The South Dakota State women are officially in the NCAA Tournament as a 9 seed at-large bid. They will be going head to head with the Syracuse Orange, the team they beat last in the 2019 tournament, . The Orange are 0-3 against top 25 teams, and have averaged 73.5 points again. They are led by guard Kiara Lewis, who averages 14.3 points per game and center Kamailla Cardoso, who averages 13.7 points per game. Kamailla is 6’7” and will be a big factor in how the Jackrabbits try to slow down the ‘Cuse.
The last time we saw the SDSU women’s team in action was in a losing effort to Omaha, where they only scored 40 points. This go round the Jackrabbit women will have to bring their A game to the matchup. Multiple weeks worth of rest should be helpful for the Jackrabbits, who are hoping to get Tori Nelson to as close to full strength as possible.
Syracuse has 4 players averaging over 10 points per game so SDSU can’t shoot poorly. It will also be key for the Jacks to shoot from behind the three point line consistently and to rebound. If SDSU can do both of those things well, they will have a chance to win this game!
For the Jackrabbits, it is going to be a team effort. Tylee Irwin and Paiton Burckhard will need to be leaders for SDSU with their supporting cast, Sydney Stapleton, Tori Nelson and the rest of the bench. The Jacks used a lot of their bench early in the Omaha game and it did not pay off. It will be a very interesting matchup for the Jackrabbits and their versatile squad during the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Tip off is at 5:30PM on Sunday, March 21, at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin Texas!