No. 1 South Dakota State takes on No. 4 South Dakota in Monday's semifinal round at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls. South Dakota State is 25-5 on the season with an 19-game win streak.
These teams have previosuly met eight times in the Summit League postseason. The Jackrabbits hold a 5-3 lead in those games. USD has won the previous two tournament meetings - in the 2022 and 2020 championship games.
The Jackrabbits are 2-0 against the Coyotes already this season as SDSU went 16-0 in the Summit regular season. SDSU's perfect conference record is its third in the last four seasons. The yellow and blue enter the postseason as the reigning Summit League champs and look to qualify for their 12th DI NCAA Tournament appearance.
KEY STORYLINES
- South Dakota State enters the Summit League semifinal with a 25-5 overall record on the season and wrapped the conference slate with a 16-0 record. Four of SDSU's five total losses have come to ranked teams.
- SDSU is 36-5 all-time in the Summit League postseason and has won 10 championship trophies. The Jacks are looking to qualify for their 12th NCAA Tournament.
- Six Jackrabbits earned All-Summit honors, headlined by Brooklyn Meyer being named Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year and Aaron Johnston being named Coach of the Year for the eighth time in his career.
- As a team, SDSU ranks sixth in the country in 3-point percentage (.381) and 10th in overall field goal percentage (.483). The Jackrabbits have shot better than 52 percent in five of the last six games, including three games at 60 percent or better.
- A trio of Jackrabbits averaged double figures in overall games this season - Brooklyn Meyer (16.9 PPG), Paige Meyer (15.0 PPG) and Madison Mathiowetz (11.8 PPG).
- Brooklyn Meyer has scored 507 points in her sophomore season. She is 21 points from passing Macy Miller (527) for SDSU's sophomore single-season scoring record.
- Brooklyn Meyer went 32-for-36 (.889) from the floor over the final three games of the regular season. She is shooting .590 overall this year, which is 18th in the country.
- Brooklyn Meyer (7.3 RPG) and Mesa Byom (6.9 RPG) rank third and sixth, respectively, on the conference rebounding chart.
- SDSU has knocked down at least seven 3-pointers as a team in eight of the last 10 contests. Individually, Mathiowetz has hit at least three treys in four of the last five.
- Tori Nelson has started 143 games in her career, including every game over the last three seasons. Her 143 starts ranks second all-time behind Macy Miller (144). She ranks top-20 in career scoring at SDSU and is third in career blocks (139).
- With this season's 16-0 conference mark paired with their 18-0 record a season ago, SDSU become the first Summit League team to run the table in consecutive seasons.
- SDSU has won 19 consecutive games, which is the fifth-longest active streak in the country. The streak is tied for the second-longest win streak in program history.
- SDSU went 65-1 in the Summit regular season over the last four seasons. The Jacks ended the regular season having won 47 consecutive Summit regular season games dating back to Jan. 2022. That matches the 10th longest streak in NCAA history.
- South Dakota State has reached 25 wins for the 13th time in the Head Coach Aaron Johnston era (24 seasons). The Jackrabbits have won at least 25 games in each of the last five seasons NOT impacted by Covid-19 (excludes 19-20 and 20-21).
-GoJacks.com-