheer on UVU because a Chicago State walk in the park will set them up well against what could be a tired opponent in the final. I think CSU wins this one 78-56

South Dakota vs Chicago State. I believe USD has improved alot since the beginning of the season which definately bodes well for the Summit. I believe having 3 games in short time will be the Yotes downfall. Playing a team like CSU takes alot of energy and concentration. In a one game situation with a charged up crowd USD was able to overcome the Cougars for one night. I think the task will be much more difficult this time around. I believe CSU will runaway with the second half after a close first 20. All bets are off if the Yotes are within 4 points or ahead with 8:00 left as I think USD is better equiped to win a close one down the stretch. Cougars win the title 75-61.

[youthbballcoach]

The way the ladies consistently defend and share the ball, I really like their chances to get to the finals.

[Coyote Fan]

Mar 7, 2011 15:53:15 GMT -6 youthbballcoach said:

The way the ladies consistently defend and share the ball, I really like their chances to get to the finals.

The way things are going I peg the Yotes as significant favorites if they do indeed play UND in the semi's. The Yotes are simply playing better basketball right now than the Sioux and even when the Yotes were just playing average they were still ahead of what UND was doing. At no point other than a 3 minute span in Grand Forks have the Sioux had the overall better basketball team.

The key for the Yotes is to take care of the Sioux as early as possible, maybe something similar to what happened in Vermillion between the teams.

Beating Chicago State would be nice indeed and maybe just maybe since the second half in Chicago the Lady Yotes have improved more than the Cougars.

[#1CoyoteFan (Admin)]

I would say a little more than maybe. I think USD has definitely improved more than Chicago State, and Chicago State is the same team. Still a pretty good team, but I think with each passing game, the Coyotes are getting that killer mentality.

[usdlaw]

oops meant to put it here


www.usdcoyotes.com/sports/wbball/release.asp?release_id=6278

GWC release attached (pdf)

Naperville, Ill. -- Junior forward Amber Hegge has been named to the All-Great West Conference first-team in women’s basketball, the league announced on Tuesday. In addition, Coyote junior center Jodie Boss was named the GWC Defensive Player of the Year.

South Dakota had six players honored overall. Boss and sophomore guard Alexis Yackley (Onida, S.D.) were also named to the All-Newcomer team while junior guard Annie Roche (Vermillion, S.D.), sophomore guard Tempestt Wilson (Elk River, Minn.) and Alexis Yackley (Onida, S.D.) and freshman forward Stacia Robertson (Grand Island, Neb.) were each All-GWC honorable mention selections.

Hegge (Crofton, Neb.) earned All-GWC first team honors for a second straight year and was one of three repeat selections on the first team. Hegge averages 17 points and 7.9 rebounds per game and also shoots 51 percent from the field for the season. In 12 GWC games, Hegge averaged 17 points and 9.1 rebounds per game (second in the conference). She is a two-time GWC Player of the Week this season.

Boss (Columbus, Neb.) has enjoyed a dominant defensive season. She has shattered the South Dakota single-season blocked shots record with 96, nearly doubling the previous mark. She is ranked fifth in the NCAA Division I in blocks per game at 3.3 and leads the Great West Conference in that category. Boss ranks fifth all-time in South Dakota history in blocks per game.

Yackley leads the Coyotes with 97 assists and is eighth in the GWC in assists per game. She also ranks ninth in three-point percentage (35.9) and ninth in three-pointers made per game (1.6). Yackley is averaging 7.3 points per game this season, including 8.6 points per contest in conference games.

Roche is second in the Coyote team in points per game at 9.3 and third in assists with 64. She also leads the team with 48 three-pointers. Wilson is averaging 8.1 points per game and is third on the team with 41 three-pointers, while Robertson is averaging 8.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Robertson also is averaging 9.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per game in 12 conference games.

The Coyotes (19-10), winners of six straight games, open Great West Conference Championship play on Wednesday in Orem, Utah, against Houston Baptist. Game time is 3:30 p.m. CT.

[usdlaw]

South Dakota Women Begin Great West Championship Quest Against Houston Baptist

www.usdcoyotes.com/sports/wbball/release.asp?release_id=6277

Full Release attached (pdf)

Game 30
Opponent: Houston Baptist
Opponent: Great West Championship
When: Wednesday, March 9, 3:30 p.m. CT
Where: UCCU Center, Orem, Utah
Live Stats: USDCoyotes.com
Live Audio: USDCoyotes.com
Live Video: USDCoyotes.com
Radio: B102.7 FM (Sioux Falls)
Television: None

Up Next
The South Dakota women’s basketball team (19-10, 10-2 Great West) opens Great West Conference Championship play on Wednesday, March 7 at 3:30 p.m. CT in Orem, Utah against Houston Baptist. The second-seeded Coyotes will be seeking their first GWC tournament title and will be seeking their fourth straight win in the series against the seventh-seeded Huskies.
If the Coyotes win, they will face the winner of No. 3 seed North Dakota and No. 6 seed the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Friday at 1 p.m. in the semifinals.

