Following the Summit – 2/7/13

Recapping the previous day’s games…

Men’s Basketball – 2/7

South Dakota State 80 @ Fort Wayne 74

What You Need To Know: Nothing interesting in this one of note. Oh I suppose one thing, Nate Wolters scored 53 for South Dakota State including 38 in the 2nd half. Kinda impressive. It’s the most points by a D1 player this season and most since 2009. SDSU school record as well as 3rd most in Summit League history. Fort Wayne led most of the first half with the lead as high as 11 before settling at 37-29 at the break. South Dakota State tied it up with 9:09 left at 52-52 but couldn’t take the lead until there was 1:47 left when a Wolters’ 3 gave them a 70-68 lead. Frank Gaines would have two chances to tie the game but he missed a FT down one with 1:27 left and turned it over down one with 1:13 left. SDSU would finish the game off with 10 points in the final minute including 7-8 on FTs.

Interesting Stat Lines: Wolters went 17-28 from the field, 10-11 from the FT line, and 9-14 from three. That’s incredible shooting efficiency for a player scoring 53 points. Frank Gaines went for 29 including 5-8 from three but actually missed the same number of shots as Wolters despite shooting six less times. Mario Hines had 11 rebounds for Fort Wayne who won the offensive rebounding battle and shot better as a team but turned it over 13 times and just couldn’t stop Wolters. Wolters went 17-28 from the field while his teammates went 9-28.

Next Up: South Dakota State heads over to Oakland for a big matchup on Saturday. Oakland has been playing well and just knocked off the Bison on Thursday. If SDSU wins they’ll be sitting pretty with Western Illinois coming to town next week. Fort Wayne now hosts North Dakota State on Saturday. The Bison won’t be feeling very happy and they need a win badly to make sure they stay ahead of Oakland. Mastodon talented but haven’t been able to pull the upsets.

North Dakota State 63 @ Oakland 66

What You Need To Know: The loss was North Dakota State’s third in the last five games. All three on the road and all three at the other top four teams. Oakland trailed by one, 63-62 with 1:21 left. After Travis Bader missed a there and North Dakota State rebounded the ball Duke Mondy stole the ball from TrayVonn Wright and hit a jumper with 22 seconds left to give the Golden Grizzlies the lead. The Bison missed a three and two Duke Mondy FTs provided a three point lead. Oakland chose to foul up three and Lawrence Alexander missed both FTs. Oakland took a timeout and threw it long and time expired on the Bison.

Interesting Stat Lines: Oakland got 23 from Bader who went 5-14 from deep. North Dakota State got 21 points and seven assists from Lawrence Alexander while TrayVonn Wright had 12 points and 13 rebounds. Oakland won despite being out shot and getting beat on the offensive glass. They had nine more FTs than North Dakota State and only turned it over six times to North Dakota State’s 11.

Next Up: Oakland has South Dakota State in a massive game on Saturday. Oakland does have a decent run out to their schedule and with a win against SDSU on Saturday might have a shot at a 12-4 finish. That’d put some pressure on Western Illinois who is 10-2 but still has to go to both Dakotas next week. If Oakland loses they look destined for 4th. North Dakota State travels to Fort Wayne where they can’t overlook the Mastodons. They’ve played well in some big games and might give the Bison a fight.

Omaha 50 @ Western Illinois 68

What You Need To Know: Western Illinois was up 20-0 after 8.5 minutes. That about says all you need to know… Also Simon Krych who hadn’t played for UNO in over a month got 10 minutes.

Interesting Stat Lines: Terell Parks with the 12 points and 16 rebounds double-double. Omaha’s now given up 16 rebounds to players in back-to-back games. I’m sure that’s incredibly rare. Justin Simmons and Tyler Egli had 10 each for Omaha. The Mavericks were 21-63 (33%) from the field, tied for 2nd worst of the season. This after being so hot hitting 50% or better in seven games out of nine in 2013.

Next Up: Western Illinois is off Saturday before heading to North Dakota State on Thursday. Nice time for some extra rest as these games are massive for Western Illinois. A weekend sweep would put them in position to win the Summit League. Omaha heads to IUPUI hoping to split this weekend road trip and sweep the season series. The Mavericks at 5-8 have only the Dakotas at home left after this. Might be their last good chance to get a 6th Summit League win this year.

Women’s Basketball – 2/7
Fort Wayne 62 @ South Dakota State 72

What You Need To Know: Fort Wayne did a good job against the Jackrabbits this year. They lost both games but by a combined 12 points. That’s the best combined margin of the three teams to play them twice and only IUPUI (won by one) and UNO (lost by 10) could match that number without upsetting the Jackrabbits. The game was never a blowout but South Dakota State was never really in trouble either.

