Final Stats

DES MOINES, Iowa – Raeshel Contreras scored 24 points and hit a game winning 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining to lift the South Dakota women's basketball team to a season opening 83-78 win over Drake in the Knapp Center on Friday night.

Contreras was USD's (1-0) leading scorer and rebounder, adding nine rebounds to her scoring effort. Kelly Stewart and Bridget Arens both came off the bench to add 15 points and 11 points respectively. The USD bench outscored Drake's 41-11.

South Dakota was also able to turn 15 offensive rebounds into a 19-3 advantage in second chance points.

Lizzy Wendell led a quartet of Bulldogs (0-1) to reach double-digits, finishing with 25 points. Kyndal Clark added 17 points, Caitlin Engle had 11 points and Becca Jones finished with 10 points.

Both teams held double-digit leads in the game. Drake led 21-10 with 13:43 remaining in the first half while USD held a 49-37 lead after Contreras hit a 3-pointer with 19:38 remaining to start the second half.

South Dakota never led by more than five over the final 10 minutes of the game. Clark scored eight of her 12 second half points over an 80 second span to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the second half (72-71) with 4:47 remaining. The lead would switch five times over the remainder of the game with two of those lead changes coming off Contreras 3-pointers.

The Coyotes scored the last six points of the game. Trailing 78-77 with 40 seconds remaining, Arens stole a pass from Drake's Carly Grenfell to allow USD to call a timeout. After the break, Contreras connected on a trey off of a Nicole Seekamp pass to make it 80-78. The Coyotes forced Drake into a turnover the next possession and hit free throws the rest of the way.

South Dakota will play at Kansas on Sunday starting at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on 106.3 KVHT.