SDSU men and women each win regular season title

Evan Patzwald, Sports Reporter

Both the South Dakota State men’s and women’s basketball teams won their regular season conference championships. Each of them secured themselves a No. 1 seed heading into the Summit League Tournament next weekend in Sioux Falls, SD.

For the men, they finished the regular season 15-6 overall and 9-3 in league play. This is their fourth regular season title in a row.

The Jacks swept Kansas City this past weekend to wrap up their schedule. They needed a split in the NDSU-USD series to finish in first place, and that is exactly what happened.

On the women’s side, they finished their schedule going 21-2 overall and went undefeated in the Summit, going 14-0 after sweeping Kansas City as well. This is the first time they’ve ever finished conference play undefeated.

The women are riding a lot of momentum with an 18-game winning streak heading into the conference tournament next weekend.

Both teams are set to match up against eighth seed, Omaha Saturday at the Sanford Pentagon. The women tip-off first at 11:45 a.m., while the men tip-off against the Mavericks at 5:45 p.m.

The men’s team has not played against Omaha this season as they saw both of their games on January 15th and 16th canceled due to COVID health and safety protocols.

The women went 2-0 against the Mavericks in the regular season. In their first matchup, Myah Selland crossed 1,000 career points, but the Jacks are going to need a lot more players to step up in her absence. Selland was leading the team in scoring with 19.2 points per game before she was ruled out for the rest of the season with an injury suffered against NDSU.

Both teams are trying to get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019 since last year’s tournament was canceled due to the initial spread of the coronavirus.