Sophomore guard Amber Scalia’s near-perfect fourth quarter couldn’t overcome the 70-57 loss to South Dakota in the Summit League quarterfinals Sunday afternoon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The No. 5 Tommies couldn’t surmount No. 4 South Dakota and junior guard Grace Larkins’ season-high 29 points, her third game in a row with over 20. Scalia returned from an early injury to score 22 points, almost all in the fourth quarter.
With 4:29 left in the first quarter, the Tommies were scoreless when Scalia collided with Coyote first-year guard Olivia Kieffer under the St. Thomas basket. Both players went to their benches to deal with injuries sustained from the play. Kieffer was bleeding from her nose and Scalia had a large bloody gash on the side of her head.
“I was trying to fake my girl out and I came back and like, all of a sudden, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, we just hit heads so hard,’” Scalia said. “And I went down and I looked at my hand, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I’m bleeding a lot.’”
Now without their leading scorer, the St. Thomas offense continued to stagnate. Graduate guard Jordyn Glynn finally broke the scoring drought with a three-pointer shortly after Scalia left the game.
The poor offensive trend for St. Thomas continued into the second quarter. Only four players made a field goal while they started to get torched on the defensive end. South Dakota’s leading scorer and All-Summit League First Team selection Grace Larkins scored 13 of the Coyote’s 24 first half points.
The Tommies shot just 21.4% through the first half, and junior center Jo Langbehn was held to 2-7 in the first half. Langbehn finished with 9 points on 4-11 for the night, uncharacteristic for Division I’s leader in field goal percentage.
St. Thomas’ offense production often relies on transition baskets, but couldn’t secure any defensive rebounds to kickstart the fastbreak. The Coyotes used their physicality to control the glass and pulled down 15 offensive rebounds to the Tommies’ six.
“Today it was offensive rebounds and sending them to the free throw line, but we’ve got to make sure that we’re the ones that are owning those categories,” coach Ruth Sinn said.
Junior guard Jade Hill, who usually runs the transition offense for St. Thomas was silenced by South Dakota and was held to just 3 points on 1-10 shooting. Hill had to get involved in the offense with her passing, dishing six assists.
“She really is talented and gosh, she’s just one of the fastest players in the league, we feel like, in the open food trying to make them go in transition,” South Dakota coach Kayla Karius said.
Scalia finally checked back into the game, now with stitches in her head, and the Tommie offense slowly picked up steam. Six different players scored and they had their highest-scoring quarter yet with 17 points.
“She’s just like ‘I’ve got to get back out, I’ve got to get back out.’ But that’s the type of young lady we want in our program,” Sinn said.
South Dakota second-leading scorer, junior guard Kendall Holmes, was unavailable for the game so other players stepped up.
Coyote sophomore forward Carley Duffney helped Larkins and South Dakota continue to outpace the Tommies with nine points of her own in the third quarter, and 13 total.
Finally, Scalia reminded those in attendance why she has been her team’s leading scorer and an All-Summit League Honorable Mention recipient. She erupted for 20 points on 8-10 shooting and a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter.
“I was just shooting the ball with so much confidence. I’m like, ‘We need to go three by three to win this game. And Props to my teammates for finding me and then like knowing what we need to do in that moment,” Scalia said.
The gap shrank to just eight points but couldn’t put her team over the hump. St. Thomas’ season ended in Sioux Falls for the final collegiate games of Glynn and graduate forward Angelina Hammond.
“I just am so grateful for the opportunity, and I have great teammates along with me to enjoy the journey with and I’m excited to watch them grow,” Glynn said.
St. Thomas finished their regular season 15-15 and 7-9 in conference, their best season of the Division I era.
“They are starting to understand what it takes to play the physicality, to play the schedule, to really understand what are the obstacles that we have to go through and how do we find a solution to that,” Sinn said. “So I think our group this year has really done a great job of understanding what the task at hand is and being more solution-based.”
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.