NORTH DAKOTA, N.D.—Freshman
Maddie Krull's forced turnover and ensuing flying made layup with two minutes to go were key plays in the Coyotes holding off North Dakota 72-63 inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center on Saturday afternoon.
South Dakota (11-5, 7-2 Summit) was playing in its seventh-straight conference road game on Saturday. The Coyotes play their eighth and final league road game tomorrow as they rematch with North Dakota (2-16, 2-10). The Fighting Hawks have split their last two series in Summit play as they fight for a spot in the league tournament.
"Playing on the road is always a challenge and our young ladies made some really big plays down the stretch, which helped us when things weren't necessarily going our way," said USD head coach
Dawn Plitzuweit.
Four Coyotes reached double-digits in the scoring column. Senior
Liv Korngable led the group with 16 points, seven assists and seven rebounds. She set career highs for both rebounds and assists in the game.
Senior
Chloe Lamb's stat line consisted of 15 points, five rebounds, five steals and a pair of assists. Senior center
Hannah Sjerven added 14 points and nine rebounds in 22 minutes. Sjerven, limited in minutes due to foul trouble, also drew 11 fouls off UND players in the battle on the block.
Krull was the fourth Coyote to reach double-digits with 15 points. Eight of those came in the fourth quarter to help the Coyotes fight off a comeback.
North Dakota was led by forward Megan Zander's 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Teammates Jaclyn Jarnot and Claire Orth joined her in double-figures with 13 points each.
The Coyotes jumped out to an 11-0 start from the tip and led by as many as 13 points during the second quarter. A 7-0 run by the Fighting Hawks to close the half made it a four-point game at the break.
A back-and-forth third quarter kept the score even without either team making much of a run. Korngable knocked down a three to open the fourth, but UND answered with back-to-back buckets from Jarnot to close the lead to 57-54.
A layup by UND's Melissa Leet with 3:20 to play put the Fighting Hawks within one, 64-63, the closest UND would come for the remainder of the game.
Krull's layup put South Dakota up four, 67-63, and was the final field goal of the game as the Coyotes held off UND at the line.
The Coyotes outrebounded the Fighting Hawks 37-32, holding UND to half its season average on the offensive glass. Meanwhile, USD grabbed 17 offensive boards – five each for Sjerven and sophomore
Jeniah Ugofsky – and scored 18 second-chance points.
The two squads meet again tomorrow at noon back inside the Betty.
