Don't let anyone tell you that Tuesday's Summit League championship game between No. 2 South Dakota and No. 1 South Dakota State was made any less significant by national NCAA tournament projections. The game was no less intense than either of their two previous meetings, both of which required overtime. Neither side wanted to surrender the trophy to the other and the energy inside the building maintained a high-level, even as SDSU pushed its lead to 19 at the end of the third quarter. When USD came storming back, pulling within eight with a minute left, the crowd of over 7,800 was whipped into a frenzy, engaging in dueling "Let's go Coyotes" and "Let's go Rabbits" cheers when the officials went to the monitor to review a play. Had USD completed the comeback, it would have gone down as one of the most improbable victories of the season and added perhaps the most compelling chapter to its rivalry with SDSU. But it just wasn't meant to be. The Coyotes came up short, 83-71, and will be left to sweat out another Monday selection show. IN SPORTS: Top of the Summit: SDSU secures ninth tourney bid with win over USD Perhaps the NCAA tournament noise this team has tried to ignore amidst its late-season run will serve as motivation when they return to practice later this week, but it did little to assuage the pain of another championship game setback to their in-state rival. "All of us girls, our heart and soul were in this game today," a tearful Allison Arens said, her voice trailing off as she continued. "We'll take this week and get back in the gym —." The team's lone senior, Allison did everything she could to secure a championship in her final Summit League tournament appearance. Her team down 16 with 3:42 left, she kick-started the comeback with a 3-point play, followed by a steal-and-assist to her younger sister Monica Arens, who drilled a 3-pointer to continue the surge. Allison nearly delivered once more, stealing the ball from Madison Guebert near center court, but her layup just wouldn't fall. At the end of the day, the elder Arens matched her season-high with 26 points and added seven rebounds, two assists and three steals over 40 minutes of play. Earlier this month, coach Dawn Plitzuweit spoke of Allison's importance to the team, both as a do-it-all guard and as a leader, explaining that her players wanted to win for Allison. As she sat in front of the media Tuesday afternoon, Plitzuweit fought back tears as she expressed regret that they wouldn't have an opportunity to win a conference championship with Allison on the roster. "I love these kids," she continued. "I really do believe this group will have a chance to play again at the NCAA tournament — and I'm so happy for them for that — but I feel bad for Allison, because this was a special opportunity. We didn't get it this way, but I really do believe we'll have an opportunity to do it in another way." IN SPORTS: Whitney: Macy Miller makes history by seizing the moment DUFFY INJURY Tuesday's game was swung largely by a bad break early in the first quarter. Duffy weaved through traffic and hit a layup to put the Coyotes ahead 5-4. It was a seemingly harmless play, but as the shot came down, the junior guard landed the wrong way and "tweaked" her left ankle. She had to be helped off the floor. Though she returned later in the quarter, Duffy clearly wasn't the same player. "She tried everything she could to get back in that game," Plitzuweit said of Duffy, who finished with four points on 2 of 3 shooting. "It certainly wasn't from a lack of toughness or effort, she just couldn't really move and do the things she normally does. That was a tough break for us." With a full-strength Duffy, the Coyotes likely don't let things get quite so out-of-hand when the Jackrabbits make their run in the first half. Instead, the defending champs fired off a 27-6 run to swing a 10-point deficit into a 45-34 lead. Their hurricane of buckets was mirrored by a 3-for-13 finish from the field by South Dakota, which managed to stem the tide at the end of the half with back-to-back buckets from Hannah Sjerven. "They switched to zone and that kind of took us out of our rotation," Arens said of SDSU's role in their offensive struggles. "Early, we were able to get it in and drive on them. Then they switched to their zone and we weren't getting the looks, our shots weren't quite falling. They got some rebounds and started pushing it on us." Duffy tried to give it a go in the second half, but she only lasted a couple minutes before having to exit. She subbed in once more with about a minute left in the third, but only lasted about 30 seconds before having to leave again. Take nothing away from the effort of her teammates (especially Allison Arens), but Duffy's absence was particularly noticeable as the Coyotes mounted their comeback in the final minutes of regulation, leaving them with one less established scoring threat to turn to. "(Losing Ciara) puts pressure on other kids who maybe haven't been in that position before," Plitzuweit said. "Ciara being a veteran player, she's been here, she's been in those spots before, which gives her a little bit more of an edge." Quantified statistically, three of the team's leading scorers, Allison Arens (26 points, 8-20), Chloe Lamb (14, 2-11) and Monica Arens (9, 4-13) shot a combined 14-44 from the field. With Duffy available, those shot totals balance out substantially (Duffy is averaging about 10-plus shots per game). STAT BOMB South Dakota State was a model of efficiency, hitting 24 of 48 shots from the field, 9 of 18 from 3 and 26 of 28 from the line. Macy Miller and Madison Guebert combined for 52 points on 15 of 29 shooting (15-16 FTs). Conversely, South Dakota simply had an off day offensively. It shot 23 of 71 from the field and was 6 of 27 from behind the arc. Hannah Sjerven, who finished with 13 points, knocked down five of 10 FGs and rounded out her line with nine boards, four blocks, a steal and an assist. LOOKING AHEAD Plitzuweit reinforced her team's case for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. "With wins over Missouri, Iowa State, Green Bay — all outstanding teams — I do believe that our kids have (earned an NCAA Tournament bid)," Plitzuweit said. "Our consistency throughout that, too. To play the schedule we had and be where we're at, I do believe our kids deserve an opportunity to continue playing." Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.<doc-sep>Amid the postgame euphoria of South Dakota State’s victory in the Summit League women’s basketball finals Tuesday, Macy Miller briefly tried to hoist the championship trophy above her head. She finally gave up and chose to cradle it instead, grinning at the crowd of well-wishers on the court and telling a teammate, “This thing is heavy.” Top of the Summit:SDSU secures ninth tourney bid with win over USD It was about the only time all day that the senior guard – the finest female basketball player in South Dakota and Summit League history – failed to do what she set out to achieve. On a day that 7,781 fans packed the Denny Sanford Premier Center for a nationally televised showdown between the Jackrabbits and bitter rival South Dakota, no one was surprised when Miller rose to the occasion to make history yet again as the spotlight burned bright. Macy knows a big moment when she sees one. This one was a whopper. “I had a little more fire in me,” shrugged the former Mitchell High star, who scored 30 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and sparked a massive second-quarter surge as SDSU prevailed 83-71 for an automatic NCAA berth and its ninth title in the last 11 years. The performance upped Miller’s career point total to 2,295, making her the all-time leading women’s scorer in Summit League history, adding to the postgame scene as she was serenaded with “MVP” chants in between interviews and a hug from athletic director Justin Sell. It was the third tournament MVP honor for Miller, who missed the 2017 event with an injury and saw SDSU fail to reach the finals. She’s been a Coyote killer when it counts, improving to 4-0 against USD in Summit title games, with that success coming not as a revelation but rather part of the plan. As the cousin of former NBA sharpshooter Mike Miller and the daughter of legendary Dakota Wesleyan sniper Alan Miller, Macy embraced the “basketball royalty” label at Mitchell and later at SDSU, overcoming a pair of major knee injuries as affirmation that nothing can stand in her way. “Macy’s as good as it gets,” says Jacks coach Aaron Johnston, who played Miller at four different positions Tuesday, everywhere from point guard to power forward. “I don’t know if anyone in her family would say this, but there is some pressure and expectations there, especially playing on this floor against a rival and everything that goes along with it. But she always seems to answer the bell.” Alan Miller, sitting through pregame warmups with his wife, Shelly, wasn’t sure how his daughter would respond in her final Summit tournament and last game on South Dakota soil. He succumbed to that helpless feeling that parents experience when watching from the stands. “I’ve been a player and coach, but when you’re a parent there’s a lot of pressure before the game,” said Alan, who scored nearly 3,000 points in college at DWU. “It’s fun but there are also a lot of expectations on her shoulders. I was a little nervous.” It was a rare occasion when the losing team would still likely qualify for the Big Dance, but that’s not the way Macy wanted it to go. After USD jumped out to an early 10-point lead, she teamed with fellow senior Madison Guebert to spark a 22-2 second-quarter run that ignited the true-blue crowd and put the Jacks back on track for the title. More:South Dakota women await NCAA fate after championship comeback falls short “It was my last one, and I wanted to go out with a bang,” said Macy, who scored nine consecutive points during the surge and finished with four 3-pointers for the game. “When we were down early, we knew we couldn’t get flustered. We just had to keep working.” The normally mild-mannered Miller pumped her fist and clapped excitedly after several of her 3-pointers, including one from the right wing with 6:30 left in the game that gave SDSU a 74-55 lead, bringing the crowd to its feet. “I knew she was dialed in at that point,” said Alan. “I was proud of the way she handled it.” A few minutes later, she pulled off a vintage Miller moment, missing a leaner in the lane but positioning herself for the