Young women’s team ready to make a run

With a grand total of zero four-year seniors starring on the University of South Dakota women’s basketball team, there have been many lessons to learn during the 2013-14 season, the most recent being the Coyotes’ 88-69 loss to South Dakota State (17-8, 8-1) Feb. 2 in Brookings.

Junior forward Lisa Loeffler said the team wasn’t prepared for the hostile Jack Frost Arena.

“As a team we learned a lot about playing under pressure,” Loeffler said. “That was a tough atmosphere and generated a lot of noise, but it’s something we can work through and learn from.”

Junior guard Nicole Seekamp said if they want to win big games on the road, they need to take notes of what went wrong.

“We learned that we need to make adjustments quicker,” Seekamp said. “We didn’t want to let them score in the paint, but then we let them hit nine threes.”

Seekamp has now played in the team’s last three games after missing the previous three with a sprained ankle.

Seekamp said it was tough being on the sidelines and is especially appreciative to be healthy and back on the floor.

Seekamp was key to the Coyotes’ 88-67 win Friday against Denver. Seekamp scored 17 points in the game and leads the team in scoring with 14.1 points per game.

The Coyotes are up to 12-11 (3-5) on the season.

Seekamp and Loeffler said the team has made obvious improvements from the beginning of the season until now.

“We’ve gotten more mentally tough,” Seekamp said. “When we get down, we don’t let it get to us quite like we did at the beginning of the year. It’s because we’ve gotten a lot closer as a team.”

Loeffler said the team has made a more conscious effort to buckle down on defense.

“Our defense has taken great strides since the beginning of the season,” Loeffler said. “We still have a lot of work to improve on, but I think it’s gotten a lot better.”

After the team put up 88 points versus Denver, head coach Amy Williams said she is happy with the team’s offense.

“We’re starting to get more consistent offensively,” Williams said. “I just feel that we have quite a few offensive threats and quite a few kids that can step up and that have stepped up for us and had big games.”

One of those players has been junior Raeshel Contreras, who scored a career high 28 points against North Dakota State Jan. 30. She followed that up with a 15-point, three assist game versus Denver. Contreras is a 2013 transfer from Foothill College, where she averaged 17 points per game as a sophomore.

“It’s been very nice to see. We knew she could be an explosive offensive player,” Williams said. “With (Contreras), like any new player, you’re searching for consistency and now she’s starting to become a consistent double figure scorer for us.”

The team now has two home games over the next three days. Tomorrow night they will host Fort Wayne and Saturday they will host Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in the DakotaDome.

Follow reporter Grant Bosiacki on Twitter @GBo52