Coyotes defeat Fort Wayne Mastodons 85-43

The USD women’s basketball team triumphed over the Fort Wayne Mastodons with a final score of 85-43 in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center on Saturday.

Lead scorer for the Coyotes was first-year Chloe Lamb with 16 points, followed closely by Junior Allison Arens with 14. For the Mastodons, Anna Lappenkuper scored a total of 13 points and De’Jour Young scored 8. Redshirt senior Jasmine Trimboli had the most steals of the game with a total of four.

Arens contributed a couple of things to the team’s success: gap help, ball pressure and scouting by the coaches.

“We’re really going into a game, knowing the players’ weakness and you try and take away their advantages,” Arens said at a press conference.

Trimboli said the team members have focused on their specific roles on the court, which has allowed their defense to be successful.

The Coyote women came out strong in the first quarter, quickly obtaining a lead of 22-15 over the Mastodons. They kept that lead with a strong defense against Fort Wayne following into the second quarter, only letting the Mastodons score eight more points in the second quarter, which ended the first half with the Coyotes’ lead of 49-23.

In the third quarter the Mastodons managed to slow down the Coyotes’ scoring by toughening up their defense. The Mastodons managed to score 6 points in the third quarter, put up by KeShyra McCarver, Jaelencia Williams and Young.

The final quarter the Coyotes put up 20 points on the scoreboard, making the final score 85-43, nearly doubling the score of their opponents.

Head coach Dawn Plitzuweit said the Fort Wayne presented a lot of challenges to the women’s basketball team.

“Fort Wayne is really good at switching screens and taking things away from you… so we were really trying to open the floor up and then get some opportunities to maybe later the shot clock,” Plitzuweit said.

The win was the team’s seventh consecutive win of the season and makes them one of two remaining undefeated teams in Summit League play.

The women’s basketball team will face the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Jan. 17.