Kansas City
4-5,1-2Summit League
University of South Dakota
8-3,4-0Summit League
Women's Basketball Drops Second Game to USD
1/9/2021 4:41:00 PM | Women's Basketball
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City Women's Basketball (4-5, 1-2) put together a much stronger showing against South Dakota (8-3, 4-0) in the second game of this weekend's series on Saturday afternoon, but the Coyotes used 38 points in the paint to pull away, 80-53.
"We felt like our intensity level wasn't where it needed to be yesterday, so that was a big focus," Head Coach Jacie Hoyt said. "I thought that our kids were much better at that today."
South Dakota pulled ahead 10-0 in the early minutes of the game, but then Paige Bradford went to work on the inside, scoring four-straight points to put the Roos on the board. Bradford finished the game with nine points after scoring just three on Friday. She also locked down the Coyotes leading scorer in Hannah Sjerven, holding her to nine points, nearly ten below her season average.
"Paige is a really good player, and today she was who she needed to be for us," Hoyt said. "I thought that as a whole, our team did a really good job on (Sjerven)."
The Roos bench provided an offensive spark, led by RaVon Nero. Nero finished the game with a team-high 12 points, including 7-of-8 free throw shooting. Jada Mickens gave Kansas City some perimeter offense, knocking down three three-pointers to finish with nine points. Sanaa' St. Andre gave good minutes off of the bench as well, finishing with six points and three rebounds.
"Our team's identity this year is going to be balance and depth," Hoyt said. "We need our bench to contribute when they come on the floor, and we trust them when they come on the floor."
Kansas City will be back in action next weekend as they travel to take on Western Illinois next Friday and Saturday. Both games will be played at 4:30 p.m. and will be streamed on the Leatherneck All-Access.
"I'm excited that we were able to learn from South Dakota, because I think that we can take a lot of those lessons and carry them into the road trip to Western Illinois," Hoyt said.
