Summit League Preview: USD Women at Oral Roberts, Host Omaha

The South Dakota women's basketball team is the hottest team in the Summit League, and after a pair of blowout wins last week, they might just be the most rested.

The Coyotes (13-5/4-0 Summit League) have won seven straight, including a pair of games last week by a combined 104 points. No USD starter played more than 25 minutes in either of those victories.

Things get much tougher this week when they head to Oral Roberts, Wednesday (January 17).

The Golden Eagles (11-7/3-2 Summit League) are the second best defense in the conference, allowing just 56 points per game.

Offensively, they commit the fewest turnovers and are the second most accurate shooting team in the Summit.

Freshman Maya Mayberry, junior Maria Martianez, and senior Faith Ihim all average 14 points per game.

Tipoff is 7:00 PM, Wednesday in Tulsa.

Saturday (January 20), the Coyotes will host Omaha.

The last time these two met, the Mavericks upset the Coyotes in the opening round of the 2017 Summit League Tournament.

But since then, UNO (8-8/0-4 Summit League) has been struggling to replace leading scorer Mikaela Shaw, who graduated after last season. Without her, the Mavericks are scoring 11 fewer points per game, while giving up an additional 16 per game.

During their current four game losing streak, Omaha has turned the ball over 71 times.

No player on the UNO roster is scoring more than 11 points a game. Junior Amber Vidal is the team's leading scorer. Center Courtney Vaccher is in the top ten in the Summit in blocked shots and rebounding.

Tipoff is 1:00 PM, Saturday in Vermillion.

Last week, the Coyotes took a brief break from Summit League play to host a non-conference game against Mount Marty, Wednesday (January 10).

USD did just about everything right in the 87-25 win, shooting 60 percent from the floor, forcing 29 turnovers, and limiting the playing time of their starters.

Jaycee Bradley and Taylor Frederick each had 13 points to lead the Coyote offense.

Saturday (January 13), got off to a red hot start against Fort Wayne, riding 74 percent first half shooting to a build a 26-point halftime lead, en route to a 85-43 win.

Chloe Lamb scored 14 of her game-high 16 points in the second half to become the ninth player to lead the Coyotes in scoring this season.

The South Dakota defense scored 26 points off of 22 Mastodons turnovers. Fort Wayne scored just eight points in the second quarter, six points in the third quarter.

I talked with USD Coach Dawn Plitzuweit about last week's sweep and this week's match-ups with Oral Roberts and Omaha: