Feb. 28, 2015
Box Score
VERMILLION, S.D.--South Dakota clinched the number one seed in next weekend's Summit League Tournament and capped a perfect 14-0 record at home following a 78-75 win against Western Illinois Saturday on Senior Day inside the DakotaDome.
Seniors Nicole Seekamp and Raeshel Contreras scored 20 and 19 points, respectively, as South Dakota won its first outright Summit League regular season championship. The Coyotes will take on Fort Wayne, the No. 8 seed, at noon next Saturday in a tournament quarterfinal game in Sioux Falls. South Dakota is the defending tournament champion.
Ashley Luke scored 26 points and had 11 rebounds for Western Illinois (17-12, 9-7 Summit), which will be the No. 4 seed at the tournament. Sophie Reichelt added 17 points for the Leathernecks.
South Dakota (23-6, 13-3) led 34-32 at the break and never trailed in the second half. An 11-0 run capped by a Contreras triple gave the Coyotes their first double-digit lead, 45-34, four minutes into the half. A three-point play by Contreras gave USD its largest lead, 55-43, with 10:45 remaining.
Western Illinois crawled within a point on four separate occasions, but never got over the hump. Tori Niemann missed a contested 3 at the buzzer that would have forced overtime.
Seekamp scored 14 of her 20 points in the second half. She also had nine assists, six rebounds and four steals. It was the fourth time this season that Seekamp reached 20 points.
Luke was 8 of 15 from the field and 10 of 13 from the free-throw line. She notched her 20th double-double of the season and entered the game ranked sixth in the nation in that category.
The Coyotes' third senior who played Saturday was Lisa Loeffler, who scored 14 points on 6 of 7 shots from the field. Combined, the senior trio scored 43 points.
