South Dakota St. hits 16 3-pointers to win first NCAA tournament game

LUBBOCK, Texas -- South Dakota State put itself in the NCAA tournament win column -- and the record book.

The Jackrabbits made a record-tying 16 3-point shots in their tourney debut and beat TCU 90-55 Sunday.

"You have to have a shooter's mentality and think any shot you shoot is going to go in," said Jill Young, who hit on 5-of-8 from 3-point range. "I think we had all those great looks at the 3 because of the penetration we were able to get inside."

This was the first year the Jackrabbits (32-2) were eligible for the field. Seeded seventh, they matched the tournament mark for 3s set by Harvard in 1996.

Young and Kristin Rotert each scored 17 points to lead the Jackrabbits and extend their win streak to 18 games.

Consecutive 3s by Stacie Oistad, Ketty Cornemann and Rotert midway through the second half put the Jackrabbits up 76-32.

TCU (20-11) fell behind early in the first half and trailed by double digits for most of the game.

"It was hard for us to fight back once we got down as far as we did," said Helena Sverrisdottir, who scored 12 points to lead the Horned Frogs.

"Obviously, a great performance on our part," Jackrabbits coach Aaron Johnston said. "Both offensively and defensively, our team was very focused and ready to play. It's a great day for us in a sense that it's a first Division I tournament win. "

South Dakota State will play second-seeded Baylor on Tuesday night.

The Jackrabbits, whose record is surpassed only by No. 1 seed Connecticut (34-0), took control early and never relented. They led by as many as 44 points.

South Dakota State's aggressive man-to-man defense was too much for the Horned Frogs. TCU couldn't get the ball inside, shot poorly and seemed out of sync from the outset.

The Horned Frogs hit only 20 of 63 shots (31.7 percent) from the field and the Jackrabbits turned TCU's 14 turnovers into 27 points.

"As well as we played offensively, defensively we played exceptionally well," Johnston said. "It created a lot of good things we did on the offensive end."

South Dakota State hit 54 percent from the field and 51.6 percent (16-of-31) from beyond the arc.

TCU went almost 8 minutes without a field goal in the first half as the Jackrabbits took the lead for good. In the second half, TCU had only three points in the first 7 minutes.

Two Jackrabbit players were in double figures by halftime. Summit League player of the year Jennifer Warkenthien had 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting and Young had 14, hitting on 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.

"SDSU played very well. We did not," TCU coach Jeff Mittie said. "They had a lot to do with that. They shot us out early. They really made the extra pass well all night. The final score really said it all to me."

South Dakota State's success from beyond the arc wasn't unusual. Eight times this season they've hit double-digit 3-pointers. In February, the Jackrabbits made 16 in a 93-61 win over Missouri-Kansas City.