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INDIANAPOLIS – Behind 53.6 percent shooting in the second half, the IUPUI women’s basketball rallied for a 70-67 win over Summit League leader South Dakota State Thursday evening at The Jungle to complete the regular-season sweep over the Jackrabbits for the first time in program history.

Back on Jan. 19, the Jaguars earned their first-ever win over South Dakota State with a 57-56 win in Frost Arena after dropping the first 12 meetings between the two schools. After earning the three-point win on Thursday, IUPUI became just the second team to earn a regular-season sweep over the Jackrabbits since SDSU joined the Summit League – Oral Roberts previously swept SDSU twice during the regular season.

The Jags are now 15-9 overall and 8-3 in The Summit League, while South Dakota State fell to 19-7 overall and 11-2 in the conference.

“It was a high-level of play – two really good teams and it was a lot of back-and-forth. I’m just proud of the way our kids fought. We got enough stops at the end, made some shots in the second half and our 18 offensive rebounds made a huge deal in the game,” head coach Austin Parkinson said.

DeAirra Goss led IUPUI in scoring with 16 points, while Katie Comello scored 12 of her 15 points in the second half after battling foul trouble in the first 20 minutes. Kerah Nelson rounded out the Jags’ double-figure scorers with 11 points.

“We got in so much foul trouble in the first half that a lot of our shooters were on the bench,” Parkinson said. “One of the things teams’ have done is they zone us a lot, and really zones have kind of helped us some because we have to go against them quite a bit. We found some gaps, made some nice plays, and it obviously helps when Katie goes 5-for-8 from three.”

Even though IUPUI received strong offensive production from Goss, Comello and Nelson, IUPUI’s bench stepped up with Shawnece Teague and Jordan Barton scoring eight and six points, respectively, in addition to Teague, Dawn Luster and Nevena Markovic combining for eight of the team’s 18 offensive rebounds.

“Our bench did some nice things. That was about as active as Shawnece has been in a while. Jordan Barton made some nice drives and let the game come to her,” Parkinson added.

After starting 0-of-5 from the floor and falling behind, 5-0, the Jags offense got going thanks in part to the play of Teague. The 6-4 freshman scored five of the Jags first 11 points during a 13-4 spurt from the 15:10 mark to the 11:44 mark, which put IUPUI on top, 13-9.

Megan Waytashek cut the Jacks deficit to two on a jumper with 11:31 to play, but that would be SDSU’s last field goal until the 3:15 mark.

During the South Dakota State field goal drought, the Jags were able to extend their lead to 22-17, but the Jackrabbits were able to stay within striking distance by getting to the line and converting six freebies.

A pair of Rachel Walters free throws with 3:02 to play tied the score at 22-22 and two more ties ensued, but a Mariah Clarin lay-up with 40 seconds to play sent SDSU into the half with a 30-28 advantage.

Despite the Jackrabbits shooting 42.1 percent in the first half compared to 28.1 percent for the Jaguars, IUPUI owned the offensive boards turning 10 offensive rebounds into 11 second-chance points.

Out of the half, the Jackrabbits were able to push their lead to seven, 49-42, eight minutes in, but a 9-0 IUPUI response, which was capped off by a Comello three, placed the Jags back in front, 51-49, with 8:59 remaining.

Over the next 7:30, seven lead changes and one tie occurred, leaving South Dakota State with a 65-54 lead. With 2:05 to play, a Goss jumper put the Jags back in front, 66-65, and 19 seconds later, Dee-Dee Bellamy forced a turnover and put in an easy fast-break lay-up to push the lead to three, 68-65.

The Jackrabbits cut their deficit to one on a Boever lay-up with 42 seconds to go, and with a 12-second differential between the game clock and shot clock, SDSU went back on defense looking to get a stop.

Following a Parkinson timeout, Luster found Nelson underneath the basket for an easy two with 17 seconds on the clock to move the Jags lead back to three, 70-67.

South Dakota State used their final timeout to draw up a final attempt, and Waytashek got up a three with two seconds to go that came up short and secured the 70-67 win for IUPUI.

Waytashek led all scorers with 20 and hit SDSU’s only three as it finished 1-of-17 from behind-the-arc.

Luster had a solid all-around effort in 29 minutes of action off the bench with three points, four rebounds, two steals, and a career-high tying seven assists.

IUPUI returns to The Jungle on Saturday, Feb. 16, when it hosts North Dakota State at 3 p.m. Saturday’s game will be the Jags’ Cancer Awareness Game in association with the WBCA’s Play for Kay initiative. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to the game to support the Jags as they raise awareness for cancer research.