Quick start paces South Dakota State women's basketball in rout of Kansas City
Dec. 21—BROOKINGS — Behind a white-hot first quarter, the South Dakota State women's basketball team cruised to a 86-54 win over Kansas City in Summit League play on Wednesday afternoon at Frost Arena.
The Jackrabbits (9-5, 2-0 Summit) scored the game's first 19 points before the Roos (4-9, 0-2 Summit) offered a reply, running out to a 31-4 lead after the first quarter that ballooned to a 56-14 advantage by halftime.
As part of the quick start, SDSU connected on 17 of its first 21 shots from the field (81%), with assists coming on 13 of the 17 makes. At halftime, the shooting disparity was stark, with SDSU owning a 22 of 33 (67%) mark compared to Kansas City's 5 of 28 (18%).
SDSU's largest lead came at the 5:41 mark of the third quarter at 64-18. Kansas City outscored SDSU 40-30 after halftime with a 21-12 edge in the fourth quarter.
Myah Selland paced all scorers with 20 points — going over 1,800 for her SDSU career in the process — to go with nine rebounds and two assists and was joined in double figures by Paiton Burckhard (15 points), Haleigh Timmer (12) and Madysen Vlastuin (10). Tori Nelson finished with eight points, seven assists and four rebounds, as Brooklyn Meyer grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and scored eight points off the bench for SDSU.
For Kansas City, E'Lease Stafford and Sanaa' St. Andre tied for the team lead with 19 points and combined for eight rebounds and three assists. Machia Mullens snagged a game-high 12 rebounds and had three points and two assists in 29 minutes but fouled out.
SDSU's next action comes after a brief holiday break, as the Jackrabbits go on the road for the first time in conference play to face off with Western Illinois on Dec. 29 and at St. Thomas on Dec. 31.
