A Coyote comeback falls short against Western Illinois

The USD women’s basketball team (18-4, 7-2 Summit) hosted the Western Illinois Leathernecks (16-6, 6-3 Summit) on Saturday at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.

The Leathernecks offensive play was at its best during the first half as they accumulated 46 points while the Coyotes gathered just 31 points.

Leathernecks junior guard Morgan Blumer scored 28 points, including 6 three-pointers to lead the scoring for both teams. Blumer’s fellow junior guard, Emily Clemens, contributed 24 points.

The Coyotes came back strong in the second half but couldn’t pull off the victory. Sophomore guard Allison Arens’ hot shooting fetched 27 points for the team, while fellow sophomore guard Jaycee Bradley added another 13 points.

“They are a great defensive unit. They pressured us, caught us off guard a few times,” Arens said.

While just the fourth loss of the season for the Coyotes came in a tough fashion, the team is looking forward to moving on to the next game.

“We did not make good decisions in their zone,” Bradley said. “We will go back, learn from this game and continue to get better.”

Coach Dawn Plitzuweit spoke about how the early play against the Leathernecks was a big reason why the comeback came
up short.

“Western Illinois is a really good team. Our transition defense was not very good tonight, and it helped them play more offensively from the start.”

Looking forward to the upcoming games Plitzuweit said, “We will get better because of this game.”

The Coyotes will play their next game in Denver on Feb. 2.