Final Stats

VERMILLION, S.D. -- Nicole Seekamp recorded 13 points, five assists and four steals as the South Dakota women's basketball team clinched its first Summit League regular season title with a 69-53 win over the IUPUI Jaguars on Thursday night in the DakotaDome.

The Coyotes (22-6, 12-3) clinched their first conference regular season title since the 2007-08 season when they won the North Central Conference title with a 12-0 record. The Coyotes, who moved to 13-0 at home this season, can clinch the top seed in the Summit League Tournament on Saturday with a win against Western Illinois or a loss by SDSU to IUPUI (14-14, 9-6).

Lisa Loeffler added 10 points to the Coyote effort while Tia Hemiller, who started her first game since injuring her leg almost three weeks ago, tallied nine points and eight rebounds. None of USD's starters scored less than nine points, as Margaret McCloud and Raeshel Contreras added nine points each.

IUPUI was led by Shaqueira Scott's 11 points and five rebounds. Jenna Gunn added 10 points.

South Dakota outscored the Jags in 32-16 in the paint and turned 17 Jags turnovers into 16 points. IUPUI forced USD into just eight turnovers and scored only two points from those. USD's starters also outscored IUPUI's 51-32.

USD shot 42.6 percent in the game (26-for-61) while IUPUI shot 34 percent (18-for-52). The Jags scored the first basket 22 seconds into the game, but never held the lead again as South Dakota went on an 18-3 run over the next six minutes. The Coyotes led 37-26 at the break with Contreras, Seekamp, McCloud and Loeffler all scoring seven points in the half.

Bridget Arens led USD scorers in the second half with eight points while Hemiller scored seven. Akilah Sims was the only Jaguar to score more than five points in the second half, ending up with six. The Coyotes led by double-digits the entire half and led as many as 23 with 3:25 remaining.

South Dakota will host Western Illinois in its regular season finale on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. The game is a part of a doubleheader, as the USD men will host South Dakota State at 4 p.m.