Casey Wonnenberg

Friday Night

Friday night’s basketball game between South Dakota State and St. Cloud State portrayed two freshman phenoms-SDSU’s Megan Vogel vs. SCSU’s Erika Quigley.

While Vogel led SDSU with 22 points, 6 assists and 12 rebounds, Quigley scored 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Even though the Jacks started off slowly, they heated up in the second half to win 101-86.

“We had some foolish turn-overs,” Vogel said. ” They got some momentum. Then we started rebounding and got our momentum back.”

At halftime SDSU led 46-41.

Perhaps the difference between the two halves was sophomore guard Heather Sieler. With an unimpressive first half, Sieler remained quiet aside from four assists and three turnovers.

Sieler initiated the Jack’s 19-6 run at the beginning of the second half by scoring the first seven points. In the second half she compiled 10 points and four assists.

Brenda Davis showed senior leadership by scoring when the Jacks needed it most. She sank three three-pointers and scored 19 total.

When SCSU had cut the game down to nine with four minutes remaining, Davis sank a huge three-pointer.

The Jacks had just come off an 83-57 loss against the University of North Dakota.

“After a loss, it’s good to move on. It was a tough loss, but it was also a learning point,” Davis said.

Saturday Night

Saturday, in their final regular season home game, the women Jackrabbits defeated the MSU Mavericks 88-53.

SDSU’s two seniors, Brenda Davis and Stacie Cizek, led the Rabbit’s attack with 16 points each.

While Cizek scored 13 of her points in the first half, Davis lit it up in the second half by adding 11.

In the first half Cizek was three of four from the three-point line. Davis simulated her in the second half by making three of her five three-point attempts.

“Brenda and I said before the game that we wanted to give the crowd something to cheer about,” Cizek said.

The crowd did have something to cheer about when the Jacks immediately catapulted ahead of the Mavericks 22-2. At half time SDSU led 49-19.

“I thought we played really aggressive. I’m really proud of our team. The defensive rush went really well,” said Head Coach Aaron Johnston.

Next week the Jacks will finish off the regular season at Omaha on Friday and Vermillion on Saturday.

“We need to be mentally and physically prepped. Physically we’ll be okay. We need to prep mentally,” said Johnston.