March 27, 2008

No. 3 South Dakota Beats No. 1 Delta State in Final Four

Hoffman, Hegge Key for 'Yotes

      Kearney, Neb. –  In game that featured a pair of teams that had one loss between them, the 3rd-ranked South Dakota Coyotes handed the top-ranked Delta State Lady Statesmen their first loss of the season, 68-58, in the semifinals of the 2008 NCAA Division II Women’s Elite Eight late Thursday night in Kearney.

     South Dakota (33-1), which runs their win streak to 31 consecutive games, will take on Northern Kentucky (27-8) at 5:00 p.m., on Saturday. The game will be aired live on ESPN 2.

     Delta State opened up an 11-4 lead with 14:40 left in the first half after holding the Coyotes without a field goal for the first 3:20 of the game.

     The Coyotes then went on a 12-2 run, including four straight points by Crofton freshman Amber Hegge. Late in the second half, Hegge would again have a key scoring outburst. This early first half spurt also featured back-to-back threes by Ashley Robinette (South Sioux City) and Maggie Youngberg.

     No team was able to pull ahead by more than three points in the final 10 minutes of the half. USD took a one-point advantage into the half thanks to a Jeana Hoffman three with two seconds left.

      This was the first time all season Delta State (33-1), South Region champions, trailed at intermission.

      In the second half, South Dakota used another run, an 8-2 surge, to open up their biggest advantage of the game, 47-40. The run was capped again by back-to-back threes, this time from Robinette and Hoffman.

       Another Hoffman bucket pushed the lead to nine, 52-43, and the Lady Statesmen looked to be in serious trouble. However, the three time Division II champions came back strong.

       From that point DSU took over, out scoring USD 8-0 in the next three and half minutes. The Lady Statesmen did half of the damage during the spurt at the charity stripe, going 4-for-4 to go along with buckets by Brittani Calhoun and Lamaesha McAdory.

      The early threes that helped USD built its lead weren't falling any more as the 'Yotes missed seven in a row after a 7 of 15 start. However, an "old fashioned" three point play by Hegge broke a six minute USD scoring drought and made the score 55-51 with 6:56 to play.

     But, Delta the scored the game's next five points to take a 56-55 lead. That's when another Hegge run sealed the deal for USD.  Down 58-57, a Hegge jumper with 3:21 to go gave USD the lead back and started a personal 6-0 run.

      In the final 6:45, Hegge  scored nine of 15 points. She also was perfect (7 of 7) at the line for the game. 

      USD then relied on free throws down the stretch, hitting seven of eight in the final 68 seconds. Hoffman once again lead USD, having 19 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists in 39 minutes of play. No other 'Yote  reached double digits but eight different players scored.

     For Delta State, guard Jessica Boyd led the way with 12 points – going 4-of-6 from the field – all from beyond the arc. Calhoun added 10 points before fouling out late while McAdory had nine points off the bench.

     Delta State finished the game shooting 36.7 percent (22-of-60) and hit five threes in nine attempts. They  out rebounded USD 39-28 and that led to 21 second chance points.  As the norm, South Dakota had a low number of turnovers (eight) and was solid at the line (18 of 19).