Interesting Stat Lines: Katie Lingle had 18 points on 9-13 shooting and nine rebounds to lead the way for SDSU. Amanda Hyde answered with 29 points and eight rebound for Fort Wayne. How Fort Wayne didn’t get blown out is a mystery to me. South Dakota State shot 51% and 4-9 from three while the Mastodons were just 36% and 8-28 from deep. It wasn’t rebounding as Fort Wayne was crushed 44-31 and gave up more offensive rebounds despite less opportunities. It wasn’t FT’s as the Mastodons went 14-20 as opposed to South Dakota State’s 12-23… and it wasn’t turnovers as both teams had 17. So how the heck was this a 10 point game!?!? I guess the only explanation I can find is that Fort Wayne shot three times as many threes (28 to 9) so despite shooting a worse percentage it helped keep them in it. Weird box score though I think.

Next Up: South Dakota State hosts Oakland on Saturday and is cruising towards back-to-back Summit League titles. Over the last decade the Summit League champ has never had more than four losses and that seems unlikely again this year. Fort Wayne heads to North Dakota State. They trail them by a 1/2 game for 5th place. With Omaha ineligible for the Summit League tournament and currently in 4th the 5th-6th spots could be the ones avoiding the top three teams in the 1st round of the Summit League tournament.

Oakland 68 @ North Dakota State 73

What You Need To Know: A nice showing by Oakland who has lost the last three games by two, four, and five points. Flip those games and this is a 5-5 team. Probably a bit underrated thus. Oakland took the lead with 16:21 left in the first half and didn’t trail until there was 2:04 left in the half. It was 33-32 NDSU at the break. The Bison didn’t trail at all in the final 17:43 of the game. After Oakland cut it to 62-60 with 2:21 left North Dakota State hit two straight buckets before going 7-8 from the FT line in the closing minute to hold on for the 73-68 win. That five point margin was due to a Elena Popkey three with seven seconds left.

Interesting Stat Lines: North Dakota State played just seven players. 21 points and eight rebounds for Danielle DeGange. 20 points for Katie Birkel and 11 rebounds for Marena Whittle. Oakland got 16 points and seven rebounds from Elena Popkey while Annemarie Hamlet had 16 as well. Oakland went an astounding 0-7 from the FT line and 10-21 from three.

Next Up: North Dakota State hosts Fort Wayne as as mentioned is in 5th place. Omaha is a game ahead in 4th place so the Bison are looking to stay in contention for a top half finish. Oakland is 2-8 and in last place by one game behind Western Illinois. They will be hard pressed to stay in this first-worst matchup.

Western Illinois 55 @ Omaha 63

What You Need To Know: Let’s start with Taijhe Kelly tying the school record for blocks with seven. It was the most by a Summit League player this season. As far as the game goes I thought Omaha looked fairly comfortable but the game was close throughout. A couple times the Mavericks threatened to pull away but Western Illinois always answered and the game was still close at 53-52 with 3:59 left. Ericka House hit 2 FTs to give the Mavericks a three point lead and then a three on Omaha’s next possession to put the Mavericks up six with 1:50 left. The next possession saw Paige Frauendorfer drive to the hoop and hit the layup and get fouled. Her FT made it a nine point game and it was all but over when Saule Kontautaite missed a three and Jamie Nash was fouled. I say all but because Omaha missed the front end of 1-and-1’s on their next two possessions and Kontautaite had a three in the air to cut the game to a single possession. It missed and the Mavericks hit two more FTs to win by eight.

Interesting Stat Lines: Taijhe Kelly had the seven blocks but also had 10 points and 13 rebounds for UNO. Her 2nd straight double-double and she’s not got 40 rebounds in the last three games after 70 in her first 20 games. Paige Frauendorfer scored 23 points for the Mavericks. Jackie Rieger had 13 points for Western Illinois and Ashley Luke just missed the double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. Saule Kontautaite only had six points and went 2-10 from three, all of her shots being from there.

Next Up: Omaha hosts IUPUI in a massive game for the Mavericks. If they could win at North Dakota State next week Omaha has three home games to determine if Omaha finishes as high as 10-6 or as low as 7-9. Those games will make or break the Mavericks season and all three are winnable and losable. IUPUI is just the first. Western Illinois is off Saturday before hosting North Dakota State on Thursday.

Upcoming Games
All Times CT

Men’s Basketball – 2/9
Omaha 8-18 (5-8) @ IUPUI 6-19 (1-10) – 2 PM
South Dakota State 19-6 (10-2) @ Oakland 12-13 (7-4) – 4 PM – Game of the Week
South Dakota 8-15 (4-7) @ Kansas City 6-19 (3-8) – 5:15 PM
North Dakota State 18-6 (9-3) @ Fort Wayne 10-15 (3-8) – 6 PM

Women’s Basketball – 2/9
IUPUI 13-9 (6-3) @ Omaha 16-7 (6-5) – 1 PM
Kansas City 8-15 (4-6) @ South Dakota 11-12 (6-4) – 2 PM – Game of the Week
Oakland 8-14 (2-8) @ South Dakota State 18-6 (10-1) – 7 PM
Fort Wayne 8-14 (4-6) @ North Dakota State 9-14 (5-6) – 7 PM