Ariy-El Boynton

On the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball media day, someone asked why the Badgers would travel to Brookings to play SDSU?

The Jacks gave an answer through drubbing UW 64-44 at Frost Arena on Nov.17 in front of 2,812 faithful fans.

The Big Ten Badgers came out with an 8-0 lead. Two consecutive turnovers in the early going by SDSU’s starting forward Jennifer Warkenthien helped the Badgers’ cause. UW’s Rae Lin D’Alie started the game off with an early 3-pointer, 10 seconds into the game.

Despite being down 8-0 in the first minute and 30 seconds, the Jacks made an impressive comeback.

The Jacks went out to a 20-2 run in the next 10 minutes, which were filled with many Badgers’ turnovers. The scoring change was so dramatic that ESPN did not believe the SDSU Sports Information when the network called for a scoring update.

The Jacks took the lead for good when Jacks’ senior Stacie Oistad hit back-to-back 3-pointers three minutes into the game.

“We hit a lot of threes (eight total), but clearly in my mind, the two biggest were Stacie’s early in the game,” said Aaron Johnston Jackrabbit head coach.

After Oistad hit her second consecutive 3-pointer, she displayed emotion as she spun around in joy.

The three brought the crowd to their feet and gave the Jacks all the momentum in the game.

“It might have looked like I never hit a three before, but it’s an exciting thing for our team. I think we get so excited when someone hits a three, especially back-to-back,” said Oistad.

The Jacks had more rebounds than Wisconsin (41-30) and had three times as many assists as their foes (15-5).

More importantly for the Jacks (2-0), who shot 1-of-16 to open the season against Missouri, they nailed 6-of-7 threes against Wisconsin (0-1).

The difference according to UW coach Lisa Stone was turnovers and ball movement for SDSU.

“Offensively, we had 23 turnovers and only five assists,” said Stone.

“It’s not only the assist-to-turnover ratio, it’s also just plain old shooting. You can’t be 5-15 from the free-throw line.”

The Jackrabbits had 10 players who logged more than eight minutes in the game, including Jill Young, who had six points in 15 minutes.

The all-time leading scorer in the state of South Dakota high school history hit two 3-pointers and two field-goals. The left-hander displayed a sweet stroke, which should be a mainstay at SDSU for years to come.

Fellow first-year player Jennie Sunnarborg has yet to miss a shot from the field in her college career. Sunnarborg went 1-1 in the game with an offensive rebound.

She also played aggressively with two fouls in five minutes of play. She gave the Badgers post players headaches with her play.

Ashlea Muckenhirn, a senior who scored eight points revealed how important the new girls are to this season and to the future of the whole program.

“They’re really going to be special for us,” she said.

The Jackrabbits will play the Utah Utes of the Mountain West Conference at Frost Arena on Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.