Sarah Ritter

Game 30 Preview: The Summit League Tournament

Wednesday, March 01, 2023 | By: WIU Athletic Communications

Western Illinois faces St. Thomas on Friday in the first game of the 2023 Summit League Tournament.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Western Illinois women's basketball is headed to the 2023 Summit League Championships this weekend, with a matchup against the Tommies of St. Thomas scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Friday (March 3). With a victory, Western would move on to play top-seeded South Dakota State on Saturday. The game is scheduled to be streamed on ESPN+ and tickets can be purchased here.

GAME 30 INFO:
Who: No. 9 Western Illinois (10-19, 5-13) vs No. 8 St. Thomas (12-16, 7-11)
When: Friday (March 3) – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Denny Sanford PREMIER Center – Sioux Falls, S.D.

SOCIAL MEDIA: @WIUWBB (Twitter + Instagram + Facebook)

Quick Hitters:

The Leathernecks and Tommies played twice this season with each team winning one game. Western claimed a 77-75 victory on the road thanks to a game-winning layup by Carla Flores on Jan. 21 before the Tommies won 71-57 at Western Hall. Last season's series was split as well, meaning Western is 2-2 in four games against the Tommies.
Western Illinois fell in its lone game at last year's Summit League tournament, falling to eventual champions South Dakota on March 5, 2022. Elizabeth Lutz played a team-high 31 minutes and finished with four points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals while Kennedy Flanagan scored seven and grabbed four rebounds.
Anna Deets was named All-Summit Honorable Mention on Thursday, the only Leatherneck to earn recognition as part of this year's All-Summit awards; it's the first of her collegiate career.

Scouting the Tommies
St. Thomas is coming off a 12-16 regular season, winning 7-11 against Summit League opponents. The Tommies have found a rhythm late in the season, winning four of their last five games including a 74-68 victory over North Dakota on Saturday. Maggie Negaard's 12.8 points per game leads the team and she also boasts a 43.3% percentage when shooting from beyond the arc; Jade Hill (11.5) and Jo Langbehn (10.9) also average double-digit scoring per game. UST did not participate last year, making this UST's first appearance in the conference tournament since making the jump to the Division-I level.

All-League Anna
Anna Deets had the best season of her collegiate career and was recognized as part of the All-Summit teams on Thursday (March 2), earning a spot on the All-Summit Honorable Mention team. Deets led the team in scoring with 12.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting 38.2% from the field and 83.1% from the free throw line while unleashing a barrage of three pointers from well beyond the line. On Jan. 16, she was recognized as the TicketSmarter Summit League Women's Basketball Peak Performer of the Week after averaging 29.5 points, nine rebounds and one steal per game across two contests while shooting 53% from the field, 42% from deep and 95% at the line in two games against UMKC and Oral Roberts, including a career-high 35 against the Roos.

Career Years
Several players got their first taste of extended playing time this season and posted career-best numbers. The trio of Anna Deets, Alissa Dins and Mallory McDermott entered this season with one combined start, and both Dins and Deets combined to start all but three games this season.

Alissa Dins started every single game this season and led the team in playing time at 26.3 minutes per game after averaging 10.7 last season. A center from Rosendale, Wis., Dins averaged 6.3 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.1 blocks per game – all of which were career-highs. For Deets, who made 53 appearances across her first two seasons at Western, she jumped from 6.8 to 12.6 points and 2.0 to 4.4 rebounds per game this season, starting 26 of the team's 29 games and leading the team in made field goals, three pointers and free throws. McDermott improved her scoring from 4.9 to 7.9 points per game with nearly five more minutes of playing time per game and set a new career-high for scoring with 21 points against Northern Illinois on Nov. 17.

They Are Freshmen
Western Illinois' three true freshmen all played key roles this season, combining to play in 78 of a possible 87 combined games. Addi Brownfield led the young Leathernecks with an average of 23.3 minutes per game, starting 13 of 29 appearances and averaging 9.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 38% from the field and 74% from the line.

Allie Meadows also appeared in every game this season, playing 13.7 minutes per contest as the team's backup point guard. Originally from DeWitt, Iowa, Meadows set season-best marks for points, rebounds and assists with nine points, four rebounds and four assists in 21 minutes against Eureka on Dec. 3. Lily Randgaard made 20 appearances this season, averaging 6.5 minutes per contest and also putting up a career game against Eureka; she finished with 12 points on 5-7 shooting with one rebound and one block in 19 minutes on the floor, with the 12 points leading all Leatherneck scorers.

A Deep Rotation
The team's bench played a huge role this season, as 10 different players averaged at least 10 minutes of game time while seven appeared in every single contest. Six Leathernecks played at least 20 minutes per game while the bench accounted for 25 points per game. Among players to start less than half of the team's games, Jada Thorpe (21.4) played the most minutes and led all bench scorers with 11 points per game.

No Margin for Error
Western's 3.28 turnover margin ranked second-best in the Summit League this season, committing the fourth-fewest turnovers (15.1) while tying for the league-lead in most turnovers forced (18.4). The team's average of 9.17 steals per game was third-highest in the league and opponents struggled to shoot against Western Illinois, as the team held opponents to 41.2% from the field – the third-lowest mark among Summit League teams.

Doing Something Right
The Macomb community came showed up in a big way for the final five home games, as Western Hall hosted an average of 665 fans per game – nearly 200 more per game than the season average of 486 – including a season-high 806 against St. Thomas on Feb. 18; that increase in attendance was something that head coach JD Gravina noticed an was appreciative of with the season winding down.

"One thing I told our players at the end of the game is that we've had great crowds over the last five or six games," Gravina said after the North Dakota State game. "For our record, it says a lot about our community and how they value the effort, they value what they see us doing out there which means a lot."

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