Skylights finish 4-2 record on lengthy, draining Canadian road trip

No offense to our Canadian neighbors to the north, but Montana State University-Northern women's basketball coach Mike Erickson is never making a road trip like this again.

It's not that the hospitality on the Skylights' extended Canadian road trip wasn't great, and it wasn't spending the better part of 10 days in a van with 12 girls, it's just that six games in nine days was a little too much.

The Skylights finished the road trip with a 4-2 record, but ended it on a disappointing note with a 68-63 loss to conference-foe Montana Tech on Sunday at the Mount Royal Classic in Calgary.

"This trip is something that we'll never do again," Erickson said with a bit of a chuckle. "It's too much for one team. Six games in nine days is too hard mentally and physically on the girls."

The brunt of those six games could be felt in the first half of Northern's game with Tech. The Skylights, who were missing two key players, staggered at the beginning of the game on tired legs, making just six of 36 shots in the first half.

"We just couldn't score in that last game," Erickson said. "We missed a ton of layups. I mean uncontested layups. And we'd get the rebound and the putback would be short."

Northern didn't exactly burn up the nets during the road trip, but its shooting woes against Tech was a completely different problem.

"Fatigue was the biggest factor," Erickson said. "We didn't have any legs and then we were missing both of our point guards, which didn't help."

Starting point guard Anna Bateman sat out Sunday's game because of religious reasons, while her backup Jena Heggem was at home in Winifred for her sister's wedding.

Erickson moved forward Khadiga Mohamed to the point and she responded with a game-high 23 points. With Northern down 31-22 in the first half, Mohamed and center Megan Valgardson led the Skylight comeback scoring 15 and 11 points, respectively in the second half.

The Skylights got within one point with less than a minute remaining, but a missed a go-ahead layup with under 20 seconds, forced the Skylights to foul. Tech iced the game from the free-throw line.

"I was glad to see that we fought back after starting off so slowly," Erickson said. "To be in the game the way we were shooting the ball shows that we can easily play with teams like that."

Valgardson finished with 20 points, but no other Skylight reached double figures. Tech was led by transfer Kaila Fowler's 21 points, while Letty Powell and Krystin Mengon chipped in with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Northern opened the Mount Royal tourney with a pair of wins on Friday and Saturday.

The Skylights cruised to a 73-36 win over the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology on Friday night to open the tournament. The Skylights rolled to a 40-21 first half lead and never looked back in the easy win. Northern had four players in double figures led by Jessi Reome and Michele VanDyke, who scored 12 points each. Mohamed added 10 points and eight rebounds, while Kristal Lohse came off the bench to score 10 points.

On Saturday, Northern overcame a poor shooting night to still pick up a 51-38 win over the University of Fraser Valley. