March 12, 2013

Final Stats | Photo Gallery

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.--South Dakota State forward Ashley Eide scored eight of her 10 points in the final eight minutes to lead the top-seeded Jacks past third-seeded South Dakota, 56-53, in the Summit League Tournament championship game at Sioux Falls Arena. SDSU earns the League's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament for the fifth consecutive year.

A championship game record 6,153 fans packed the Arena to watch two in-state rivals compete in a tightly contested contest from start to finish. No lead was greater than five in the second half. Eide gave the Jacks the lead for good with two free throws with 4:37 left and made it 56-53 with two more throws with 19.5 seconds left.

South Dakota called timeout with 7.1 seconds left and the Jacks fouled point guard Alexis Yackley with 5.8 seconds. Yackley missed the front end of a 1-and-1, rebounded her own miss, ran back to the wing and hoisted a 3-pointer that fell just off the mark. A USD tip try bounced away as the horn sounded.

South Dakota State (25-7) survived despite trailing by nine points in the first half and being outrebounded 44-34. Eleven steals - seven by Gabrielle Boever - helped cancel out the rebounding edge. Megan Waytashek led the Jacks with 11 points.

USD took a 32-28 lead into halftime behind 17 first-half points from Nicole Seekamp, who made her first four shots and 7 of 10 in the opening stanza. Seekamp opened the second half with a triple and led all scorers with 20. She was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after totaling 62 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists and 10 steals in three games.

Coyote guard Tempestt Wilson was also named to the five-woman, all-tournament team after scoring 10 points Tuesday and averaging 13 for the tournament. Polly Harrington chimed in with six points and eight rebounds.

Next Up: The Coyotes (17-15) will have to wait until late Monday night to learn if their resume is good enough for a WNIT invitation. South Dakota hosted two WNIT games a year ago.

Notes
-- Attendance for this afternoon's women's championship session was 6,153. That figure is a record for any women's session in tournament history, topping the previous record of 6,005 in the 2005 championship (men's and women's championship games sold as one session). The previous women's only championship session record was 5,580 in 2009.

--The overall women's tournament attendance of 21,158 sets a new league record, surpassing the previous mark of 17,867 set in 2012.

--Tournament MVP Nicole Seekamp of South Dakota is the first player to earn the honor as a runner-up since 2004 and only the fifth in history to do so.

--All-Tournament Team: Gabby Boever, South Dakota State; Ashley Eide, South Dakota State; Keerah Nelson, IUPUI; Nicole Seekamp, South Dakota (MVP); Tempestt Wilson, South Dakota.

--South Dakota's 44 rebounds tie for the sixth-highest in a Summit League Championship game.

--The six assists by South Dakota's Alexis Yackley tied for the seventh-highest total in championship game history.

--Three of the last four Summit League Women's Basketball Championship games have been decided by four points or less. All five of South Dakota State's titles have been by 10 points or less.

Quotes

South Dakota head coach Amy Williams

"We feel really disappointed to have let this one slip away, but I couldn't be more proud of my team. I thought they fought, they executed our game plan, I thought, played tremendous defense, exactly how we wanted to play and did a pretty good job on the boards and out-rebounded them by 10 and those were some of our big keys for the game today. We just put them to the foul line a little too much in the second half."

on what the team did well today
"Well, we've noticed that in this tournament and in their last regular season game against North Dakota State, I think 84 or 86 percent of their points have come in the paint off of layups. So we were bound and determined to not allow them to get layups, and that was kind of our game plan to do whatever we had to do to keep them outside of that paint. I thought that our kids executed that game plan perfectly and did a very good job of that. We wanted to force them to shoot shots that were contested shots over the top of us and I thought we did a pretty good job of that."

on the grit shown by her team today
"I would definitely say that, you know. I think that Nic (Nicole Seekamp) said something about she thought they just played harder in the second half, I'm not sure that I agree with that. I think two teams played very hard from start to finish. It was a real battle and I think that what it boiled down to and we knew we had to box out because they crashed the boards hard and we got them into a few fouls coming over our back in the first half and just really were tough and I think that in the second half we just fouled a little too much and put them on the free throw line."

on anything else that could have been done better in the second half
"You know, I thought that our team executed really well and we got good shots and it was our third game in three days and we had a little bit more limited bench and we ended up shooting 36 percent in the second half, 18 (percent) from the three point line. I guess even lower than that from the second half and that kind of caught up to us, our third game in three days. I was not disappointed, our kids executed perfectly, we got great shots, and we just didn't knock them down there in the second half."

