South Dakota women’s basketball hopes Wichita fans embrace their NCAA Cinderella run
An outsider to the college basketball power structure destroying brackets and taking down giants with hard-nosed defense, team chemistry and a veteran cast.
The South Dakota women’s basketball team has used a formula all too familiar to Wichita State fans to become the Cinderella darling of this year’s March Madness, leading wire-to-wire in victories over Ole Miss and Baylor to win the program’s first NCAA Tournament games and advance to the Sweet 16 in Wichita.
No double-digit seed has made it to the women’s Final Four, a trend that the 10th-seeded Coyotes (29-5) will try to buck in Wichita. First up is a Sweet 16 matchup against No. 3 seed Michigan (24-6) around 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Intrust Bank Arena with the game broadcast on ESPN2 and tickets still available. No. 1 Louisville (27-4) plays No. 4 Tennessee (25-8) at 3 p.m. in the first game of the day.
South Dakota has already sold close to 2,000 tickets to the game in Wichita and coach Dawn Plitzuweit is already lobbying for the neutral fans in Wichita to hop on the Coyotes’ bandwagon. She has even arranged for the school to bring a couple hundred T-shirts to be handed out to Wichita fans.
“I think our team is a fun one to root for because our kids play really hard and get after it and play with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm,” Plitzuweit told The Eagle. “They’re always in attack mode. We are a good defensive team and our fans understand to cheer for us when we’re on defense, so if the Wichita fans would want to help us out with that, then that would be greatly appreciated.”
Celebrating defense isn’t a tough ask for a Wichita State fan base used to standing on its feet and clapping until the Shockers surrender a basket.
Much like the 2013 WSU team that reached the Final Four from the Missouri Valley, South Dakota plays the same “hair-on-fire” defense that has allowed the team to win 27 of its last 28 games. The Coyotes have the No. 8 scoring defense in the country, limiting opponents to just 53.1 points per game.
“Our goal is to always be the toughest people out there,” said sophomore Jeniah Ugofsky, reciting a line right out of the MTXE playbook. “We work really hard and sacrifice to do whatever it takes to get a stop.”
South Dakota is powered by a nucleus of fifth-year seniors in Chloe Lamb (16.1 points, 3.0 assists), Hannah Sjerven (15.0 points, 7.7 rebounds) and Liv Korngable (12.7 points, 3.8 assists) who have won 135 games and taken down power-five teams like Pittsburgh, Missouri, Ohio State and Iowa State during their careers. And that was before taking down No. 7 Baylor, which was South Dakota’s first victory over a top-10 team in program history.
Just two seasons ago, the Coyotes were 30-2 and ranked No. 17 nationally, primed for a dream run like the one that is currently playing out until the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the postseason.
So while the Coyotes might be the underdogs by seed line, this is a mid-major powerhouse that has played with the lead for 80 straight minutes in the NCAA Tournament with a core used to winning games.
“As a player, I always root for the lower seed and I think it’s just more fun and gets your blood flowing,” Korngable said. “Upsets are always fun to watch, but I don’t really consider us an underdog just because of our past success we’ve had against power-five teams and being ranked in the top-25 a few years ago.”
“I don’t think we have the underdog energy, we’re just ready to make a statement,” Ugofsky added. “It’s hard to completely understand the type of history we’re making. I still feel like I’m just a 21-year-old girl. I’m just a normal person. But I know people are really excited for us and I’m excited to show what we can do.”
Michigan presents another monumental challenge with 6-foot-2 forward Naz Hillmon, the 2021 Big Ten Player of the Year and honorable mention All-American who has been averaging 25.5 points in the NCAA Tournament.
But South Dakota is full of belief after limiting two straight potential WNBA lottery picks in Ole Miss star Shakira Austin (nine points on 3-for-16 shooting) and Baylor’s NaLyssa Smith (10 points on 4-for-11 shooting).
The Coyotes also expect to have the advantage in the stands with a large contingent of fans coming from South Dakota and Plitzuweit’s hope that the Wichita crowd will embrace her team at Intrust Bank Arena this weekend.
“We’re really fortunate to have a great fan base and a great following and I’ll be very interested to see what it looks like in Wichita,” Plitzuweit said. “It’s been neat to see how many people around the state and honestly even around the country who have started to take notice of our team and our program. I believe our fans are going to travel well down to Wichita.”
It’s a dream come true for the South Dakota team, especially the home-state natives like Ugofsky.
“When you’re growing up, this is what I wanted to do,” Ugofsky said. “I wanted to play D1 college basketball and make an impact and show people that South Dakota isn’t just Mount Rushmore or the Corn Palace. Those are cool, but there’s lot more to this state and I want to provide little girls the dream to show them that we can hang with the big dogs. The little girl in me is screaming every day and sometimes I have to pinch myself because this is my dream come true.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2022 at 1:15 PM.
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