Leatherneck Nation

The women's basketball team is 16-6 overall with a 6-2 conference record after home wins last week against Denver (118-93 and setting the NCAA record for combined 3-pointers in a game and the school record for 3-pointers in a game) and North Dakota State (97-72 and breaking the just-set school record for 3-pointers in a game). Emily Clemens was named Summit League Player of the Week for the third time this season and is now 11 assists away from becoming the all-time assists leader in Summit League history.

Up this week...

South Dakota Coyotes

Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 7 PM
Location: Sanford Coyote Sports Center, Vermillion, SD
South Dakota is 17-5 overall with an 8-0 conference record. The teams they've defeated in the Summit League are at home vs Denver, Fort Wayne, and Omaha, and on the road against North Dakota State, Western Illinois, Oral Roberts, South Dakota State, and Denver.

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 2 PM
Location: Maybee Center, Tulsa, OK
Oral Roberts is 13-8 overall with a 4-3 conference record. Conference wins at Omaha, at Fort Wayne, vs North Dakota State, and vs Denver. Losses at Western Illinois, vs South Dakota State, and vs South Dakota. They play Fort Wayne at home on Thursday this week.

South Dakota wins the game 92-81. Western had cut a 21-point deficit to 3 in the second half.

Taylor Higginbotham led the Western scoring with 28 points. Emily Clemens had 21. Morgan Blumer had 13.

Attendance at South Dakota = 2,247.

The NCAAW subreddit (on Reddit) does a weekly post of each team's "magic numbers" for winning their conferences.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NCAAW/comments ... n_numbers/

South Dakota is obviously in the lead in the Summit, with a magic number of 4. Then South Dakota State has an "elimination" number of 4, followed by us and Oral Roberts at 2. NDSU, IPFW, Omaha, and Denver are all eliminated from winning the conference.

Women had a great 2nd half to run away with the game against ORU today. We are barely into February, but from where I see it, the top 4 teams in the conference are set for tournament in March.
USD 10-0
SDSU 8-1
WIU 7-3
ORU 5-4
The only real question is whether the Necks can move into 2nd place ahead of the Jacks who still have to play the Yotes in addition to us. If we manage to beat the Jacks at home and the tiebreakers favor WIU over SDSU, look for the Yotes to "roll over and play dead" in their game against the Jacks guaranteeing the Jacks that #2 slot (them folks in South Dakota are not dummies when it comes to tournament basketball). I am trying to figure out which one of those SD teams we actually match up better against. That is a hard call and I will have to do some more research before coming up with an answer. Stay tuned.

sealhall74 wrote: Sat Feb 03, 2018 4:56 pm Women had a great 2nd half to run away with the game against ORU today. We are barely into February, but from where I see it, the top 4 teams in the conference are set for tournament in March.
USD 10-0
SDSU 8-1
WIU 7-3
ORU 5-4
The only real question is whether the Necks can move into 2nd place ahead of the Jacks who still have to play the Yotes in addition to us. If we manage to beat the Jacks at home and the tiebreakers favor WIU over SDSU, look for the Yotes to "roll over and play dead" in their game against the Jacks guaranteeing the Jacks that #2 slot (them folks in South Dakota are not dummies when it comes to tournament basketball). I am trying to figure out which one of those SD teams we actually match up better against. That is a hard call and I will have to do some more research before coming up with an answer. Stay tuned.

I personally think we matchup better with USD from the simple fact that If USD has a bad shooting game there not going to win a game on the defensive end SDSU is a really good defensive team and they can win multiple ways in my opinion.

Western beat Oral Roberts 85-63.

Emily Clemens led the Western scoring with 31 points. Taylor Higginbotham had 16. Morgan Blumer had 12.

Attendance at Oral Roberts = 1,102.

So is there a big difference between getting a two seed versus a three seed come tournament time? It is huge. The one and two-seeded teams get a day off after their opening round games on Saturday. Everyone else has to play three consecutive days to win the championship. According to the following study, if you are a team which relies on the 3 point shot, you are potentially on some thin ice with that 3 point shot come day 3, with the outcome possibly determined by how well-conditioned the teams are.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3763293/

Extra suicide drills for the month of February and now, bring on them Superbowl commercials.

http://www.thesummitleague.org/sports/w ... 0205ia06gg

2 POW in a row for Clemens.