Media Coverage
All tournament games can be heard on USD’s flagship station, B102.7 FM, with RJ Pattison calling the action. Live audio, live video and live stats can be found at usdcoyotes.com. The games will not be televised.

Series History
South Dakota leads the series with Houston Baptist 5-2 and have won the last three meetings; the Coyotes swept the regular-season series in 2010-11. South Dakota rolled in the first meeting, 62-33 on Jan. 27, thanks to 14 points and 11 rebounds from junior forward Amber Hegge. In the second meeting on March 5 in Houston, South Dakota got career-highs of 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Coyotes to a 66-48 win. Wednesday’s game will be the second time the two teams have met on a neutral floor, as they also did so in the Spring Thaw tournament in 2009.

Scouting South Dakota
South Dakota enters the Great West Conference Championship on a roll, having won six straight games, including the 66-48 win over Houston Baptist on March 5. Stacia Robertson’s 20 points and 14 rebounds, both career highs, paced the Coyotes.
During the six-game winning streak, South Dakota has outscored opponents by an average of 66.2-45.2 and held four opponents to 42 points or less. South Dakota is shooting 42.6 percent from the floor during that stretch while holding opponents to just 30.8 percent shooting. The Coyotes are also outrebounding their opponents by an average of 41-33 during the streak.
Junior forward Amber Hegge is having an outstanding season for the Coyotes, leading the team in scoring (17.0 points per game), rebounding (7.9) and steals (30). Junior Annie Roche averages 9.4 points per game, while sophomore guard Yackley leads the Coyotes with 97 assists. Junior Jodie Boss leads South Dakota with 96 blocks, a single-season record.
South Dakota averages 63.1 points per game but allows only 54.6. The Coyotes have a +2.2 rebounding margin and a +0.2 turnover margin.
Ryun Williams is in his third season as South Dakota’s head coach with a record of 52-37. In his 16th season overall, Williams has a record of 287-180.

Scouting the Opponents
Coach Mary Gleason’s Houston Baptist club is 3-24 overall and 1-11 in the Great West Conference. The Huskies have lost 17 of their last 18 games; they recorded a 71-66 win over NJIT on Feb. 17 to end a 14-game losing streak. Houston Baptist suffered a 73-61 home loss to North Dakota on March 3 and followed with the 66-48 home loss to South Dakota to end the regular season.
Destini Texada leads the Huskies at 12.3 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Jamie Spriggs averages 9.5 points per contest off the bench. Tia Jackson averages 8.8 points per game but has scored 35 points in the Huskies’ past two games.
The Huskies average 54.4 points per game and shoot 38.5 percent from the field. They allow 77.3 points per contest and have a -22.9 scoring margin. HBU also has a -8.5 turnover margin and a -6.7 rebounding margin.
Gleason is in her first season as Houston Baptist’s coach with a record of 3-24.

Depending on D
South Dakota’s defense remains a constant in 2010-11 and is amongst the best in the nation. Overall, the Coyotes are the No. 1-ranked scoring defense -- by more than five points per game -- in the Great West Conference at 54.6 points per game. Teams are shooting only 34.5 percent from the field against USD, a mark that is also tops in the Great West Conference and ranked 10th in all of Division I.
At home, the Coyotes have particularly stingy on defense, allowing 48.0 points per game. South Dakota has allowed 47 points or less in nine of its 13 home games. South Dakota surrendered a season-low 28 points in the win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Teams are only shooting 32 percent against the Coyotes at the DakotaDome this season.

It’s Good to Share
South Dakota is spreading the ball around on offense this season, as its 14.0 assists per game would indicate. That would be an improvement of more than one full assist per game from 2009-10. Three Coyotes have 55 assists or more -- Alexis Yackley (97), Amber Hegge (79) and Annie Roche (64). In addition, senior point guard Teresa Case has 41 assists off the bench compared to just 19 turnovers. Yackley set a career-high with nine assists in the Coyotes’ 72-28 win over NJIT.

Robertson’s Rise
Freshman post Stacia Robertson has emerged as one of the top offensive post threats in the Great West Conference. That was evident with her 20-point, 14-rebound effort in the win over Houston Baptist on March 5. In the Coyotes’ last eight games, Robertson has averaged 11 points and 5.9 rebounds per game while shooting 63.2 percent from the field. She’s also had the first two double-doubles of her career during that stretch, where the Coyotes are 7-1.

Climbing the Charts
Junior forward Amber Hegge is at 1,113 points, which is 17th all-time, and also at 553 rebounds.
Junior guard Annie Roche is at 233 assists for her career and is only 33 away from 10th place all-time. Roche also has hit 116 three-pointers and is just 16 away from 10th-place Maggie Youngberg, a graduate assistant on the Coyote staff. Roche is also at 832 points for her career.
Junior center Jodie Boss is the single-season record holder with 96 blocks, a mark that is fourth all-time in career blocks and just five out of fifth place.