on Nicole Seekamp
"Well, I'll tell you, since the first week of practice, I've known that she's a pretty special player and she hasn't shown that all the time this year as consistently as she would like. She's been kind of frustrated up and down this season, but I feel like she's really starting to get comfortable in our program, comfortable in our scheme and starting to kind of excel and shine. The last several games of our regular season as well as here in the tournament she did, several times, put us on her back and just carry us for a while."

on this season
"I'm going to remember this season by just how committed this team has been to sticking with what our plan was from the beginning. They just really bought in. I told them from our first team meeting that we're going to be doing everything to build up and be playing our best basketball come March. They bought into that and I couldn't be more proud. I have four tremendous seniors that had the opportunity to play for me this year and those kids bought in. They could have easily waivered on wanting a new coach or wanting a new system, but, they didn't. They completely bought in, they stuck with it, they fought through some adversity, they learned from mistakes and it put them in the position to have a chance to cut down nets from a championship and I couldn't be more proud of their effort."

on Tempestt Wilson
"Yeah, I mean, Tempestt (Wilson) is just a special kid. She's got the biggest heart of anybody that I've ever seen. She wanted to do something special in her senior year. I mean, this kid came in to my office when we had our 'Roles and Goals' meeting at the beginning of the season and she said 'Coach, I don't want to be that kid that hits six threes in this game and then doesn't score in the next game. I want to be a consistent threat for you and this team this year.' And she proved to do that. I don't think there was one or two games this league schedule where she didn't hit double figures in points and was a constant, steady presence. I'm just thrilled to death that I had the opportunity to coach her."

on using this loss as an advantage
"Well, I mean, you know, obviously the publicity that we get in our state and that we'll get from a nationally televised game and we've got recruits and people like that, that were watching us play. Coaches, potential kids that were watching us play on television, so none of that hurts, just bringing exposure to your program. I just haven't been able to wrap my mind, I'm just so focused right now on these kids and what this means for them and their season."

South Dakota guard Nicole Seekamp

on what was different from her big first half to the second half
"I mean, obviously their pressure was good through the whole game, pretty much. I think they face-guarded me a bit more as well, but it wasn't just me, it was everyone. You know, their defense picked up a lot in the second half and even though I couldn't get a shot, we need other people, too, to step up. And that's usually what's happened in the last few games, and although that didn't happen as well today, but we just have to come out next year more fired up."

on what the team will take out of this tournament experience
"It's just experience, I'd probably say and obviously for those people who doubted us, we showed them that we're not going to sit back and do what they say. We're going to play as hard as we can every game and come out playing Coyote basketball and next year hopefully we can just get that one step further and go the dance."

on playing with more confidence as a team
"Yeah, well we knew coming into the game that we couldn't get down the first half like we had the last two games with South Dakota State the previous times we got down the first half and then we ended up having to claw our way back. This game we knew we had to come out fired up and the second half just wasn't as good as we have had it in other games so that was probably our fault out there but they played hard and I guess... I don't know, they just played a bit harder than us in the second half."

on how a game like this sends a message out
"I definitely hope we have sent that message that's going to help people come to South Dakota. Hopefully they don't think of it as a small little country town. Hopefully, they think it's a good basketball program and they want to come as well and I think we've shown some other parts of the country that we're just as tough as them and we can play as well as them."

South Dakota guard Alexis Yackley

on her attempt at a three in the last few seconds of the game
"I mean obviously I wanted to make the free throw shot to extend the game, but I guess if I couldn't make them it was one of the best misses. I saw where the ball was going and I tried to get to the three point line and honestly, I thought it was in."

on how this game ranks compared to other big games she's played
"I mean, it's really tough. This is probably one of the most fun games I've been a part of as a Coyote, definitely. The atmosphere was great. You know, we were right there with them and things happened. This was a great experience, though for everybody coming back next year. Like I said yesterday, it's great for our state. You saw how many people were here today, a little bit too many blue for my taste. Hopefully it will spark some red. We really appreciate all the fan support that we got this year from all the Coyotes."

on what makes the Jackrabbits a tough opposing team
"You know, they just come at you with a punch and even if you get them down, they just keep clawing back. They never say die, it's a good mantra to have and they definitely have that. They rotate girls in and they just keep giving them the same kind of effort, the same kind of intensity. We knew that, and I felt there was a time during that game where I felt they really punched us and we punched back and it was just kind of like a boxing match the whole entire night and unfortunately, time ran out for us."