March 17, 2026

THIS WEEK'S PREVIEW
MADISON, S.D. - The Dakota State University Trojan women's basketball team (28-5 overall record, No. 7 ranking in the NAIA Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 poll) continues their postseason action this week as they return to Tyson Events Center (401 Gordon Drive) in Sioux City, Iowa, for the 45th Annual NAIA Women's Basketball National Tournament Final Site, presented by Ballogy..

The No. 3 seed in the Naismith Bracket, Dakota State, will face a familiar foe in the national tournament as they meet No. 10 seed Indiana Wesleyan (19-13 overall record) of the Crossroads League at 3 p.m.  The first Naismith quadrant's game on Thursday is set for 1 p.m. between a pair of Mid-South Conference teams, No. 1 seed Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) (29-3 overall record) and No. 5 seed Georgetown (Ky.) (24-8 overall record).

Thursday's winners will advance to Saturday's national quarterfinals contest (or Naismith Quadrant's championship game) at 1 p.m.

QUICK HITS
*Dakota State returns to Tyson Events Center for the third time in the last four seasons, despite falling in the Second Round last season at home versus Governors State (Ill.).

*The Trojans face a familiar foe in the Round of 16 on Thursday afternoon, facing Indiana Wesleyan for the third time in the past four national tournaments.  DSU prevailed in the previous two meetings with the Wildcats, with the most recent meeting on March 21, 2024, where the Trojans defeated IWU 76-65 in the Round of 16 match-up.

*Dakota State will be facing a double-digit seed in the Naismith quadrant for the third straight game - [14] Grand View (Iowa), [11] Bethel (Kan.), and [10] Indiana Wesleyan.  The other pairings in the Naismith quadrant are a pair of Mid-South conference teams between No. 1 seed Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) and No. 5 seed Georgetown (Ky.).

*Dakota State had produced 20-plus wins for six consecutive seasons, with six of those wins total ranking in the top five school record book.  DSU's 28 wins currently ties with the 2023-24 squad (school record is 29 wins).
 

Scoring Offense	69.2	83.1	72.9	81.8
Scoring Defense	63.5	61.3	55.1	63.7
Scoring Margin	5.7	21.8	17.8	18.1
Field Goal %	.406	.441	.474	.421
Field Goal Def. %	.415	.366	.339	.386
Free Throw %	.707	.647	.784	.741
Rebounds Per Game	35.9	43.3	36.0	42.8
Rebounds Margin	3.5	5.8	4.8	4.3
3-point FGs Made Per Game	8.2	10.6	7.4	9.7
3-point FG %	.313	.334	.365	.315
Assists Per Game	14.3	18.1	13.2	14.7
Blocks Per Game	1.5	3.9	3.2	2.3

SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Ethan Whaley has coached Indiana Wesleyan women's basketball coach since 2017, where they had qualified for the national tournament each year.  He graduated at Indiana Wesleyan with both his bachelor's (2011) and master's (2014) degrees, while being an assistant coach for IWU men's basketball from 2011-17.

Whaley holds a career record of 218-56 before entering this season at Indiana Wesleyan and took his squad to the NAIA national semifinals in 2020-21 with an overall record of 30-5.  His teams have won two Crossroads League titles in 2022-23 and 2024-25.  Last season, Indiana Wesleyan was the national runner-up with an overall record of 34-3. 

The Wildcats are 19-13 overall record this season and finished their Crossroads League schedule with 10-8 record.  The Wildcats earned a 63-54 victory on the road at Huntington (Ind.) in the first round of the conference tournament before falling to No. 4 ranked Marian (Ind.) 87-45 in the semifinals.

Indiana Wesleyan received an at-large bid to the national tournament as the No. 10 seed in the Naismith quadrant.  IWU earned a 76-69 overtime victory over No. 7 seed Cumberlands (Ky.) in the NAIA First Round and held on to defeat No. 2 seed and host team Rio Grande (Ohio) 86-80 in the Second Round. 

Both teams met for their first meeting on Nov. 10, 2012, in the NAIA Classic in La Crosse, Wis.  IWU won the first all-time meeting by the score of 68-63.  DSU, however, had won the previous two meetings in the NAIA national tournament in 2023 and 2024.  

SCOUTING THE NAISMITH QUADRANT
Four teams remain in the NAIA's Naismith quadrant, including a pair of Mid-South Conference teams, Frontier Conference team, and Crossroad League team.  The pair of Mid-South teams face off in the first Naismith's semifinal (Round of 16) at 1 p.m., followed by Dakota State-Indiana Wesleyan at 3 p.m.

Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) is the No. 1 overall seed with 29-3 overall record.  F-H, the tournament champion in the Mid-South, defeated Rust (Miss.) 77-53 in the First Round and held on to beat Bethel (Ind.) 73-64 in the second round.

Naismith's No. 5 seed Georgetown (Ky.) is 24-8 overall record before entering Thursday's contest.  Georgetown was 6-6 in the league and fell to Bethel (Tenn.) in the conference semifinals.  GC hosted the First and Second Round, defeating Taylor (Ind.) 83-58 and Loyola (La.) 81-72.

Freed-Hardeman had swept the season series meeting with Georgetown by scores of 89-61 and 76-74.

LAST TIME OUT
Dakota State (S.D.) returned to DSU Fieldhouse to close out their home schedule last weekend. The Trojans made their sixth straight appearance to the NAIA National Tournament, and their third consecutive seasons of hosting the First and Second Round.  DSU made school's history national tournament for scoring the most points in back-to-back games.  The Trojans scored more than 100 points in the national tournament contests, which had never happened in the previous national tournament in Division I and II (previous high was 91 points versus Sterling, Kan., during the 2020-21 national tournament).

DSU kicked off the First Round with 102-51 victory over No. 14 seed Grand View (Iowa) of Heart of America Athletic Conference on March 13, scoring the most points in a national tournament game in school history.  The Trojans raced to a 19-0 lead and never trailed for the rest of the game, leading 22-2 after the first quarter and 48-22 at halftime.  Dakota State outscored the Vikings 54-29 in the final twenty minutes of the game.

Five DSU players scored in double digits in the game, led by Tabor Teel with a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds.  Caitlin Dyer and Ella Carstensen each added 15 points.  Bria Wasmund and Angelina Chapple each scored 12 points.  Brooke Gunderson tallied seven points, six assists, and five rebounds.  Madala Hanson scored eight points and Mackenzi Simmons seven points.  Wasmund had four assists and four rebounds.

Dakota State shot 50 percent in the game (43-of-86 field goals) and held Grand View to 31.1 percent (19-of-61 field goals).  The Vikings were held to no field goals in the first quarter (0-of-13 field goals).

The Trojans improved their NAIA national tournament school record of 104 points the following day, earning a 104-74 rout over Bethel (Kan.) of the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference.  Dakota State scored at least 20 points in each quarter, opening with a 29-16 lead after the first quarter.  DSU ballooned their lead to 49-30 by halftime and outscored Threshers 55-44 in the final twenty minutes.

The Trojans led a balanced scoring attack with five players scoring in double digits, led by Simmons with a season-high 22 points off the bench.  Dyler added 18 points, five rebounds, and five assists.  Teel posted another double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds.  Hamtyn Heinz scored 13 points, while Carstensen added 10 points.  Gunderson scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds.  Hanson had eight points.

Dakota State outscored Bethel 57-10 in bench points.  The Trojans shot 38-of-72 from the field (52.8 percent) and 14-of-32 from the 3-point line (43.8 percent).  BC was held to 31-of-69 field goals (44.9 percent) and 5-of-14 from the 3-point arc (35.7 percent).  The Threshers committed 24 turnovers in the game that led to Trojans' 17 points off turnovers.

TROJANS CLOSE HOME SCHEDULE UNDEFEATED
Dakota State closed their 2025-26 home schedule with an undefeated record for the second time in the past four seasons that the Trojans finished their home schedule undefeated (12-0 home record in 2022-23 season, when the Trojans advanced to the NAIA national semifinals for the first time in school history).  The Trojans finished the year with a 16-0 home record, including their season opening victory over NCAA Division III Minnesota-Morris at Madison High School.

DSU averaged 85.8 points per game in 16 home games.  The Trojans shot 44.2 percent from the field (505-of-1.143 field goals), 183-of-522 from the 3-point line (35.1 percent) and 180-of-275 from the free-throw line at home this season.

Dakota State posted an impressive 87-6 home record since Jan. 20, 2020, a winning percentage of 92.5 percent.  After closing the 2020 portion of the schedule with 7-0 record, the Trojans went 14-1 record at home in 2020-21, 10-2 record in 2021-22, 12-0 record in 2022-23, 16-1 record in 2023-24, 12-2 record in 2024-25, and 16-0 record this season.

NAIA NATIONAL TOURNAMENT FINAL SITE PREVIEW
Sixteen teams remain in the 45th annual NAIA Women's Basketball National Tournament after opening the tournament play with 64 teams.  There are four teams remaining in each of the four quadrants - Naismith, Cramer, Liston, and Duer quadrants.  Dakota State (S.D.) and Hastings (Neb.) highlighted the First and Secon Round by scoring more tha 100 points in each game.

There are three double-digit seeds remaining in the national tournament - No. 10 Indiana Wesleyan in the Naismith quadrant, No. 11 Hastings (Neb.) in the Cramer quadrant, and No. 12 in the Liston Quadrant.  The only quadrant with the top four seeds advancing after the Second Round was the Duer Quadrant - No. 1 Bethel (Tenn.), No. 2 Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.), No. 3 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.), and No. 4 Lewis-Clark State (Idaho).

Dakota State and Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) are the only No. 3 seeds remaining in the NAIA national tournament.  The other No. 3 seeds were ousted in the First or Second Round last weekend - Corban (Ore.) in the First Round versus Texas A&M-San Antonio, and Tennessee Southern falling to host-team Spring Arbor (Mich.) in the Second Round.

The five-day NAIA Women's Basketball National Tournament's final site at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa, begins on Thursday and Friday with back-to-back Round of 16 games.  Those winners will advance to Saturday's national quarterfinals round.

The national semifinals take place Monday evening at 6 p.m., followed by the championship game at 8 p.m.  All games will be live broadcast for free on NAIA's Urban Edge Network.

2025-26 DSU Trojan Women's Basketball Team Leaders

• Points/Points Per Game: Tabor Teel – 561 points (17.0 points per game)
• Field Goal Percentage: Cierra Watkins – 55.2 percent (128-of-232 field goals)
• 3-point Field Goal Percentage: Caitlin Dyer – 37.6 percent (62-of-165 3-point field goals)
• Free-Throw Percentage: Caitlin Dyer – 76.5 percent (39-of-51 free-throws)
• Rebounds: Tabor Teel – 346 rebounds (10.5 rebounds per game)
• Assists/Assists Per Game: Tabor Teel – 124 assists/3.8 assists per game
• Steals/Steals Per Game: Bria Wasmund – 68 steals/2.1 steals per game
• Blocked Shots: Tabor Teel – 49 blocked shots (1.5 blocks per game)