Tweets, sights and stats of South Dakota State’s upset of Miami in NCAA tourney 1st round

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STANFORD, Calif. – Miami head coach Katie Meier knew her team was in for a tough battle in the first round of the NCAA tournament as soon as she saw the portion of the bracket in which her squad would compete. The fifth-seeded Hurricanes would face a No. 12 seed, South Dakota State in the Stanford subregional of the Lexington region.

In Meier’s mind, the seedings did not accurately reflect how good the Jackrabbits from Brookings are and the overall strength of their program.

“Right when I saw the bracket, I knew that this team was better than their seed,” said Meier. “And they will not be intimidated or wilt.”

Miami led 22-18 after the first quarter but the second was a back-and-forth contest with SDSU outscoring the Hurricanes 19-17. However, the Hurricanes still led at halftime, 39-37.

The first four minutes of the third quarter was a turning point in the game as the Jackrabbits pounced and went on a 7-0 run giving them a five-point lead, 44-39.

“The start of that second half was just a real flat performance for us,” said Meier.

SDSU outscored their opponent 18-9 in the third quarter and did not trail after taking that momentum-changing run.

Freshman guard Madison Guebert led SDSU with 19 points. Sophomore guard Macy Miller (Mitchell) added 18 points and sophomore forward Ellie Thompson scored 14 points.

Junior Adrienne Motley paced Miami with 19 points, five rebounds and four assists while freshman Laura Cornelius added 18.

It is the second time in SDSU program history that the Jackrabbits have advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The team, which is in its seventh NCAA tournament in eight seasons, won its first opening-round game in 2009.

SDSU will face No. 4 seed Stanford on Monday at 6 p.m. PT. The game will be televised on ESPN 2.

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