rebound, after which she drew a foul against USD center Hannah Sjerven, which just happened to be her fifth. With the championship assured, Johnston pulled Miller and Guebert out of the game with 17.6 seconds left, leading to a round of hugs and applause that caused Miller to shed a few tears, with many chapters behind her but meaningful basketball still to play. The Jacks will find out their NCAA tournament destination on Monday. The day before that, Macy plans to meet her parents in Sioux Falls for a steak dinner and more analysis of the Summit championship triumph, which met all her expectations despite not being able to lift that trophy. “When the shots are going in and the crowd's going crazy, it’s a pretty good feeling,” Macy said as the crowd gathered around her on the Premier Center floor, one more moment that she seemed perfectly able to manage. Argus Leader Media columnist Stu Whitney can be reached at swhitney@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter @stuwhitney<doc-sep>
Here’s what the South Dakota women’s basketball team was up against in Tuesday’s Summit League tournament championship game at the Denny Sanford Premier Center: Top-seeded South Dakota State came in with an 8-0 record in the tournament finals. They came in on a 15-game winning streak. And two-time conference MVP Macy Miller entered what was likely the final game of her career in her home state with an 11-0 record in Summit League tournament games. Summit League tournament:Complete coverage Was there any way in the world the queen of South Dakota basketball wouldn’t turn those numbers into 9-0, 16, and 12-0? Miller capped off an incredible tournament performance by putting the Jackrabbits on her shoulders and carrying them past the Coyotes 83-71, treating a crowd of 7,871 fans to one last two-hour exhibition of some of the best basketball anyone has ever played in the Rushmore State. The Mitchell native scored 30 points (becoming the Summit League’s all-time leading scorer on the way), grabbed 11 rebounds, and was the heartbeat of an electric 22-2 second quarter run that yanked the game out of USD’s hands and firmly into her own. The Jacks are going to the NCAA tournament, by the way, as the win clinched an automatic berth, SDSU’s ninth in 11 years of being eligible as a Division I program. But that reward somehow almost seemed secondary. Both teams were probably going to the NCAA tournament, anyway, based on the strength of their regular season. But that wasn’t a factor, either. It was just about winning this game, this day. For Miller and fellow seniors Madison Guebert and Sydney Palmer, it was one last chance to make history. “Yeah, we thought about it,” said Miller, who won her third Summit League tournament MVP honor. “Coming in here for the last time, getting to play in front of this amazing crowd – when we went on that run I thought the roof was gonna come off this place.” More:South Dakota women await NCAA fate after championship comeback falls short Guebert had 22 points, hitting key 3-pointers early to pull SDSU (26-6) closer to their rivals, and free throws late to keep them at a distance. The Coyotes had to play most of the game without leading scorer Ciara Duffy, who was limited to 15 minutes of action by an ankle injury, but it’s hard to imagine Miller and Guebert being denied on this day. “Those two had a phenomenal game,” said Jackrabbit post Tagyn Larson, who had eight points and joined Miller and Guebert on the all-tournament team. “It was so fun to be a part of and witness them have such great success. Having them in South Dakota playing for the last time and to perform like that is really special.” USD led by 10 early. Then Duffy went down. She returned later but was obviously limited, and eventually came out to stay. It was no coincidence that SDSU took over the game around then. The Coyotes shot just 32 percent for the game, including 6-of-27 on 3-pointers. They used 19-4 edge in offensive rebounds to stay on the periphery, but SDSU shot 50 percent and went 26-for-28 at the line. Trailing by 19 after three, the Coyotes cut the lead to single digits in the last two minutes, but that didn’t leave enough time for a full comeback. Miller and Guebert had put things too far out of reach, and SDSU coach Aaron Johnston admitted that once those two got going, he got out of their way. “That stretch there (when SDSU made its run) – we didn’t call much,” Johnston said. “For the most part it was players playing off of energy and emotion. Macy played elite basketball this whole tournament. We played her literally today at the one, two, three and four. She was elite all day and that stretch was as good as we can play and she was the catalyst.” There were other contributions, to be sure. Tylee Irwin had seven points and five rebounds. Rylie Cascio Jensen hit two big 3-pointers to cap off an underrated tournament performance. Myah Selland had four assists and three steals. Lindsey Theuninck had four assists, two points and two rebounds in only seven minutes of action. Allison Arens had 26 points for USD. Chloe Lamb had 14 and Hannah Sjerven 13 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. The Coyotes are 28-5 and were ranked 25th in at least one poll. Their NCAA tournament resume is sturdy.