Saturday, December 2
Nacogdoches, Texas
1:00 p.m.
Stephen F. Austin
vs
South Dakota
Ladyjacks Face Stiff Test With South Dakota in Saturday Matinee
12/1/2017 11:38:00 AM | Women's Basketball
SFA opens the month of December with non-conference tilt
Saturday vs. South Dakota
1:00 p.m | Nacogdoches, Texas | William R. Johnson Coliseum
Live stats | Game Notes | Audio | ESPN3
1:00 p.m | Nacogdoches, Texas | William R. Johnson Coliseum
Live stats | Game Notes | Audio | ESPN3
NACOGDOCHES, Texas—The Stephen F. Austin women's basketball team has thrived in the early going of the 2017-18 season, compiling a 5-1 record and seeing all those wins come consecutively after dropping the season opener. On Saturday afternoon, however, SFA will face one of the top teams on its schedule this season in 4-3 South Dakota, a game that is bound to test SFA's resilience and performance.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN3, with Bobby Mauro providing the call of all the action. Mauro's call can also be heard on Q107.7, and fans can follow along with the action via the live stats link provided above or on the schedule page at sfajacks.com.
Picked to finish third in the Summit League this season, South Dakota is a program that SFA head coach Mark Kellogg has a lot of respect for, and for good reason. The two teams duked it out in Vermillion, South Dakota last season in what was SFA's first game of the season and the first contest held in South Dakota's new arena. On that occasion more than a year ago, the Coyotes got the better of the Ladyjacks and christened the new arena with its first victory. Well past the point of achieving the first win in William R. Johnson Coliseum, the Ladyjacks are content with piling on more victories to the already impressive 434-92 record the team has amassed there since the Coliseum opened in 1974.
In facing the Coyotes at home, the 'Jacks would do well to disregard each squad's record up to this point and focus on the task at hand. South Dakota has a trio of losses through seven games, but a quick inspection at those losses reveals close games against Iowa State and Oklahoma State, as well as recent loss to the 12th ranked Tennessee Volunteers. Allison Arens has once again taken the mantle of the Coyote's top scorer (11.4 ppg) after leading the team with 17.1 points last season. Overall, the team has relied on a more balanced scoring effort this season, with six different Coyotes leading the team in scoring at some point during the first seven games.
"I saw them last year up close and personal, and I thought they were pretty good then", said SFA head coach Mark Kellogg. "They have a good tradition of winning up there, they won the NIT a couple of years ago, I think they're well coached and play off each other real well. They run good stuff, they're discipline and I just think it's a quality program. With that, you get a chance to see if your players can step up and play well against them, so that's exciting as a coach."
At the helm for the Coyotes is a proven winner in Dawn Plitzuweit, who is in her 11th season as a head coach after stops at Grand Valley State and Northern Kentucky, as well as five years as an associate head coach at the University of Michigan. It was at the Division II level with GVSU where she reached a pinnacle of success, capturing the 2006 NCAA National Championship. Now in her second season at the helm for the Coyotes, she has compiled a 27-12 record there, including a 23-9 record last season that saw the Coyotes rank in the top-11 nationally for FG%, 3-pt% and FT%, with the latter being the top mark in the nation at 80.4.
"We played them early on last season, when the coach was still new there, and they've lost a few players too, so we've talked a little bit about their personnel, but we have a long way to go ourselves and you don't want to lose focus on your own team and what they have to do to get better", continued Kellogg.
For the Ladyjacks, offense has not been a problem thus far, as the team is averaging 80.5 points and SFA has gotten notable contributions from a handful of players thus far. Having not shot the ball consistently well this season, SFA has relied heavily on turning defense into offense. The Ladyjacks rank seventh in Division I in turnovers forced, at 25.0 per game, and are 30th in the nation in steals per game, with 12.0. That is leading to 25 points a game for SFA this season, and has also contributed heavily to the 'Jacks holding opponents to just 55 points per game.
Another major strength for the Ladyjacks has been the bench scoring, which is accounting for just under half (45 percent) of the team's total points this season through six games. So consistent has been the bench scoring for SFA that they have not been outscored by any opposing bench this season, and have built up a hefty 229-95 edge in bench scoring during the campaign. SFA's reserves have been effective at converting on scoring opportunities whenever they step onto the floor, and that includes the four-woman freshman class, who accounts for 27.7 (134) percent of the team's points and two of SFA's top five scorers this season.
"Offensively we've gotten a lot of people involved, and that's led to some different kids each night stepping up. We've talked about having a "strength in numbers" approach with our balance and depth, and I think we've had moments of everyone getting that opportunity. We still need to define some roles and get a little more consistent, and we haven't shot the ball as well as I thought we would from the perimeter, so I'd like to see us get going there as well."
In last season's game in Vermillion, the Coyotes took advantage of a sloppy SFA offense (24 turnovers) to gain 31 points off those turnovers, all while holding SFA to just 36.5 percent shooting from the field. Hot shooting from behind the arc (10-18, 58.8 percent) by SFA, specifically by guard Taylor Jackson, kept the team in content, and a 27 point fourth quarter by the 'Jacks helped to close the game, but ultimately the 'Jacks were done in by a seven-point second quarter and the poor shooting night from the field.
That game may have started the Ladyjacks off with a loss, but it did little to curb the success the Ladyjacks would have in the campaign, as they went on to win 25-games last season. Now, as the Ladyjacks look to avenge the loss from last season, they'll do so with a trio of players that each notched double-digit efforts against the Coyotes last season in Stevi Parker (19), Jackson (17) and Riley Harvey (10).
Saturday's contest will be the first game of an SFA Basketball doubleheader, as the SFA Men's Basketball team will face Louisiana-Monroe in the nightcap. It also represents the last home game the Ladyjacks will play for two weeks, as the team embarks on a northern expedition to face Montana and Montana State on December 7 and 9.
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Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's Basketball
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