After a hard-fought and gritty win over Carroll College Thursday night in Helena, the Montana State University-Northern women’s basketball team got that winning feeling back.
On Saturday night in Billings, the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears took that feeling away.
Northern struggled offensively and saw the Bears go on a solid second-half run in a 61-38 Frontier Conference loss Saturday night at the Fortin Center.
The 38 points scored against the Bears was a season-low for MSU-N, which made just 11 field goals the entire game. The Skylights went 11-for-42 from the field and 0-for-10 from the 3-point-line for 29 percent shooting for the game. Northern came into the game leading the Frontier in 3-point shooting.
“We just stopped executing and stopped scoring,” Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. “We got good looks at the three and we just didn’t make them.
“Really, we did not play well in any facet of the game,” he added. “And that’s pretty discouraging after we found a way to gut out a win at Carroll on Thursday.”
The game didn’t start out as discouraging for the Skylights as they built an early 9-2 lead. But from there, the Bears clamped down on defense and outscored Northern 26-6 in the first half and led 28-15 at intermission.
Still, the 13-point deficit wasn’t too much to overcome had the Skylights been on their game shooting. But it wasn’t to be as MSU-N missed its first six field goal attempts after halftime and Rocky started to sizzle on its end. Brittany Kumm hit five three’s for the Bears in the second half and the closest the Skylights got in the final 20 minutes was 11 points.
“The game was anybody’s for a long time,” Mouat said. “But we just didn’t step up. We didn’t have any answers. Their defensive pressure bothered us a little and we didn’t respond to it. And they (bears) started making shots on us and again, we didn’t respond at all. It was very disappointing.”
Coupled with a dismal shooting night, the Skylights also committed 20 turnovers. Northern had just one player in double figures, Laramie Schwenke, who scored 11 points. Taylor Cummings scored seven points off the bench and Kelly Millager added six. Jordan Bruursema and Kylee Denham had five rebounds a piece.
“We didn’t play our best game defensively,” Mouat said. “Credit Rocky for some of that, they played well. But we did hold them to 61 points and when you do that, you expect to be in a position to have a chance. But because of turnovers and our inconsistencies on offense, we weren’t able to do that.”
The Bears (3-2, 14-6) came in as the top-scoring team in the Frontier, and they made 7-of-18 three’s including Kumm’s five in the final 20 minutes. She led all scorers with 17 points, while Allie Blake scored 15. Rocky outrebounded Northern 37-32.
Despite the difficult road loss Saturday night, the Skylights still managed an important road split with two rivals. After the 1-1 weekend, Northern is now 2-3 in the Frontier Conference and tied with UM-Western for third in the standings. The Skylights are 15-4 overall.
Northern is back at home this weekend to face league leaders Lewis-Clark State on Friday night and Westminster College on Saturday.
Skylights are 1-2 in Frontier, 15-4 overall; Next up: vs LC State on Friday, vs Westminster on Saturday
Rocky 61, Skylights 38
MSU-N — Jordan Bruursema 0-4 4-4 4, Laci Keller 1-5 0-2 2, Laramie Schwenke 3-13 5-5 11, Nikki Tresch 0-6 2-2 2, Kylee Denham 2-6 0-2 4, Rachelle Bennett 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor Cummings 2-4 3-3 7, Leah Olson 0-0 0-0 0, Kelly Millager 2-2 2-2 6, Michaela Howe-Cobb 1-2 0-1 2. Totals: 11-42, 16-21, 38. 3-point goals: 0-10 (Bruursema 0-2, Schwenke 0-3, Tresch 0-2, Denham 0-2, Howe-Cobb 0-1). Rebounds: 32 (Bruursema 5, Denham 5). Assists: 2 (Tresch, Cummings). Steals: 6 (Denham 3). Blocks: 2 (Denham, Olson). Fouls: 15. Turnovers: 20.
RMC — Alli Blake 7-9 1-3 15, Jillian Stanek 2-3 0-0 4, Haleigh Crnkovich 2-5 0-0 6, Austin Hanser 2-8 2-4 6, Micki Scally 2-9 3-4 7, Lindsey Brendgord 0-1 0-0 0, Kelcy Lott 0-2 0-0 0, Brittany Kumm 6-8 0-2 17, Aynslee Stuart 0-0 0-0 0, Amie Jensen 1-4 2-2 4, Breanna Todd 1-2 0-0 2, Brittany Myers 0-1 0-1 0. Totals: 23-52, 8-16, 61. 3-point goals: 7-18 (Crnkovich 2-4, Hanser 0-1, Scally 0-3, Lott 0-1, Kumm 5-7, Jensen 0-1, Myers 0-1). Rebounds: 37 (Hanser 9). Assists: 12 (Blake 5). Steals: 10 (Blake 4). Blocks: 3 (Stanek, Jensen, Todd). Fouls: 17. Turnovers: 13.
Halftime: RMC 28, Northern 15.
