SDSU women win first Summit League game By Terry Vandrovec tvandrovec@argusleader.com
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SHREVEPORT, La. - South Dakota State was lethargic for the better part of 30 minutes Monday night at the Gold Dome, and it had nothing to do with the practice-gym atmosphere (attendance: 188) or the summer-time temps.
Fire is not easily kindled by this group, coach Aaron Johnston surmised following a 67-51 victory over Centenary - the program's first as a member of the Summit League. So while not willing to completely disregard the discouraging start, he was encouraged by the spirited finish and generally more satisfied than he had been by other triumphs.
The Jackrabbits needed a win after losing three of their previous four games. That they nearly went to the wall to get it was immaterial.
"Sometimes when things don't go really well, you have a tendency to revert to what's a little more normal, natural," Johnston said. "And this isn't a team that's necessarily flying off the walls all the time. It's a very mellow team. It's very different from our teams of the past."
That much must have been obvious to the three SDSU fans in attendance.
With nine minutes left in the second half, the Jacks (6-3, 1-1 Summit) had 21 turnovers and led by just four in their first contest of the season against a club that did not qualify for the 2007 postseason. Not only did the Ladies (2-8, 0-2) not reach the WNIT or the NCAA tournament, they have just five conference victories in their first four seasons in the Summit League and are without injured standout Cierra Bush.
No, but imagine if we had Ketty and Stacie Oistad back. This would be a much different team. Oistad provided quite a spark in those early games. And we all know how important Ketty is to this team.
I foresee very strong performances in this team's future, particularly with Warkenthien getting back into the swing.
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