By Rob Everingham
It's a tough road ahead.
The MSU-Northern Skylights basketball team (3-3, 13-11) will be home tonight to take on the Battlin' Bears of Rocky Mountain College.
This is go-around No. 2 for the teams, with Rocky winning the first one, 71-66.
The Skylights' leading scorer Jana Smith sat out most of that game with a cut over her eye.
Skylights head coach Ray Peters said that was a tough loss, and it gets no easier.
This time, Northern will be without Anna Fabatz who injured her knee more than two weeks ago and was scheduled to have it scoped today.
The Skylights will have to do a good job containing Tara Walton both on the inside and on the perimeter, Peters said.
Northern will also have to contain Rocky's post players. Peters said they do a nice job of putting the ball on the floor and attacking.
"We have to contain them off the dribble," Peters said.
Northern has been playing pretty well during the last few weeks. In the loss last week to Westminster, Peters said, his team executed but just needed to make more shots.
Tonight, the Skylights will get a lot of open looks and, Peters said, they will have to connect on them and hit the 3-pointer.
Smith has developed into a very consistent player, Peters said. To be successful against the Bears, the Skylights will also have to get scoring from their post players as well.
Northern did a very effective job last time in the post as Laura Munson and Abby Hjorth led the team in scoring.
Peters said they will also have to get good play out of Kristine Noel and Jennifer Young.
"They will have to hit the open shots," Peters said.
The Skylights have a very busy week ahead. After playing Rocky tonight, the Skylights head to league-leading Lewis-Clark State on Saturday night, and return home Monday night to square off against Montana Tech in a televised game.
