By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
All things considered, Montana State University-Northern women basketball head coach Mike Erickson will gladly take the split of this past weekend's Frontier Conference road games.
A sluggish Skylight squad fought its way back from an early first-half deficit, to knock off the Montana Tech Orediggers 72-62 on Saturday night in Butte.
"It wasn't our best game by any means," Erickson said. "I don't know if it was the elevation or the travel, but we just seemed really sluggish early on and never got in a rhythm."
Because of that lack of energy, the Skylights weren't able to use their vaunted full-court pressure, which allowed Montana Tech to get comfortable early on. And the Diggers were anything but sluggish to start the game. They jumped out to a 17-6 lead, as Letty Powell buried a pair of early three-pointers.
"Tech came out and played with a lot of emotion early on," Erickson said. "They hit some early shots and got some confidence."
One Northern player who wasn't exactly sluggish was Jessi Reome. She buried four 3-pointers to pull the Skylights back into the game and left them trailing 35-32 at halftime.
Despite a not-so brilliant first half, Erickson wasn't too worried since his team has been in the situation before.
"We weren't panicking," he said. "We just needed to start getting some stops and start getting some shots to fall."
Northern picked up the intensity in its half-court defense and Reome took care of the offense.
Reome sank four more 3-pointers in the second half to tie the school-record of eight and propel a big second-half comeback against the upset-minded Diggers.
"Jessi really got going," Erickson said. "When she is able to get good looks and in rhythm, she's going to make those shots.
"The rest of the girls did a good job of recognizing that Jessi was hot and getting her the ball for good looks."
Once Reome got going, her teammates followed suit. Camille Gardner and Jaci Heny buried big 3-pointers down the stretch as Northern sealed the game late.
Reome finished with a game-high 26 points on 9-16 shooting and 8-13 shooting from 3-point range. Gardner added 14 points, and Heny chipped in with 11 and six rebounds.
But for all the long-range bombing, Erickson credited Northern defensive intensity as the reason for the win.
"We won the game with our defense in the second half," he said. "Since we weren't able to press, we really defended them in the half court and took them out of their sets. It was big to get a win considering we didn't play our best basketball."
Unfortunately, that theory wouldn't hold up on Saturday night in Dillon.
Again the Skylights came out sluggish against a vengeful UM-Western squad, but this time there would be no comeback for the Skylights.
The Bulldogs, despite missing All-American center Jill Feller, avenged an earlier loss to Northern with a 74-51 win.
"They just beat us," Erickson said. "Western was more aggressive than us and came out ready to play."
The sluggishness contributed to an extremely poor shooting night for the Skylights. They shot an icy 27 percent (15-55) from the field, continuing their poor shooting record in Western's Stroud Gymnasium.
"I don't know what it is about that place, but we just don't shoot well there," Erickson said. "It was ugly. But we didn't do a very good job of working as hard to get open looks. They took us out of our offensive sets and we looked a step slow."
The Skylights were ice cold in the first half, making just seven field goals and committing costly turnovers to trail 34-22 at halftime.
Still, Northern had chances in the second half to make a game of it, cutting the lead to nine with eight minutes left. However, the Bulldogs scored on three straight possessions to push the lead back to double figures.
Western was not particularly sharp offensively, shooting just 40 percent from the field. However, the Bulldogs outrebounded Northern 53-32 and corralled a whopping 22 offensive rebounds.
"We just didn't play very well," Erickson said. "I take some of the blame for it, because I didn't have the girls prepared enough. It was a lesson to be learned."
Nortehrn's only player in double figures was Heny with 14 points. Hillary Taylor led Western with 17 points. Katherine Sunwall added 10 points and 14 rebounds.
MSU-NORTHERN 72, MONTANA TECH 62
MSU-NORTHERN (20-6, 6-2)
Jessi Reome 9-16 0-0 26, Camille Gardner 4-8 2-2 14, Jaci Heny 5-11 0-0 11, Michele VanDyke 3-6 0-2 6, Ashley Trulock 1-2 0-0 2, Heather Riener 0-0 0-0 0, Kristie Pullin 0-4 0-0 0, DeLayne Johnston 2-9 2-2 6, Jena Heggem 0-0 0-0 0, Megan Valgardson 2-5 3-3 7. Totals 26-61 7-9 72.
MONTANA TECH (4-18, 1-7)
Letty Powell 7-11 3-6 17, Kate Streitz 2-5 0-0 4, Collette Phillips 7-1 0-0 14, Marcie Alzheimer 4-10 2-2 10, Kaila Fowler 2-8 2-3 6, Shelli Vicars 0-1 0-0 0, Jessie O'Neil 1-2 0-0 3, Kyle Cook 0-0 0-0 0, Stephanie Baertsch 3-9 0-0 8, Carrie Porter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 4-5 62.
Halftime: Tech 35-32. 3-point goals: MSU-N 13-27 (Reome 8-13, Gardner 4-7, Heny 1-4, Pullin 0-1, Valgardson 0-1), Tech 6-13 (Powell 3-6, Fowler 0-1, O'Neil 1-2, Baertsch 2-4). Rebounds: MSU-N 33 (Heny 6, Trulock 6), Tech 35 (Phillips 10). Assists: MSU-N 12 (Heny 5), Tech 12 (Strietz 3, Fowler 3). Blocks:MSU-N 2 (Reome 1, Johnston 1), Tech 1 (Streitz). Steals: MSU-N 7 (Heny 4), Tech 12 (Powell 6). Turnovers: MSU-N 15, Tech 19. Fouls: MSU-N 7, Tech 11. Fouled out: none. Technicals: none.
UM-WESTERN 74, MSU-NORTHERN 51
MSU-NORTHERN (20-7, 6-3)
Michele VanDyke 2-7 3-6 7; Megan Valgardson 2-7 0-2 4; Jessi Reome 3-17 0-0 6; Jaci Heny 2-7 10-12 14; Camille Gardner 2-8 2-2 7; Heather Riener 1-1 1-2 4; Kristie Pullin 1-3 1-2 3; DeLayne Johnston 0-1 0-0 0; Jena Heggem 2-4 0-0 6. Totals: 15-55 17-26 51.
UM-WESTERN (18-6, 6-3)
Hillary Taylor 8-15 0-0 17; Katherine Sunwall 2-8 6-8 10; Alyssa Matter 1-6 7-8 9; Megan Schmitz 3-9 3-4 11; Billi Suhr 2-6 0-2 5; Lindsey Scott 3-7 0-0 8; Laura Shea 1-1 0-0 3; Michelle Sullivan 1-1 0-0 2; Heather Kennedy 2-6 3-4 9. Totals: 23-59 19-26 74.
Halftime score: UM-W 34, MSU-N 22. 3-point shooting: MSU-N 4-18 (Valgardson 0-1, Reome 0-7, Heny 0-2, Gardner 1-4, Riener 1-1, Pullin 0-1, Heggem 2-2), UM-W 9-28 (Taylor 1-4, Matter 0-3, Schmitz 2-6, Suhr 1-4, Scott 2-5, Shea 1-1, Kennedy 2-5). Rebounds: MSU-N 32 (VanDyke 5, Heny 5, Gardner 5); UM-W 53 (Sunwall 14, Kennedy 9). Assists: MSU-N 6 (Gardner 2); UM-W 14 (Matter 3, Suhr 3). Turnovers: MSU-N 16, UM-W 27. Total fouls: MSU-N 19, UM-W 19. Fouled out: VanDyke. Techinical Fouls: none.
