South Dakota women’s basketball beats St. Thomas with buzzer-beating layup

For the second consecutive game, a St. Thomas women’s basketball game went down to the wire. This time, though, it didn’t go the Tommies’ way.

Tori DePerry hit a layup at the buzzer for her only field goal of the game as South Dakota beat host St. Thomas 63-61 Thursday night at Schoenecker Arena.

With 0.4 seconds left and coming out of a timeout, South Dakota’s Alexi Hempe fed a driving DePerry with a perfect pass underneath the basket, and DePerry got the shot off before time expired.

South Dakota overcame a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter, going on a 21-6 run to take a 56-51 lead on Kendall Holmes’ three-pointer with 3:54 to play.

The Tommies, who beat Oral Roberts on a Jade Hill three-pointer with 0.1 seconds left Saturday, reclaimed the lead at 59-58 with Hill’s two free throws with 1:51 to go.

Jo Langbehn’s layup for St. Thomas tied the score at 61-61 with 44 seconds left. South Dakota called timeout with 31 seconds left, but coming out of the timeout Amber Scalia stole the ball. Hill missed a three-pointer with 3 seconds left and the Coyotes secured the rebound and called timeout, setting up the final play.

Holmes led all scorers with 19 points, making five of eight three-pointers. Natalie Mazurek added 11 and Grace Larkins 10 for South Dakota (13-6, 2-2 Summit League).

Hill and Langbehn each scored 17 points for St. Thomas (11-8, 3-2).