Sunnarborg leads Jacks past UMKC

Saturday, January 14

Frost Arena

5:00 PM

South Dakota State University

UMKC

1/14/2012 9:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: SDSU Sports Info

Jennie Sunnarborg scored a career-high 31 points and reached the 1,000-point mark for her career, leading South Dakota State past UMKC, 75-62, in a foul-filled Summit League women's basketball game Saturday afternoon at Frost Arena.

In winning the 20th annual Lamb Bonanza, the Jackrabbits improved to 11-7 overall and strengthened their lead in the league standings with a 6-1 conference mark. UMKC, which had its six-game winning streak snapped, fell to 12-6 overall and 3-3 in the Summit League.

The pace and play of the game was ragged throughout as neither team was able to find much of an offensive rhythm. UMKC, which opened the game 1-for-12 from the field, took its only lead of the first half, 6-4, on a pair of free throws by Eilise O'Connor five minutes into the game. The Jackrabbits scored the next six points and never trailed the rest of the way.

Sunnarborg hit the 1,000-point mark with two free throws with 5 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the first half that gave the Jackrabbits their largest lead of the opening stanza at 21-12. UMKC trimmed the margin back to three points, 25-22, heading into intermission.

Jill Young hit a pair of three-pointers off inbounds plays in the first three minutes of the second half to rebuild the Jackrabbit advantage to nine points. SDSU's run to open the half grew to 16-3 as the Kangaroos opened the second half 1-for-14 from the field. Sunnarborg's layup with 11:20 remaining to put the Jackrabbits out front 41-25.

Two more free throws by Sunnarborg gave SDSU its largest lead of the night, 53-35, with under six minutes to play. From there, the Kangaroos ratcheted up the pressure in the backcourt to ignite a 15-5 run the cut the deficit to 58-50 with under three minutes to play.

The Jackrabbits stemmed the tide as Steph Paluch stole the ball and completed a traditional three-point play. SDSU scored 13 of its final 15 points at the charity stripe as the Jackrabbits went 34-of-48, 70.8 percent, for the game, setting a school record for free throw attempts. The two squads were whistled for a combined 57 fouls in the game - 35 by UMKC and 22 by SDSU.

Sunnarborg was 8-of-15 from the field and 15-of-21 at the line in recording her 31 points. Young also reached double figures with 13 points, sinking 7-of-8 attempts at the line.

From the field, the Jackrabbits were 19-of-45, 42.2 percent, including 3-of-17 on three-point tries.

UMKC ended the night 18-of-64 from the field, 28.1 percent, including 5-of-16 on three-point attempts. At the line, the Kangaroos converted 21-of-30 attempts for 70 percent.

SDSU held a 43-36 advantage in rebounding, with Sunnarborg pacing the Jackrabbits with nine boards. Kim Nezianya shared game-high honors with nine rebounds and added 13 points. Dayon Hall-Jones and Eilise O'Connor led the Kangaroos with 14 points apiece.

The Jackrabbits return to action Monday night, hosting in-state rival South Dakota at Frost Arena. Tipoff is slated for 7:05 p.m., with television coverage on Midco Sports Net.

NOTES: SDSU leads the all-time series 8-1 ... the Jackrabbits improved to 34-5 at Frost Arena against Summit League foes ... Sunnarborg became the 31st player in Jackrabbit women's basketball history to reach the 1,000-point milestone and moved into 30th place in career scoring with 1,020 points, passing Sarita DeBoer (1,003 points from 2002-05) ... Sunnarborg recorded the first 30-point game by a Jackrabbit in Summit League play and was the first SDSU player to top the 30-point mark since Megan Vogel scored 32 against IPFW during the 2005-06 season ... Sunnarborg's previous career high was 28 points against UMKC at Frost Arena on Jan. 31, 2011 ... Young upped her school-record three-point total to 268 and moved into 24th place on the SDSU career scoring list with 1,164, passing Rachel Halsrud (1,154 points from 1991-94) ... SDSU's previous school record for free throw attempts was 47 against Southern California during the 2006-07 season ... the Jackrabbit single-game mark for made free throws is 36 ... SDSU held a 22-18 advantage in bench points, with Katie Lingle scoring nine and Tara Heiser adding a season-high seven ... attendance was 2,544