State Bragging Rights On the Line

GAME 14: South Dakota State [10-3, 1-0] at South Dakota [11-2, 1-0]

When	Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016 l 3:30 p.m.
Where	Sanford Coyote Sports Center I Vermillion, S.D.
TV	Midco Sports Network - Jay Eisen (PBP) and Kelly Stewart (color) I ESPN3
Radio	Jackrabbit Sports Network I WNAX 104.1 FM I Jackrabbit All-Access I Scotty Kwas
Live Stats	GoJacks.com
SDSU Links	Game Notes
USD Links	Game Notes
Summit League Links	Weekly Notes I Website
Social Media	Twitter I #EarsUp

State bragging rights will be on the line Saturday as the South Dakota State women's basketball team travels to longtime rival South Dakota. Tipoff for the South Dakota Showdown Series game, presented by South Dakota Corn, is at 3:30 p.m. in the Coyote Sanford Sports Center in Vermillion.

Saturday's game will be televised live on Midco Sports Net and ESPN3. Jay Elsen will call the play-by-play and Kelly Stewart will provide the color commentary.

SDSU sits atop the latest Summit League standings with records of 10-3 overall and 1-0 in league play. It is also ranked seventh in the latest College Insider Mid-Major poll.

The Jackrabbits opened their 10th season in The Summit League Wednesday with a 69-66 win at North Dakota State. Madison Guebert had a game-high 24 points, including six 3-pointers. Kerri Young netted 20 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.

South Dakota extended its home win streak to 20 games with a 70-64 win over Denver Wednesday.

Saturday's game is the 83rd meeting between the Jackrabbits and the Coyotes. State leads the all-time series, 56-26, and has won three of last five outings and five of its last 10 games in Vermillion.

Noteworthy

South Dakota State sports a 5-2 road record, winning at Iowa, Northern Iowa, North Dakota, Wichita State and North Dakota State and falling at then-No. 13/12 Oklahoma and at then-No. 8/8 Louisville.
South Dakota State is 58-18 (.763) all-time in Summit League road games and has won 9 of its last 12 road contests. Last year, it went 6-2 in league road contests.
The Jackrabbits are 232-80 (.743) in all-time games since joining The Summit League in 2007-08.
The Jacks have won 39 of their last 46, dating to a 63-57 win over IUPUI Jan. 9, 2014.
Of its eight Summit League opponents in the last nine years, SDSU has five losses to IUPUI, three to South Dakota, two to North Dakota State and one each to Denver, Fort Wayne and Western Illinois. The most losses have been to Oral Roberts (6).
SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston, who won his 400th game Dec. 11, enters Saturday's game with a 402-136 (.747) overall record and a 128-25 (.836) league mark.

Jackrabbits in Mid-Major Poll

After spending the first four weeks of the season atop the CollegeInsider Mid-Major poll, South Dakota State are seventh in Tuesday's poll.
SDSU has been ranked in the Mid-Major Top 25 Poll 90 of the last 91 weeks.
With its 26 first-place votes in the preseason poll, SDSU is the first team in The Summit League history to earn a top national preseason ranking.
The Jackrabbits were ranked first in the final 2015-16 poll, their highest-ever ranking.

A Quick Glance at South Dakota State

Seventeenth-year head coach Aaron Johnston's probable starters for the second consecutive game are:

                                        Alexis Alexander, point guard
                                        Madison Guebert, guard
                                        Kerri Young, guard
                                        Sydney Palmer, guard
                                        Ellie Thompson, forward

The starting lineup is 1-0 this season.
SDSU has had three different starting linueps after the Jackrabbits' leading scoring Macy Miller (Dec. 9) and leading rebounder Clarissa Ober (Dec. 22) suffered injuries that forced them from the starting five.
Miller remains SDSU's leading scorer, averaging 14.9 points per game. Miller was injured in the Green Bay game and is out for the season.
Guebert (14.1), Young (11.3) and Thompson (10.7) are the other Jacks averaging double digits in scoring.
SDSU averages 67.8 points per game. Four different Jackrabbits have led the team in scoring this season.
State has held 8 of its 13 opponents to less than 65 points, including four to less than 50.
There have been at least three Jackrabbits scoring in double digits in 8 of 13 games.
On the boards, Ober was SDSU's leading rebounder, grabbing a team-leading 7.5 caroms an outing. Thompson averages 6.2 caroms a game.
The Jackrabbits' top 3-point threat is Guebert, who is sinking 3.2 treys per game and shooting 45.2 percent.
Young is the Jacks' top playmaker, dishing 2.9 assists per game.
The Jacks have a plus-0.9 assist-to-turnover ratio.
SDSU is shooting 42.5 percent from the field, 32.1 percent from 3-point range and 70.1 percent from the free-throw line.

South Dakota

South Dakota has a six-game winning streak, including four wins at home and two in the UMKC Roo Holiday Tournament Dec. 19-20.
The Coyotes are 6-0 at home. They also have the seventh-longest active home winning streak in the nation, recording their 20th straight with the win over Denver Wednesday.
USD is led offensively by sophomore Allison Arens. The guard is averaging 20.7 points per game. South Dakota averages 76.4 points per game.
Also averaging double digits in scoring are sophomore guard Jayce Bradley (14.1 ppg) and freshman guard Ciara Duffy (11.6 ppg).
Arens averages a team-leading 5.7 rebounds. The Yotes are outrebounding opponents by 8.7 caroms a game.
Arens is dishing 4.2 assists per game and four Coyotes have 30-or-more assists.
Bradley is the USD's top 3-point threat, sinking 46.8 percent (44-94) of her shots. She ranks third in The Summit League 3-point field goals and in 3-point field goals per game and fourth in 3-point field goal percentage.
South Dakota has six players averaging 5-or-more points and seven averaging 10-or-more minutes per game.
The Yotes are shooting 47.1 percent from the field, 37.7 percent from 3-point range and 81.0 percent from the free-throw line.

Breaking Down the USD Series

Saturday's game marks the 83rd meeting between South Dakota State and South Dakota, dating to a 35-26 Jackrabbits' victory Feb. 4, 1967, in Vermillion. It was the second game in SDSU's first season as a varsity program.
Overall, the Jackrabbits hold a 56-26 series advantage, winning 33 of the last 40 meetings, and hold a road record of 22-16.
SDSU won the first 14 games in the series before the Coyotes won 18 of 23 matchups between the 1977-78 and 1990-91 seasons. The Jackrabbits followed with 25 consecutive victories to start their recent run of success.
The Jackrabbits won six meetings in a row, starting with an 87-63 victory in the championship game of the 2003 NCAA Division II North Central Regional at Frost Arena. However, that streak came to an end in 2012 as the two squads split the series in their first year together as members of The Summit League.
Last year, USD won both regular-season games, but the Jackrabbits captured their seventh The Summit League Tournament title with a 61-55 win Mar. 8.
In 8 of the last 14 games, SDSU has limited USD to 60-or-fewer points, including a low of 48 points Feb. 15, 2010, in Frost Arena.

For more information on the South Dakota State women's basketball team, follow the Jackrabbits on Twitter (@GoJacksWBB) or like South Dakota State women's basketball on Facebook.

-GoJacks.com-

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Players Mentioned

Alexis Alexander

Madison Guebert

Macy Miller

Clarissa Ober

Sydney Palmer

Ellie Thompson

Kerri Young

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