Last Time Out: Coyote Get Past Houston Baptist
Freshman forward Stacia Robertson had the best game of her career with career-highs of 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead the South Dakota women’s basketball team to a 66-48 win over Houston Baptist in Great West Conference action on March 4 in Houston, Texas.
Robertson recorded her second double-double of the season and finished 8-of-13 from the field in the game.
The Coyotes’ three post players, led by Robertson’s 20, combined for 45 points in the game. Junior forward Amber Hegge added 13 points, six rebounds and four assists, while junior center Jodie Boss added 12 points, three blocks and three steals.
Sophomore guard Alexis Yackley added five points and five assists. The Coyotes (19-10, 10-2 GWC) shot 43.1 percent (25-of-58) from the field, compared to 34 percent (18-of-53) for Houston Baptist. The Coyotes had a 42-30 edge in rebounds in the contest.
South Dakota trailed 5-3 early but scored nine straight points to take a 12-5 lead just 3:23 to the game. Hegge had four points during that stretch while sophomore guard Tempestt Wilson drained a three and Boss added a basket.

[yotemeal]

The Ladies' season is over after losing to a 3-win team. Talk about a shocking, tough pill to swallow. Wow. The only positive spin I have at this point is that it hopefully provides plenty of motivation for next season....Yikes.

[Coyote Fan]

I missed most of it by being at work but USD just suffered a very bad loss to a 3-24 Houston Baptist team this afternoon in the first round of the Great West Conference Tournament. The Yotes were down 62-50 late but rallied to get within one only to fall back behind again and lose 73-64.

This will seriously damage USD's chances to make a post season invitational tourney.

A good team just cannot lose a game like this at such an important moment of the season. The Yotes should have hammered this team by 20 points. What is also disappointing is that the Yotes rallied and had all the momentum in the world with 2 minutes left and a chance to tie or take the lead and couldn't seal the deal. This one hurts and should have never happend.

[yotemeal]

WTF? Seriously.

[Coyote Fan]

Ryan Williams comments.

"We played awful". Team played very bad defense. USD could not contain the dribble even in the zone. Yotes had slow feet and were not locked in. Ryan feels very bad for the kids. team could not get into rythme all day. Didn't make the big plays down the stretch. Tejada was tough to guard. Yotes didn't get a break, and didn't deserve one either. He hopes to get a tourney bid to the WBI (i think it's called) to redeem themselves. Talked warmly of Teresa Case if this was her last game.

[Coyote Fan]

What is even more hard to swallow as a Yotes fan is that all we've heard about the last few years is SDSU's women. It looked like finally the State women had met their match and boom suddenly they catch fire and end up getting to the NCAA tourney again.

All the while USD has their chance and completely blows it. USD has come a long ways and has played well over the past month or two. USD still has a long ways to go.

I am so tired of playing the second fiddle and the last three days only goes to further the frustration on that end.

[yotemeal]

Mar 9, 2011 17:42:59 GMT -6 Coyote Fan said:

What is even more hard to swallow as a Yotes fan is that all we've heard about the last few years is SDSU's women. It looked like finally the State women had met their match and boom suddenly they catch fire and end up getting to the NCAA tourney again.

All the while USD has their chance and completely blows it. USD has come a long ways and has played well over the past month or two. USD still has a long ways to go.

I am so tired of playing the second fiddle and the last three days only goes to further the frustration on that end.

CF, the USD women could've won the GWC, and that wouldn't put them ahead of the SDSU women. That's not going to change until they're playing in the same conference.

As for this particular loss, it's a bad one. Ugh.

[Coyote Fan]

Mar 9, 2011 17:50:42 GMT -6 yotemeal said:

Mar 9, 2011 17:42:59 GMT -6 Coyote Fan said:

What is even more hard to swallow as a Yotes fan is that all we've heard about the last few years is SDSU's women. It looked like finally the State women had met their match and boom suddenly they catch fire and end up getting to the NCAA tourney again.

All the while USD has their chance and completely blows it. USD has come a long ways and has played well over the past month or two. USD still has a long ways to go.

I am so tired of playing the second fiddle and the last three days only goes to further the frustration on that end.

CF, the USD women could've won the GWC, and that wouldn't put them ahead of the SDSU women. That's not going to change until they're playing in the same conference.

As for this particular loss, it's a bad one. Ugh.

Of course it would not have put them above the SDSU women but honestly the gap was starting to close as SDSU was looking more like a .500 Summit team at mid season. Now the Jacks have completely caught fire to remove all doubt.

This athletic season has been a major frustration in many aspects on the field of play. Off the field it's been productive with the conference situation and the talk of a new basketball arena.

[#1CoyoteFan (Admin)]

The gap wasn't starting to close all honestly. USD got the headlines with the D-II run so jumping up to D-I assured SDSU would get the headlines until the two teams faced and SDSU won. Until USD knocks off SDSU or wins the Summit, both will prolly happen at the same time, just saying, USD will have the headlines and that's what the gap will close. Until then, the gap will always be big.

This loss did completely blow though. I don't know what to say about it except where did the defense go? Are you kidding me? Ugh.