With a berth in the NAIA national tournament all but
assured, the Montana State University-Northern women's
basketball team served notice on Saturday that plane and
hotel reservations should be made soon.
Lana Quintyne and Abby Hjorth scored 17 and 15 points,
respectively, to lead the 12th-ranked Skylights to a 83-71
Frontier Conference victory over Rocky Mountain in both
teams' final regular season games.
With the win, Northern improved to 10-4 in the Frontier and
23-6 overall. The Bears slipped to 7-7 in conference play
and 14-14 overall.
Northern also secured the No. 2 seed at the conference
tournament slated for March 1-3 at Lewis-Clark State in
Lewiston, Idaho. The Skylights will face the University of
Great Falls in the first round.
Three-point shooting in the second half played a crucial
role in Northern's ability to pull away after going into
halftime tied at 32-all.
The Skylights made 5 of 7 attempts from beyond the
three-point arc during the final 20 minutes to extend their
lead well into double digits midway through the second half.
Northern also pressured the Bears into 21 turnovers,
resulting in 24 points for the Skylights. Rocky managed just
eight points off turnovers.
In addition to her 15 points, Hjorth also had six assists
and three steals. Also scoring in double figures for the
Skylights were Paula Owens (13) and Davina Shoemake (11).
Jada Simonson tossed in 20 points, and Callie Sparing added
10 for the Bears.
Rocky Mountain converted 27 of 37 attempts from the foul
line compared to Northern's 15-for-22 effort to keep the
game marginally close.
MSU-NORTHERN 83, ROCKY MOUNTAIN 71
ROCKY MOUNTAIN (71) Nevrivy 0-0 0-0 0, Hammond 0-1 1-2 1,
Sukut 1-10-0 2, Bergum 1-5 2-4 7, Heggem 1-5 2-4 4, Megyesi
2-5 1-2 6, Heller 2-4 3-6 7, Sparing 1-3 8-8 10, Lei 0-1 1-1
1, Simonson 7-14 6-7 20, DeRudder 2-3 0-0 4, Guest 1-2 2-4
4, Gerber 2-6 1-1 5. Totals 21-52 27-37 71.
MSU-NORTHERN (83) Walterskirchen 0-4 2-2 2, Fabatz 3-10
0-0 7, Quintyne 5-12 7-8 17, Hjorth 6-11 2-4 15, Balgua 3-3
0-0 7, Knox 2-2 0-0 4, Young 1-6 0-0 3, Munson 0-2 0-2 0,
Shoemake 4-5 2-2 11, Rasnick 0-2 0-0 0, Burgmaier 1-3 2-2 4,
Owens 6-6 0-2 13. Totals 31-66 15-22 83.
Rocky Mountain
32
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