By Tiffany L. Rehbein
If the Skylights had been hunting, they could have hung a rack of Pronghorn antlers on the wall of head coach Ray Peters' office.
The MSU-Northern Skylights tallied two wins, a 76-45 rout Friday and a 69-34 win Saturday, over a fundamentally problematic University of Lethbridge Pronghorns team during the weekend.
"It was a great weekend for us," Peters said. "We were able to keep our intensity throughout the entire weekend."
The Skylights (5-4) jumped out to an early 7-0 lead and held the Pronghorns scoreless for more than four minutes in the first half Saturday.
Brianne Dunn, Jana Smith and Lynn Kansteiner each contributed to the early-game scoring.
Smith notched 10 first-half points en route to a game-high 17 points in the game. Kansteiner went 3-for-4 from the floor in the first half, and finished with seven points and five rebounds in the victory.
One minute after the Pronghorns scored, Abby Hjorth hit a 3-pointer for the Skylights with 14:52 remaining in the first half. She finished with nine points in the game.
Midway through the half, the Skylights exploded for 16 points, holding the Pronghorns to just six in the run.
Hjorth notched seven of the points, Anna Fabatz added one, Kelsy Burgmaier chipped in three on a 3-point play inside, Jennifer Young came off the bench to hit a 3-pointer, and Kristine Noel converted on a steal in the Skylights' mid-half streak.
"We have a tendency to make teams look bad when we are playing good," Peters said.
And the Pronghorns struggled as they managed just one field goal with more than nine minutes to play in the half.
The second half proved little better, as the Skylights put 10 players in the score books.
Defensively, the Pronghorns played strong on the ball, causing 10 first-half turnovers.
"Our turnovers were created by us just getting into a little bit of a hurry on our fast break," Peters said.
Midway through the second half, the Skylights smoked a 10-0 run and jumped to a 68-24 lead with 4:00 remaining in the game.
With 7:58 on the clock, sophomore Laura Munson grabbed an offensive rebound and notched the put-back points to spark the run.
Thirty seconds later, Munson was fouled and hit two free throws, finishing with four points in the game.
Young nailed her second of three 3-pointers, and Smith knocked down two foul shots for the Skylights. Munson grabbed another offensive rebound and hit Smith at the arc to boost the Skylights to the 44-point lead.
The Skylights, who led the Frontier Conference from 3-point land last season, shot just 6-for-19 Saturday.
"I think we're just saving all of our made 3-point shots for the league," Peters said. The Skylights travel to Billings for the Frontier Conference tip-off tournament this weekend.
Friday, Noel scored a game-high 18 points to pace the Skylights. Dunn joined her in double figures with 11. The Skylights went 3-for-13 from beyond the arc, collecting treys from Fabatz, Myra Bagley, and Jackie Rasnick.
During the past four games, the Skylights have just one loss.
"The most important thing about this non-conference schedule is that our team has become stronger and I like our mentality," Peters said. "They have looked at where they needed to improve and they are excelling."
MSU-Northern Skylights
76
University of Lethbridge Pronghorns
45
Pronghorns -- Tessa West, 0-3 0-1 2-4 2; Jennifer Neufeld, 0-1 0-0 0-0 0; Courtney Fraser, 1-9 0-3 3-4 5; Sheryl Webster, 1-6 0-0 2-2 4; J'Amma Aotcjospm. 0-1 0-0 0-0 0; Stacey Gammon, 3-8 0-1 3-3 9; Lisa Prosser, 1-3 0-0 0-0 2; Kirsten Davies, 2-6 0-1 0-0 4; Melissa Metz, 7-12 1-1 1-2 16; Diane Haley, 1-1 0-0 1-3 3; Totals: 16-50 1-7 12-18 45; Total Free Throws, 12; Turnovers, 6; Rebounds, 11; Three-pointers, 3; 25-20-45.
Skylights -- Kristine Noel, 7-10 0-1 4-6 18; Anna Fabatz, 2-8 1-4 1-1 6; Shannon Ketcham, 0-2 0-0 0-0 0; Abby Hjorth, 2-2 0-0 1-6 5; Jana Smith, 1-7 0-3 4-4 6; Myra Bagley, 1-2 1-1 1-2 4; Jennifer Young, 0-3 0-3 1-2 1; Laura Munson, 1-1 0-0 1-2 3; Brianne Dunn, 4-6 0-0 3-6 11; Jackie Rasnick, 1-3 1-1 0-0 3; Kelsy Burgmaier, 2-5 0-0 0-0 4; Lynn Kansteiner, 6-9 0-0 3-7 15; Totals: 27-58 3-13 19-36 76; Total Free Throws, 19; Turnovers, 31; Rebounds, 10; Three-pointers, 9; 32-44-76.
MSU-Northern Skylights
69
University of Lethbridge Pronghorns
34
Pronghorns -- Tessa West, 0-3 0-1 0-0 0; Jennifer Neufeld, 2-2 0-0 0-0 4; Courtney Fraser, 2-8 0-2 2-3 6; Sheryl Webster, 3-9 0-2 0-0 6; J'Anna Aitchison, 0-3 0-0 0-0 0; Stacey Gammon, 1-4 0-1 2-2 4; Lisa Prosser, 2-6 0-0 0-0 4; Kirsten Davies, 3-5 1-1 0-0 7; Melissa Metz, 1-6 0-2 1-2 3; Diane Haley, 0-1 0-0 0-2 0; Totals: 14-47 1-9 5-9 34; Total Free Throws, 5; Turnovers, 2; Rebounds, 35; Three-pointers, 3; 14-20 34.
Skylights -- Kristine Noel, 3-7 0-0 0-0 6; Anna Fabatz, 2-7 1-5 1-2 6; Shannon Ketcham, 0-1 0-0 3-6 3; Abby Hjorth, 4-10 1-2 0-0 9; Jana Smith, 6-11 1-3 4-5 17; Heather Davis, 0-1 0-0 0-1 0; Myra Bagley, 0-6 0-4 0-0 0; Jennifer Young, 3-5 3-5 0-2 9; Laura Munson, 1-4 0-0 2-2 4; Brianne Dunn, 1-2 0-0 1-2 3; Kelsey Burgmaier, 2-4 0-0 1-1 5; Lynn Kansteiner, 3-8 0-0 1-4 7; Totals: 25-66 6-19 13-25 69; Total Free Throws, 13; Turnovers, 29; Rebounds, 53; Three-pointers, 18; 44-25 69.
