Senior of the week: Tough to look past the 31 point/21 rebound performance from South Dakota’s Hannah Sjerven vs Bradley as being enough to be honored as the Reach the Summit Podcast WBB Senior player of the week. Hannah added 15 points & 7 more rebounds vs Oklahoma on Sunday despite battling fouls and just playing 22 minutes. To this point in the season, Sjerven leads her team in FG% (63.3), scoring(18.3 ppg), rebounds(10/game), blocks 16 and is second in steals. It’s obvious she is a huge piece of the engine that makes the Coyotes go.
Junior of the week: Myah Selland collected two double-doubles for South Dakota State this past week. The redshirt junior finished with a season-high 21 points and 11 rebounds in an 87-73 win over Drake on Dec. 15 and added 19 points and 10 rebounds in the Jackrabbits 60-52 win over No. 20 Missouri State. Selland shot a combined 14-of-26 (53.8 percent) from the field in those two games along with 11-of-18 from the free-throw line. The Letcher, S.D., native also finished with a season-high six assists and four steals against MSU. Selland played 36 minutes in each of SDSU’s two games this past week and is now averaging 17.9 points per game and 6.7 rebounds.
Sophomore of the week: Joining Selland as Jackrabbits on this weeks players of the week, Sophomore Tori Nelson averaged 12 points, and 4.5 rebounds in South Dakota State’s two games this week. Her 7-12 shooting performance in a win against Drake was the crowning achievement of her week. All of Mendota Heights, MN was likely cheering on this impressive performance.
Freshmen of the week: There is a youth movement taking place in Vermillion. Four freshman are seeing substantial playing time led this week by Morgan Hansen, the Sioux Falls native scored 15 points off the bench versus Oklahoma including 3 threes to help keep the Yotes in it.
Bench player of the week: SDSU’s Regan Nesheim. Regan played a career-high 12 minutes in an 87-73 win over Drake and contributed 5 points. Her minutes increased to a 25 career-high in the 60-52 win over #20 Missouri State, she again scored just 5 points but contributed 6 rebounds. What won her the award was her overall presence on the court, not turning the ball over and her passing abilities shined this week. She made the most of her opportunity and even further into this current week had a 30-minute game. She is officially a big part of the Jackrabbit rotation.
Defense of the week: South Dakota State. It was another banner week for the Summit League’s top defensive team as the Jackrabbits threw another blanket over the competition’s offense. The Jacks (allowing 62.9 points per game) were at it again last week, holding Drake to 73 points on Tuesday and nationally-ranked Missouri State to 52 on Saturday.
In the Missouri State game, SDSU held the Bears to 22-68 shooting (32.4 percent) from the field and 4-19 (21.1) from three.
The Jacks also forced 17 MSU turnovers.
The 52 points and field goal shooting percentage were season lows for MSU.
Against Drake, the 73 points were the second-fewest the Bulldogs have scored in a game.
The Bulldogs came into the contest averaging 81 points per night.
I like your coverage Summit Conference basketball but i do have question on the Men’s side of Conference you have podcast show which i like to listen to but you do nothing with Women’s side of the conference. Like with the men it would be good here what’s happening on women’s side because in the Summit SDSU and USD primarily dominate the coverage and maybe rightly so because where both those programs are. I guess more coverage on league would help maybe lesser programs develop their programs. The fact is the media in our area don’t give much coverage to women’s basketball so i find it very frustrating and if anything its sport that could have highest upside potential for national recognition.
Jack appreciate your comment and agree. We are working hard and trying to find more to cover women’s summit basketball and agree it deserves more coverage. We do have 5 people who cover, looking for more and will continue to work hard to get more Summit Women’s coverage.