- How sweet it is! South Dakota women’s basketball led wire-to-wire in a 61-47 win over 2nd seeded Baylor inside the Ferrell Center in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history.
SWEET 16: 17 Seconds
The Coyotes (29-5) are just the second Summit League team to advance to the Sweet 16. Sunday also marks the first win over a top-10 nationally ranked team in Summit history. South Dakota’s last top-10 win came at the Division II level, when the Coyotes defeated No. 1 Delta State 68-58 in the 2008 Division II Final Four. USD’s historical afternoon included ending Baylor’s streak of 12-straight Sweet 16 appearances and handed the Bears’ just their third second-round loss in 19 tournament appearances. It was the first non-Big 12 loss on Baylor’s home floor since 2014. South Dakota’s trio of super seniors paced the Coyotes with double-figure scoring. Hannah Sjerven scored 16 points, Chloe Lamb had 15 and Liv Korngable added 11 points and five assists. Baylor (28-7) was led by seniors Queen Egbo and NaLyssa Smith with 13 and 10 points, respectively. The pair were both members of Baylor’s 2019 NCAA Championship squad. South Dakota plays the winner of third-seeded Michigan and 11th-seeded Villanova next Saturday in Wichita, Kansas.
- The Yankton Bucks had a spectacular run to the Class AA Boy’s State Tournament, unfortunately, the Bucks fell short in their three state tournament matchups, 57-49 to #1 SF Roosevelt, 66-56 to #5 Mitchell, and 54-32 to #6 SF Jefferson. The Bucks end their ’21-’22 campaign with a 13-11 record. Bucks Junior Rugby Ryken was selected to the All-Tournament team along with Vance Borchers, Micah Johnson, and Marcus Phillips of Sioux Falls Roosevelt; David Alpers and John Costello of Sioux Falls O’Gorman; Angok Akot (Ang-Ock A-Kott) and Mikele Kambalo (Mikkel Kahmbawlo) of Sioux Falls Washington and Jacoby Mehrman of Harrisburg; Elliot Whitney of Sioux Falls Lincoln; Caden Hinker of Mitchell; Griffin Wilde of Sioux Falls Jefferson.
- This past weekend put a wrap on the high school basketball season in South Dakota as all three boy’s classes crowned their state champions.
Class AA
#1 Sioux Falls Roosevelt completed only the second undefeated season in Class AA history (24-0) by beating #2 O’Gorman in the Class AA Championship 54-52 at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls. This is the second straight Class AA Title for the Rough Riders.
Class A
#1 Dakota Valley ran the table and finished their season with an undefeated 26-0 record by defeating #6 Sioux Valley 82-65 in the Class A Championship at the Monument in Rapid City.
Class B
#1 De Smet finished their season with a Class B Title and a 25-1 record by defeating #2 Lower Brule 49-26 at Wach’s Arena in Aberdeen.
- South Dakota women’s tennis suffered a 4-3 dual setback in Summit League play to Oral Roberts on Saturday at Bernis Duke Tennis Center. The Coyotes (7-10 overall, 2-2 in Summit) couldn’t muster enough momentum to pick up a big road victory. Earning singles victories for South Dakota were Jana Lazarevic, Bea Havlickova and Natka Kmoskova.
