Final Stats

FARGO, N.D.— The South Dakota women's basketball team led by 16 points at halftime, but had to hold off a second half charge by North Dakota State to tally an 83-79 win over the Bison at Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon.

Nicole Seekamp led South Dakota (19-5, 9-2) with 21 points, 15 of those coming in the second half, and tallied five assists. Raeshel Contreras added 20 points, Kelly Stewart tallied 10 points and Margaret McCloud finished with eight points and seven rebounds.

South Dakota never trailed in the game, led by as many as 23 points in the first half and led 45-29 at halftime, but a rally by NDSU (9-14, 5-6) cut the lead down to two points twice within the final three minutes of the game. The Bison shot 56 percent, got 20 points from Brooke LeMar and forced USD into 11 turnovers in the second half.

Junior guard Heidi Hoff responded both times the Bison cut the lead to two. After NDSU closed the gap to 77-75 with 2:16 remaining, Hoff grabbed an offensive board off a missed 3-pointer by Stewart and hit the ensuing jumper to grow USD's lead to four with 1:39 left. She also hit the game icing free throws with two seconds remaining.

Hoff started the game due to an injury to Tia Hemiller and finished with five points and seven rebounds. Hemiller, who started the previous 56 games for the Coyotes, will miss an indefinite amount of time.

The Coyotes also got a lift from their bench, as they outscored the Bison bench 23-5.

LeMar tallied 27 points to lead the Bison, while Liz Keena scored 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting and Taylor Thunstedt added 13 points to the NDSU effort. Keena led NDSU in rebounds with seven.

South Dakota shot 50 percent (17-of-34) in the first half and scored 15 points off of 11 NDSU turnovers. The Coyotes had a 21-6 run over an eight minute stretch in the half and led by 23 points (36-13) with 6:41 remaining. NDSU was 11-of-31 shooting (35 percent) in the half with Keena's 11 points leading the way.

Contreras led USD in the first half with 15 points, going 6-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc. Seekamp added six points and five assists while McCloud had six points and five rebounds.

NDSU flipped the script offensively in the second half, shooting 56 percent (17-of-30) in the period. The Bison outscored the Coyotes 19-7 during an almost seven minute stretch (16:42 remaining to 9:49 left) in the half, shooting 8-for-13 and holding USD to 2-for-10 during that time. Despite that cool streak, the Coyotes finished the half shooting 48 percent (12-of-25) and held NDSU to just seven points off of 11 turnovers.

Outside of LeMar's 20 points in the half, Keena added 11 points and Thunstedt tallied seven for NDSU. Seekamp was the only player for the Coyotes to score more than five points in the second half.

With the win, the Coyotes extended their lead in the Summit League standings to one and a half games over second place. South Dakota State (16-7, 7-3) moved into second after topping Fort Wayne 89-68 and Western Illinois (15-9, 7-4) dropped to third after losing at Omaha 54-51.

South Dakota will host Omaha on Thursday at 7 p.m.