Coyote women hold Omaha to six first-half points, win 78-33
The Coyotes shutout Omaha in the first quarter of a 78-33 rout inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center Wednesday night.
The wire-to-wire victory started with junior Taylor Frederick scoring 10 of the teams first 19 points, pushing the Coyotes to a 29-0 lead to end the first. The first quarter shutout was the first of its kind for the Coyotes. The shutout ended seconds into the second quarter when Mariah Murdie made a jumper for Omaha.
“Our defense really came out ready to play,” Frederick said. “That has been one of our goals, to come out right away so I think we really did that tonight.”
The buckets kept falling from there. By halftime, USD held a 50-6 lead. Eight Coyotes scored in the half, and all but one made at least two buckets. Senior Allison Arens and sophomore Chloe Lamb tallied eight first-half points. Sophomore Monica Arens contributed five points, five rebounds and five assists.
“I think we really focused on getting stops on the defensive end and that just let us have some good momentum on the offensive end,” Monica Arens said.
The second half was a continuation of the first. Frederick finished with 14 points on a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor. Lamb tallied 13 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Liv Korngable added 11 points and redshirt-sophomore Hannah Sjerven 10. Allison Arens’ 10 points moved her into eleventh in the USD all time scoring list.
The Coyote defense stood strong for the fifth straight game. This is the first time since 1973 that the Coyotes have held five straight opponents at 50 or fewer points. The Coyotes have not allowed an opponent over 50 points since Jan. 18. The 33 points scored by Omaha is tied for the fewest points allowed by the Coyotes against a Division I opponent. The other instance was in 2016 against Denver. The Mavericks shot 25% (13-52) for the game, and eight of their 13 shots fell in the fourth quarter.
“It’s been something that our young ladies have really hung their hats on, who we want to be defensively,” head coach Dawn Plitzuweit said. “We didn’t start the Summit League season that way, but the way we responded is somewhere we want to be and something we want to continue to do. Now we have a great challenge with Oral Roberts, who is one of the top three teams in the country in 3-pointers made at over ten per game.”
Oral Roberts is the last team to score 51 or more points against USD. The Golden Eagles fell to USD 76-72 when the two teams played Jan. 18. The Golden Eagles make the trip to Vermillion Saturday for a 1 p.m. tip-off inside the SCSC.
