South Dakota State survives scare from North Dakota State, extends winning streaks

BROOKINGS — It looked for awhile on Wednesday night like North Dakota State would finally break through and beat South Dakota State. If they did, it would be their first win over the Jackrabbits since 2015. But, as is almost always the case, the Jacks were, in the end, too good to take down, especially on their home floor.

SDSU outlasted the Bison 63-55 in front of 4,156 First Bank & Trust Arena fans, extending their winning streak over NDSU to 23 and their winning streak in regular season Summit League games to 55. The Jacks have had more and more close calls of late as Summit foes give them their best shot, but they continue to find ways to win. SDSU outscored NDSU 24-14 in the fourth quarter, with a tie-breaking 3-pointer by freshman Katie Vasecka giving the Jacks a 58-55 lead with 2:34 to go.



The Bison would not score again. "The whole game we talked about how defense is gonna win us this game," said point guard Paige Meyer, who had 13 points and three steals in a high-effort performance that saw her knocked to the floor multiple times. "In the fourth quarter we just kind of stuck together and people made big plays down the stretch.

" Brooklyn Meyer led the Jacks with 24 points and eight rebounds while Haleigh Timmer made 6-of-7 shots for 13 points and Mesa Byom added five points, 10 rebounds and four assists. The Jacks outrebounded NDSU 36-27 and outscored them in the paint 40-18. They outshot the Bison 46 percent to 38 percent.

Trailing 15-13 after one, the Jacks used an 18-0 run in the second quarter to take the lead and push it to 13 at 31-18. NDSU went more than eight full minutes off the clock without scoring, as SDSU's defense caused problems no matter what the Bison tried to do, leading to a handful of low-percentage attempts by the visitors. "Getting stops on defense really helps our offense flow," Brooklyn Meyer said.

"I feel like that was really an emphasis — rebounding and turning it into transition points." It was hard not to feel like the Jacks had taken control and would use the home court advantage to roll to an easy win. But that didn't happen.

The Bison dominated the third quarter, using a 14-0 run to take a 41-37 lead. The Jacks made just 4-of-12 shots overall in the third, while NDSU made 5-of-8 from beyond the 3-point arc. But the Jacks got back on track in the fourth, going 7-of-12 from the floor and making each of their only three 3-pointers in the game in the final 10 minutes.

The Bison, meanwhile, went 4-for-12 in the fourth. "We just weren't as sharp as we needed to be in that third quarter," said Jacks coach Aaron Johnston. "We were helping inside and taking away some of their post touches and they countered with some 3s, and we weren't very good offensively.

" It put the Jacks in a somewhat unfamiliar spot — trailing at home late against a conference opponent. But Johnston talks often about how the difficult non-conference games they schedule are about more than just building a strength-of-schedule resume for the NCAA tournament — it's also about putting his team in adverse situations so they're prepared for moments like the fourth quarter of this one. The impressive crowd did its part to will the Jacks into game-changing plays in key spots, but there were certainly tense moments, too.

Did Johnston think his players got rattled at any point? "Well, probably, but not to the point that they didn't respond," the coach said. "We gave up a lead, they got some momentum, and the physicality for both teams was a challenge. That game had a conference tournament intensity, two teams really competing for something, not just a typical game on a Wednesday night.

We've won a lot of close games and I always feel like the difference between great years and good years is winning and losing close games, and this was a big one for us. We were really good down the stretch.".