Summit League Preview: South Dakota Women at Oral Roberts, Omaha

After a relatively low key week at home last week, the intensity will be kicked up a few notches this week for South Dakota as they head on the road for two games in three days in week four of the 2019 Summit League schedule.

The Coyotes (15-3/3-1 Summit League) have won 17 of their last 18 conference games going into Friday's (January 18) game at Oral Roberts.

The Golden Eagles (10-8/3-2 Summit League) are a balanced team on offense and a good three-point shooting team. Sophomore guard Keni Jo Lippe leads the scoring with 14 points per game.

The Oral Roberts calling card is a tough zone defense which holds opponents to a league-low 38 percent field goal percentage.

Two ORU players are in the Summit's top four defenders. Maya Mayberry and Lakota Beatty lead a team which has recorded double digits in steals four times in the last five games.

Tipoff is 7:00 PM, Friday in Tulsa.

Sunday (January 20) the Coyotes move on to Omaha.

The Mavericks (6-10/1-3 Summit League) are one of the youngest teams in the Summit League, starting three freshmen, a sophomore, and a junior.

UNO ranks at or near the bottom of most of the offensive categories in the conference and has hit less than 40 percent of their shots in five of their last six games.

Turnovers have been a big problem during this stretch of six losses in seven games. The Mavs have given it up 16 times or more six times.

Sophomore guard Claire Killian is the team's leading scorer (16 points per game) while freshman center Elena Pilakouta, a native of Cyprus, is in the top ten in the conference in rebounding.

Tipoff is 2:00 PM, Sunday in Omaha.

In their lone action last week, the Coyotes notched a 69-51 win over Purdue-Fort Wayne.

The Mastodons hit their first five shots of the game while South Dakota started 1-of-6 from behind the three-point line as the visitors built an early six-point lead.

But the Coyotes fought back to tie the game after a quarter and buckled down on defense in the second quarter, outscoring Fort Wayne 16-4. Hannah Sjervn scored 13 of her game-high 21 points in the first half while the USD defense forced ten first half turnovers.

In the second half, South Dakota shot 56 percent.

On the day, the Coyotes crashed the offensive boards, grabbing 11. They also outscored Fort Wayne 36-16 inside.

USD played the game without point guard Madison McKeever, who has an ankle injury. Her status for this weekend's games is uncertain.

I talked with USD head coach Dawn Plitzuweit about last week's win and the match-ups with Oral Roberts and Omaha: