Mastodons Fall in Summit Semifinals to South Dakota State

Monday, March 7

Sioux Falls, S.D.

3:30 PM

Purdue Fort Wayne

20-10

South Dakota State

18-13

South Dakota State

IPFW

Anne Boese made 3-of-5 three-point field goals en route to a dozen points in IPFW's loss to South Dakota State

Photo by: Inertia Sports Media

Mastodons Fall in Summit Semifinals to South Dakota State

3/7/2011 6:38:57 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE | POSTGAME NOTES | PHOTO GALLERY | POSTGAME QUOTES

Sioux Falls, SD - For the third time this season, the IPFW Mastodons and South Dakota State Jackrabbits battled to a three-point final margin; however, it was the Jackrabbits that came out on top of a 70-67 thriller in the second semifinal game of the 2011 Summit League Tournament.

The loss ends the regular season for IPFW with a 20-10 overall record, the highest single-season win total for IPFW in over 15 years, when the 1995-96 team went 23-5 for the year. The Mastodons wait for the revealing of the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) and the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) to find out the rest of its postseason fate.

Stephanie Rosado scored 16 points and Anne Boese added a dozen as seven players had over six points for the Mastodons in the game. Sydney Weinert pulled down a game-high seven rebounds while scoring six points, as Chelsey Jackson, Kayla Drake, and Jordan Zuppe each had two assists to go along with their nine, nine, and eight points, respectively. Rosado, Boese, and Drake each ended the game with two steals apiece.

IPFW took the opening tip and scored 13 seconds later with a Rosado lay-up, before SDSU ran off a 9-1 run to lead 9-3. South Dakota State kept on its torrid start, making its first eight shots of the game, including four three-point baskets, before missing for the first time 6:09 into the contest.

By that time, the Jackrabbits had run themselves to a nine-point, 20-11 lead, and would not trail again for the remainder of the game. The Mastodons, trailing again by nine at 23-14, used a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to just one with 8:48 left in the opening half, following a Drake three-point play.

A 7-0 SDSU run pushed the margin to eight, and the Jackrabbits led by ten following a three-point play, before Boese cut the deficit to seven with a three-pointer with six seconds left on the first half clock, sending the Mastodons into the locker room down 39-32.

The second half was a see-saw battle with South Dakota State increasing the lead to 10 or more on three occasions, only to see IPFW close the gap to five or fewer each time.

IPFW trailed by 11 at 66-55 after a Jennifer Schuttloffel lay-up with 5:19 to play in the game, but that would be the final points for the Jackrabbits for over four minutes, as IPFW got a pair of free throws from Rosado, a lay-up from Jackson, a pair of Zuppe free throws, and a Zuppe lay-up, and closed with a Weinert lay-up that cut the deficit to just one with 1:19 to play in the game.

Kristin Rotert hit a lay-up with 50.3 seconds left on the clock, the last of her game-high 24 points, before Weinert converted a pair of charity stripe attempts to once again cut the gap to just one with 31.8 seconds on the clock. Macie Michelson, who scored 14 points for the Jackrabbits, converted a pair of free throws with 11.4 seconds left.

IPFW's attempt at a tie score was unable to be put up, as a strong SDSU defense thoroughly covered the arc over the final 12 seconds, giving the Jackrabbits the three-point victory.

The Mastodons made 24-of-47 shots from the field for a percentagge of .511, while converting on 6-of-14 shots from long range, and 13-of-16 from the charity stripe. South Dakota State converted on 27-of-49 shots (55.1 percent), and shot a blistering 10-of-18 (55.6 percent) from long range.