- The South Dakota Girls Basketball State Tournaments wrapped up on Saturday, and three new champions were crowned across the three classes.
In Class B at the Watertown Civic Arena
8th seeded Viborg-Hurley upset 1st seeded Aberdeen Roncalli in the opening round 69-58, then 4th seeded Corsica-Stickney 43-38, and finally 2nd seeded De Smet 58-53 Saturday night to take the Class B State Title.
In Class A at the Frost Arena in Brookings
5th seeded St. Thomas More defeated 4th seed Lakota Tech 37-35 in the opening round, then took down 1st seeded Wagner 48-35, and in the championship round, took down 3rd seed Hamlin 52-30 to take the Class A crown.
In Class AA at The Monument in Rapid City
2nd seeded O’Gorman made quick work of 7th seed Sioux Falls Lincoln 55-35, then 3rd seeded Brandon Valley 50-37, and finally made their way through the hometown 4th seed Rapid City Stevens Raiders 49-42 to take the Class AA title.
- South Dakota State earned a No. 13 seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament and will face the fourth-seeded Providence Friars on Thursday. The first-round Midwest Region matchup will take place in the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y. This will be the first meeting between South Dakota State and Providence in men’s basketball. Providence won the Big East regular season title with a 14-3 record and went 25-5 overall. They fell to Creighton in the semifinals of the Big East Conference Tournament, 85-58 on Friday. SDSU enters the tournament with the longest active winning streak in Division 1 basketball with 21 straight wins and were the first team in Summit League history to hit 30 wins in a season. This will be the Jacks’ sixth NCAA Tournament appearance.
- South Dakota women’s basketball earned a No. 10 seed and will play seventh-seeded Ole Miss on Friday in Waco, Texas, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. This marks South Dakota’s fourth-straight NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Dawn Plitzuweit and fifth overall in NCAA Division I. South Dakota (27-5) earned the Summit League’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament with a 56-45 win over South Dakota State in the Summit League Tournament’s championship game. USD has won three-straight Summit League Tournament trophies in Sioux Falls. The Rebels advanced to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament where they fell to South Carolina. Six of their eight losses were to nationally-ranked teams including three losses to South Carolina. The winner of Friday’s matchup will take on the winner of second-seeded Baylor (27-6) and 15-seeded Hawai’i (20-9) in the round of 32. USD has reached the big dance five times in 10 years of Division I eligibility. The Coyotes qualified for eight NCAA Tournament appearances at the Division II level, including a runner-up finish in 2008 – the year before the program began its transition to Division I. USD is 8-11 all-time in NCAA tournament play.
- The Mount Marty Lancers baseball program faced an opponent from NCAA Division 1 over the weekend in the University of Northern Colorado. The Lancers swept the bears on Saturday, 8-5, 13-6. Then on Sunday, MMU fell twice 9-8, and 6-3. After the weekend split, Mount Marty will enter GPAC play this weekend with a conference high in wins with 14 to only 5 losses. The Lancers play twice this weekend. First, two games with Northwestern on Friday beginning at 3 p.m. Then Sunday, they will face Dakota Wesleyan University starting at 1 p.m. All coverage of these matchups will be on KYNT.
- The Lancer softball program battled at the McPherson College Invite down in Kansas over the weekend. On Saturday, the Lancers beat Mayville State University 14-3 to begin the weekend tournament. Then played three games on Sunday winning one of them 7-4 against York College. The Lancers took losses to McPherson College 8-7, and Bethel College 6-5. Mount Marty enters conference play this weekend with a 10-6 overall record. The Lancers will face Dakota Wesleyan University for two games on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
