SYDNEY--With a relaxed itinerary in the morning, the South Dakota women's basketball team took the time to explore Sydney's sights. The Coyotes put on their second clinic of the trip in the afternoon, this time at St. Luke's Grammar School. After the clinic, the Coyotes headed to Barker College for their third and final game of the Australian tour against the Hornsby Spiders of the Australia State League.
Today's blog is brought to you by freshman forward
LaShayla Wright-Ponder.
G'day Yotes!
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Today was a wonderful day! We woke up to eat breakfast and then we had a free morning to go sightseeing and shop. We got to see the harbor and take some beautiful pictures. Even though we have only been here for a short amount of time, some girls decided that Sydney was already their favorite city. Then, we drove over the Sydney Harbour Bridge! We are looking forward to climbing it tomorrow, but some of the girls are nervous about how high it is.
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We spent the afternoon at St. Luke's Grammar School conducting a clinic with students. We started with several stations, which included ball-handling, one-on-one, post moves and shooting. This was a great experience. The kids were excited to learn from girls who play at a high level and it's possible we inspired them to believe they could play at that level one day too! They were nice girls and we also noticed they were very willing to learn new skills and push themselves to try something different. After having a delicious pre-game meal, we headed to our final game. The game was successful, as we got the win and ended the wonderful trip 3-0!
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Tomorrow is our last day in this beautiful country and I'm so thankful that I got to travel here. I never ever thought my two feet would step on Australian soil, so this was such a great experience for me! Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog to read about our final day down under!
- LaShayla Wright-Ponder
Redshirt-freshman forward
Megan Bonar took over South Dakota's snapchat account for the day. Check out a few screen shots from her story below.
Four Coyotes reached double figures as the Coyotes routed the Hornsby Spiders of the Australia State League 87-56 at Barker College.
"Tonight was a great way to cap off the basketball portion of our tour to Australia," said head coach
Dawn Plitzuweit. "We played hard, played solid defense in the first half, took care of the ball throughout the game and shared it well tonight!
"We grew together on the court and definitely off the court as well during this trip of a lifetime. We are incredibly thankful to the many individuals who made this opportunity available to our program!"
Senior center
Abigail Fogg and junior center
Kate Liveringhouse put up 14 points apiece. Senior guard
Jasmine Trimboli and freshman guard
Madison McKeever led the Coyotes outside the arc with 13 each. Sophomore
Allison Arens added nine more as 10 of 11 Coyotes scored in the match up.
Hornsby's Jaimee Kennedy led all scorers with 17 points.
The Coyotes jumped out to a 19-8 lead at the first quarter and had more than doubled their lead at the half, entering half-time ahead 48-22. Trimboli scored 10 points ahead of the break, the most of either team.
While Kennedy closed the gap with nine points in the third quarter, the Coyotes put it away with a 26-13 fourth quarter for a 31-point win.
South Dakota shot 42.9 percent (33-of-77) in the contest and made 75 percent (12-of-16) from the line.
McKeever swiped away seven steals to lead the Coyotes, while redshirt-freshman forward
Megan Bonar added three.
Liveringhouse pulled down seven of the Coyotes' 40 boards. Each Coyote tallied at least one rebound.
The Coyotes' final day in Australia is tomorrow before heading home on Thursday.
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