SIOUX FALLS – The South Dakota State women’s basketball team won its 12th Summit League Tournament title Sunday afternoon with an 84-68 win over No. 2 Oral Roberts at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center.
Paige Meyer led a trio of 20-point scorers for the Jackrabbits, finishing with 26 points and a championship-game record nine assists to earn her second straight Tournament MVP honors. Haleigh Timmer added 21 points and Madison Mathiowetz chipped in 20 to help the Jackrabbits hold off the Golden Eagles.
Meyer, Timmer and Mathiowetz paced the SDSU offense, but Brooklyn Meyer and Mesa Byom held down the defensive end. Meyer finished with 15 rebounds to go with her 10 points for her second straight double-double. Byom grabbed 13 rebounds and posted three blocks and two steals. Byom also dished four assists.
Timmer set the tone early, opening the game with back-to-back triples and scored the first eight points for the Jackrabbits, who raced out to an early 11-2 advantage. Paige Meyer also had back-to-back three-pointers in the opening quarter as SDSU went 5-for-8 while the Golden Eagles misfired on their four attempts and went just 4-for-19 from the field overall. ORU would get a three-point play from Jones to close it out and cut the deficit back to single digits at 19-10.
ORU carried the momentum into the second quarter, opening that stanza on a 13-2 run. Jones tied things at 21-21 with a baseline jumper and Uduomoh sank a pair of free throws at the 5:48 mark to give the Golden Eagles their first advantage of the contest. That was short-lived, however, as Mathiowetz drilled her second three-pointer of the game and Meyer followed with a driving layup to give SDSU the lead right back. Those two baskets started a flurry of offense for the Jacks over the closing five minutes as they made 9-of-11 from the field down the stretch to take a 46-36 lead into halftime. Mathiowetz had 10 second-quarter points, including seven in that closing stretch but Emily Robinson hit a pair of three-pointers to help combat that strong finish by the Jacks, who scored 22 points in the final 5:00.
Mathiowetz added seven quick points out of the halftime break and had SDSU up 56-41 following a pair of free throws but ORU would not go away. The Golden Eagles rattled off eight straight points over just a minute of game action to close that gap to seven. ORU had trimmed the deficit down to five but the Jacks scored the last five points of the quarter to push their lead back to double figures at 65-55 going into the final quarter. SDSU’s lead never got below nine in the final 10 minutes as they outscored ORU 19-13 to claim their third straight tournament title.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Paige Meyer, South Dakota State (MVP)
Brooklyn Meyer, South Dakota State
Haleigh Timmer, South Dakota State
Taleyah Jones, Oral Roberts
Emily Robinson, Oral Roberts
NOTES
- South Dakota State is set for its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance.
- The Jackrabbits are 41-5 all-time in the Summit League Tournament and 12-2 in championship games.
- These two teams have won the most combined titles between any two Summit League teams in the conference’s 42-year history. SDSU has now won 12, while Oral Roberts has won five.
- SDSU owns a 6-0 edge in all-time tournament meetings with ORU, including a 79-75 overtime victory in their only previous meeting in the title game.
- The Jackrabbits have won three straight titles, which is the program’s longest consecutive run since winning five in a row from 2009-13. South Dakota was the last program to win three straight, prior to SDSU’s current run from 2020-22.
- The 2010 overtime clash was also the last appearance in the championship game for the Golden Eagles, who won titles in 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits will find out their NCAA Tournament seeding and destination during this year’s selection show slated for 7 p.m. CT on ESPN.