| Game 4: RV/No. 25 South Dakota State vs. No. 16/16 Duke | |
| Date and Time | Sun., Nov. 17 at 2:30 p.m. |
| Location | Brookings, S.D. |
| Site | First Bank & Trust Arena |
| TV / Stream | CBS Sports Network |
| Audio | Jackrabbit Sports Network |
| Live Stats | GoJacksLive.com |
| South Dakota State | Game Notes | Home Page |
| Duke | Game Notes | Home Page |
No. 25 South Dakota State hosts No. 16 Duke Sunday afternoon in the second-ever matchup between ranked teams on SDSU’s home floor Sunday. The Blue Devils will be the Jackrabbits’ second ranked opponent and third 2024 NCAA Tournament team of the season. Sunday is the first meeting for these programs.
SDSU enters Sunday afternoon 3-0 on the year with wins over Rice, then-No. 21 Creighton and Wisconsin. The Jackrabbits feature a balanced offense with five players averaging at least seven points.
Duke is 3-1 on the year and is coming off a win over Dayton Thursday night. Duke had six players in double figure in that contest. The Blue Devils’ only loss came at then-No .18 Maryland November 10 in College Park.
JACKRABBIT SUMMARY
South Dakota State enters Sunday’s contest with a 3-0 mark for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
The Jackrabbits are averaging 73.3 points per game and are holding their opponents to 63.7 points, on average. SDSU is also averaging 9.3 more rebounds per game than its opponents.
Brooklyn Meyer leads the Jackrabbits with 15.7 points per contest to go with 6.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 blocks per contest. She is shooting .500 on the year. Haleigh Timmer follows with 13.7 points, on average, while shooting 52 percent. Paige Meyer does a little bit of everything, contributing 11.0 points, 5.0 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals. She shoots 50 percent from the floor. Mesa Byom comes off the bench to add 9.0 points and a team-high 7.0 boards per game. Freshman Katie Vasecka averages 7.7 points and is .600 from the floor so far this year while Madison Mathiowetz scores 6.7 per game.
SDSU returns 87 percent of its scoring from the 2023-24 season, including 93 percent of its 3-point buckets, and 85 percent of its rebounds from 2023-24.
SDSU is coming off a 27-6 record in 2023-24 and a fourth consecutive Summit League regular season title. SDSU returned to the NCAA Tournament for the 12th time in program history via its 11th Summit League Tournament Championship. The Jackrabbits finished the Summit League slate with a 16-0 record, going unbeaten for the third time in four seasons. They were the first team in conference history to run the table in consecutive seasons.
SDSU’s Brooklyn Meyer (POY, first team), Paige Meyer (first team) and Haleigh Timmer (second team) picked up preseason recognition from the Summit League. Brooklyn Meyer, a junior, is the reigning Summit League Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year after a breakout sophomore season. She averaged 16.8 points on the season and shot .588 from the floor. Her 7.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per contest in 2023-24 also led the Jackrabbits. Meyer scored at least 20 points nine times last season, including a career-high 29 twice – vs. South Carolina State and North Dakota State.
Paige Meyer, a senior, was a Summit League First Team selection last season and is the reigning Summit League Tournament MVP. She was second on the team in 2023-24 with 15.2 points per game while dishing a team-best 4.0 assists per contest. Meyer was .503 from the floor and .422 from the 3-point line on the season. She set a new career high and SDSU Division I record with 37 points at Northern Arizona.
Haleigh Timmer returns for her redshirt junior season after missing 2023-24 with an injury. She was a Summit League second team selection as a sophomore in 2023 and was the Summit League Tournament MVP that year. Timmer was the Jackrabbits’ second-leading scorer as a sophomore with 12.1 points per contest to go with 3.6 rebounds per game. Madison Mathiowetz and Mesa Byom are also back from the 2023-24 starting lineup. Mathiowetz scored 11.5 points per game as a sophomore and played more than 30 minutes per game. She was deemed honorable mention all-Summit League. Byom contributed 6.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, both second on the team, and added 7.7 points, on average.
Kallie Theisen is back for her sixth and final season as a Jackrabbit. She also missed 2023-24 with an injury but was the Summit League Sixth Woman of the Year as a junior in 2022-23. Theisen tallied 6.1 points, 6.4 rebounds (team high) and 1.3 blocks (team high) that season. Ellie Colbeck and Jenna Hopp played in all 33 games a season ago, scoring 4.9 and 4.8 points per game, respectively. Madysen Vlastuin appeared in 21 contests as a junior in 2023-24 before a season-ending injury. Prior to her injury, Vlastuin played a team-high 30.9 minutes per game with 7.2 points and 5.0 rebounds her game. Her .413 clip from 3-point range was second on the team. Hilary Behrens is a redshirt-freshman after missing her first season on campus with an injury. Five true freshmen join the Jackrabbit roster – Mahli Abdouch, Jaidyn Dunn, Emilee Fox, Claire Sheppard and Katie Vasecka. All five are South Dakota natives with a lot of success in their high school careers.
KEY STORYLINES
- Sunday’s contest is the second ever matchup between ranked teams (in the AP Poll and/or the Coaches Pol) on the Jackrabbits’ home floor. The first was in November 2022 between No. 23/24 SDSU and No. 21/21 Creighton.
- Six Jackrabbits have scored at least 10 points at least once over the last three games. Six players have tallied at least five rebounds in a game this season.
- Duke is SDSU’s second ranked opponent and third 2023-24 NCAA Tournament opponent of 2024-25.
- SDSU is ranked No. 25 in the latest WBCA USA Today Coaches Poll and is receiving votes in the AP Poll. SDSU has three AP Top 25 teams remaining on its non-conference slate – No. 4 Texas, No. 16 Duke and No. 25 Oregon.
- Both head coaches have experience with USA Basketball. Johnston has been an assistant coach for Team USA twice – first as at the 2021 U19 FIBA World Cup (gold medal) and then for the July 2023 AmeriCup squad (silver medal). He was also a court coach for the U19 team trials.
- SDSU is 3-0 for the first time since the 2020-21 season and looks to start 4-0 for the first time since 2016-17.
- SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston won the 600th game of his 25-year SDSU career against then-No. 21 Creighton last week. Johnston’s now-601 wins is 15th in the country among active DI head coaches.
- Brooklyn Meyer has picked up right where she left off a season ago, averaging 15.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks while shooting 50 percent through three games.
- Paige Meyer is doing a little bit of everything for SDSU, averaging 11.0 points, 5.0 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals per contest.
- South Dakota State returns 10 players from last season’s NCAA Tournament team, including 2024 Summit League Player of the Year Brooklyn Meyer and Summit League Tournament MVP Paige Meyer.
- Eight returning Jackrabbits have started at least 10 games in their careers, led by 72 career starts for senior point guard Paige Meyer.