The Game
South Dakota women's basketball faces #7/5 Baylor at 5 p.m. Sunday in the NCAA Tournament's Round of 32 held at the Ferrell Center in Waco, Texas.
The game will be broadcast by ESPN2 with play-by-play from Elise Woodward and analysis from Andrea Lloyd. That broadcast will be available for streaming on WatchESPN. Fans can tune into the Coyote Sports Network with Carter Woodiel on KVHT 106.3 in Yankton/Vermillion or by using the Varsity Network app.
The Coyotes
South Dakota (28-5, 17-1 Summit) captured the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament win, defeating Ole Miss 75-61 on Friday afternoon. The Coyotes are making their fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 season of eligibility. The Coyotes are led by Summit League Player of the Year
Chloe Lamb, Summit Defensive Player of the Year
Hannah Sjerven and all-Summit pick
Liv Korngable. The trio account for nearly two-thirds of USD's scoring this season. Second-year freshmen
Maddie Krull and
Kyah Watson join them in the starting line-up. Freshman
Grace Larkins was named the Summit League Sixth Woman of the Year. Sjerven and Lamb both put up 20 points in the first round to lead the squad. Krull scored 13, Korngable had 10 and Watson added eight. South Dakota shot 55.8 percent from the field, the second-best shooting performance of the season by the Coyotes.
The Bears
No. 7/5 Baylor (28-6, 15-3 Big 12) has made 18 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, winning three national championships (2005, 2012, 2019) in that span. The Bears have won their first round game in all 18 appearances and own a 16-2 record in the second round. NaLyssa Smith, an All-American who has been projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft, leads the squad with 22.4 points and 11.6 rebounds per game. She's the national leader in field-goals made this season. Smith is joined inside by Queen Egbo, two returners from the 2019 championship team, with 10.9 points and a team-high 63 blocks. Joining them in double-figure scoring are guards Jordan Lewis and Sarah Andrews. Lewis averages 5.2 assists per game, which ranks in the top-30 nationally. Baylor captured its 12th consecutive Big 12 regular season title, the longest active streak in the country in men's and women's hoops.
The Series
This is the first meeting between South Dakota and Baylor in program history.
One Last Thing
While these two programs have never met, first-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen was on the Florida Gulf Coast bench in 2016. That season concluded with a WNIT Championship title game where South Dakota topped FGCU 71-65 in front of more than 7,500 Coyote fans in the DakotaDome.
