Nov. 17—BROOKINGS — The Duke Blue Devils coming to First Bank and Trust Arena is, by itself, a big deal.
When South Dakota State moved its athletic programs to the Division I level some 20 years ago, an ACC powerhouse coming to Brookings to play as the visitors is one of many real-life events nobody probably would’ve believed.
But there they were on Sunday, ranked 16th in the nation and coached by women’s basketball celebrity Kara Lawson, warming up in the Jackrabbits’ new gym as a crowd of 4,582 filed into their seats.
This is already shaping up to be a special season for the South Dakota State women — they have a stacked and reloaded roster after going undefeated in conference play to make the NCAA tournament a year ago, and had opened the season with wins over Rice, 21st-ranked Creighton and the Big Ten’s Wisconsin Badgers. Would the Blue Devils go down next?
If they did, the Jacks would surely have moved into the top 20 in the national polls and we might already be talking about them hosting NCAA tournament games in March.
As it turned out, a new signature win was not to be, as Duke fought off the Rabbits 75-71. The Blue Devils led most of the way and rarely seemed in danger of losing, but it was far from a stress-free win. The Jacks briefly trailed by 10 in the first half, took their first lead in the third quarter, but never went ahead by more than a basket.
The Jacks were still clinging to life in the final seconds, pulling with in a score at 74-71 on a 3-pointer from freshman Emilee Fox with 17 seconds left, but the Jacks fouled on the ensuing possession and Duke hit one of two free throws and that was that.
“We felt like this would be a team that would challenge us,” said Lawson, who played for Pat Summit at Tennessee, spent more than a decade in the WNBA and has worked as an analyst for ESPN. “We knew we might lose this game. We knew that we would have to play our best to come and get it. And for us, in non-conference, we want to have to play our best so when we get to conference we’re prepared.”
Of course, this qualifies as a ‘good’ loss for the Jackrabbits. SDSU is about as close to a lock for the NCAA tournament this year as a mid-major team can be, and when the committee examine their resume, the Jacks will be given credit for challenging themselves with games like this one, as well as for nearly winning it.
Still, it would be one thing if the Jacks lost this game simply because the Blue Devils were too good, and overwhelmed them with size and superior talent. But that’s not really what happened.
The Jacks could have won this game. They might even feel like they should have. Brooklyn Meyer had 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting, but the Jacks committed numerous costly turnovers trying to force lob passes inside to her. They missed too many layups, committed offensive fouls, and the Blue Devils outhustled them to loose ball rebounds.
“We had like six or seven possessions we needed to go our way (that didn’t),” Meyer said. “We were right there. Just a couple less offensive rebounds given up or anything like that and it could’ve gone the other way.”
Duke’s Jadyn Donovan was all over the floor, scoring 23 points on 11-of-17 shooting to go with 15 rebounds, four assists and four steals. Ashlon Jackson had 18 points and Vanessa de Jesus had 13.
SDSU outshot Duke 46 percent to 43 and hit 8-of-16 3-pointers to Duke’s 3-for-11, but the Jacks were a mere 11-of-19 at the line and, more crucially, the Blue Devils beat them 19-7 on second-chance points and 21-7 in points off turnovers.
“I thought in some ways we played well enough to win, we probably just didn’t finish some plays well enough to win,” said Jacks coach Aaron Johnston. “We had some chances, had some looks inside, we had even some passes that we have to figure out a way to complete to come out on top in a game like this. But I’m proud of how we competed in the game.”
Paige Meyer had 12 points and seven assists for SDSU, while Haleigh Timmer had 11 points. Mesa Byom had seven points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Jacks will play the Blue Devils in Chapel Hill next year as part of a home-and-home arrangement. And SDSU’s next action is in Hawaii where they’ll face Georgia Tech and Oregon. Home, away or neutral the Jacks schedule will reflect well on them come March, and filling their new arena for the Blue Devils will likely entice more power conference teams to visit First Bank & Trust.
“One of the things we love to do is come to places like this,” Lawson said. “This was unbelievable for our team. The atmosphere, the hospitality for our team that we received here. It was a great trip for us and then to see the type of environment that’s created here, the energy and the support for the women’s basketball team, I think our players really enjoyed playing against this team and playing in this arena and that’s why we scheduled it.”
