South Dakota State dominates the paint, feasts on Walker Demers-less UND

GRAND FORKS — South Dakota State’s Brooklyn Meyer is already a difficult player to defend.

The 6-foot-2 senior forward, who’s averaging a team-high 20.8 points and has a Summit League Player of the Year award under her belt, is even harder to slow down without a starting center.

UND entered Wednesday evening’s matchup against the Jackrabbits at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center without 6-foot-2 senior center Walker Demers, who was out of the lineup due to illness.

Meyer feasted in her absence. She shot 11-for-17, scored 31 points and collected 12 rebounds, guiding South Dakota State to a 99-47 rout of the Fighting Hawks.

“Walker is probably one of the few players in the league who can probably play her straight up, one-on-one, and have a lot of success doing it,” head coach Dennis Hutter said. “It’s really hard to guard (the player of the year) without your best post defender.”

Demers woke up with the flu. It is unclear when she will return.

The Jackrabbits, coming off their first conference loss of the season, improved to 15-5 (5-1).

UND fell to 4-15 (1-5).

“I thought we played hard, but playing hard and competing are two different things,” Hutter said. “We have to learn how to compete a little bit more for 40 minutes. I thought there were stretches where we did compete, and then stretches where we’ll play hard, but we won’t have that competitive edge to go along with it.”

South Dakota State ended the first quarter on a 6-0 run for a 19-10 lead. The offense took off in the second quarter.

The Jackrabbits outscored the Hawks 27-8 in the second frame. Senior guard Madison Mathiowetz led the charge, shooting 3-for-3 from the field for six points.

Mathiowetz finished with 17 points.

From there, South Dakota State’s offense continued to hum. The Jackrabbits ended the night shooting 61.3% from the field and 63.6% from 3-point range.

“The fact that they can shot make kind of at three levels — you saw it from midrange, you saw it off the block, obviously, and their ability to shoot the three — just makes them a very difficult guard all the way around,” Hutter said.

South Dakota State outrebounded UND 40-17, collected 14 offensive boards and scored 48 points in the paint.

The Hawks ended with just 12 points in the paint.

“There was just a lot of power in the post,” sophomore forward Finley Ohnstad said. “We missed a few box outs, too, where they got some second-chance points. So I think some of those things, we need to keep working on them and just get better at putting it all out there.”

UND’s offense could not keep up with the Jackrabbits. The Hawks shot 31.9% and committed 20 turnovers.

Graduate guard Mackenzie Hughes was the only starter to reach double digits. She shot 5-for-13 and led UND with 18 points.

Sophomore forward Ava Miller shot 0-for-4 and scored two points at the free-throw line. Sophomore guard Skyler Volmer had four turnovers and zero points.

The other two starters, freshman guard Lauren Hillesheim and senior guard Mikayla Aumer, were a combined 5-for-15 from the field. Aumer scored seven, and Hillesheim added six.

Srinath Kandooru / UND Athletics

Advertisement

The Hawks’ bench scored 14 points. All of them came from Ohnstad in the final two quarters.

She shot 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and 5-for-6 from the field en route to her career-high 14 points.

“I feel like right away I got into the rhythm with my three,” Ohnstad said. “It’s been something that I’ve been working on on my own. So it was nice to just initially have a little bit of fire and just have that confidence to keep shooting.”

UND will head back to the road this Saturday, traveling to St. Paul, Minn., to take on St. Thomas at 2 p.m.

Alex Faber is a sports reporter for the Grand Forks Herald. A Michigan transplant, he graduated from Michigan State University in 2024 with a degree in journalism and minors in history and environmental studies.