By Jason Shoot
Montana State University-Northern women's basketball coach Kevin Emerick spent much of Saturday night convincing his players to take open perimeter shots when the opportunities arose.
Senior guard Anna Fabatz apparently decided to practice what her coach was preaching.
Fabatz scored all 13 of her points in the first half to give Northern a sizable halftime lead, and the Skylights made that advantage hold up in an 82-60 win over the University of Lethbridge in a non-conference game at Northern Gym.
Fabatz didn't lead her team in scoring Saturday no, that honor was shared by Lana Quintyne and Paula Owens with 18 points apiece but her three 3-pointers in the first half kept the Canadian team off-balance defensively.
"That's what we expect her to do," Emerick said of Fabatz. "We want her to shoot threes when she's open."
Quintyne and Owens took advantage of the porous defense and found open looks all night around the basket.
Quintyne finished the game 9 of 13 from the field, and Owens scored 12 of her points in the second half on 5 of 6 shooting.
After Lethbridge's Courtney Fraser made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game at 16-all, Northern responded with a 16-2 run to take a 32-18 lead and take control.
Quintyne scored six points during the crucial run, and freshman Josey Walterskirchen added five during the spurt.
Walterskirchen was solid off the bench for the Skylights, whose bench outscored Lethbridge's reserves 28-17.
"All of our girls can play," Fabatz said. "It's all about the team. All of our girls can play and rotate to different positions."
Quintyne, who has been the team's most consistent go-to player this season, said the team's depth has gone a long way toward encouraging her improvement as a basketball player.
"I've improved from my freshman year a whole lot," Quintyne said. "The girls here are really good. They've really helped me a lot."
The Skylights are now set to begin their Frontier Conference schedule when they travel to Salt Lake City to take on Westminster College on Jan. 4.
MSU-Northern 82, Lethbridge 60
LETHBRIDGE (60) Clawson 7-13 7-10 26, Fraser 2-6 1-2 6, Ariss 2-2 0-1 4, Coutts 0-2 3-4 3, Thompson 2-4 0-4 4, Gammon 2-5 1-2 5, Prosser 2-5 3-3 7, Scott 0-1 0-0 0, Tschritter 1-2 0-2 2, Kubik 1-4 1-3 3. Totals 19-44 16-31 60.
MSU-NORTHERN (82) Fabatz 4-7 2-2 13, Quintyne 9-13 0-0 18, Hjorth 0-4 2-2 2, Balgua 2-3 0-3 4, Walterskirchen 2-5 3-4 8, Young 2-11 0-0 6, Munson 3-5 0-2 6, Shoemake 1-3 0-0 3, Burgmaier 1-9 2-2 4, Owens 6-8 6-9 18. Totals 30-68 15-24 82.
Lethbridge
29
31
60
MSU-Northern
42
40
82
