VERMILLION, S.D.—South Dakota improved to 2-0 in Summit League play with an emphatic 101-57 win against Oral Roberts Wednesday inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
Five Coyotes scored in double figures, but South Dakota got contributions on both sides of the court from everyone.
Grace Larkins had 17 points despite logging just 20 minutes due to foul trouble.
Alexi Hempe had 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds for her first collegiate double-double.
Morgan Hansen had 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Jeniah Ugofsky offered 11 points and six boards in 15 minutes of work.
South Dakota (6-7) got 37 points from four players off its bench.
Carley Duffney had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Walker Demers had 10 rebounds and was a point shy of a double-double.
Nicole Avila-Ambrosi and
Cassidy Carson buried two 3-pointers each and had eight points apiece.
All of that came against an Oral Roberts team that took South Dakota State to the wire Monday night before falling 83-80.
Macy Guebert did yeoman's work in shutting down Hannah Cooper and the Golden Eagles' offense. Cooper entered play averaging 20 points per game including a 27-point average in her last three games. She had 16 points Wednesday on 6-of-19 shooting.
That seemed to bottleneck an Oral Roberts squad averaging 76 points per game. The Golden Eagles shot a season-low 28 percent and were outrebounded 56-26, their largest discrepancy of the season.
South Dakota had a 10-point lead after one quarter and a 50-32 lead at the break. Hansen had 10 first-half points and Hempe had nine. The Coyotes made six 3-pointers in the first half and were 13-of-30 from long range for the game.
Oral Roberts (3-10, 0-2), which played one of the more difficult non-conference schedules in the Summit, had success applying full-court pressure, but couldn't turn Coyote miscues into enough points. Playing without second-leading scorer Tirzah Moore for the third game in a row didn't help. Ruthie Udoumoh had eight points on 3-of-9 shooting. Ariel Walker posted seven on 3-of-11.
South Dakota has won 18 consecutive games against Oral Roberts dating back to the 2015-16 season. The Coyotes also ran their home win streak against Summit foes to 42. South Dakota hits the road after the holiday break with games at St. Thomas next Thursday and Western Illinois next Saturday.
