South Dakota State may have come into Sunday’s game with a 15-game home winning streak, but that didn’t seem to matter much to the Lady Toppers and junior guard Amy McNear.
McNear led the Lady Toppers with a career-high 28 points, and Western (3-0) overcame a five-point halftime deficit to defeat the Jackrabbits 81-74 in Frost Arena.
SDSU had won 55 of its previous 58 home games before Sunday, but McNear said the Lady Toppers were successful in asserting themselves early in the game.
“We came out and were aggressive attacking the basket,” said McNear, who also had five rebounds and five assists. “We were able to get in and penetrate, and we came out with a win.”
Western opened up an early 11-5 lead, but the Jackrabbits (1-3) made five of their 11 three-point shots in the first half and headed into the locker room with a 38-33 advantage.
The Lady Toppers responded early in the second half, using an 8-2 run to regain the lead 41-40 with about 16 minutes left in the game.
Senior forward Arnika Brown said that a key for the Lady Toppers has been keeping their heads up when facing adversity.
“We’ve been trying to not get too down on ourselves and know that the game is not over with,” Brown said. “We’re going to listen to coach (Mary Taylor Cowles). She’s our leader, and we do what she tells us.”
Both teams remained gridlocked at 55-55 with about eight minutes to play, but McNear scored six straight points and Western never trailed again in the game.
SDSU made several runs late in the game, igniting the crowd of 1,829, but Cowles said that the Lady Toppers were able to control the environment with clutch free-throw shooting.
Western made 16-of-17 shots from the charity stripe in the second half and eight straight in the last minute and a half.
“I think you have to credit them with being able to keep their composure and have that kind of confidence and poise,” Cowles said. “We knew they would be good and that the crowd would be very much one-sided, but we did a good job of fighting their run and quieting the crowd back down.”
The Lady Toppers shot 45.9 percent in the game, including 57.1 percent in the second half, and scored 40 points in the paint.
Brown recorded her second double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and senior forward Dominique Duck added 10 points.
Freshman guard Courtney Clifton also had 10 points, while senior forward Jessica Magley pitched in eight.
Junior guard Kristin Rotert led SDSU with 16 points.
Western next heads to Cancun, Mexico for the Caribbean Challenge. The Lady Toppers will play Duke at 6 p.m. on Thursday and Arkansas at 4 p.m. on Friday.
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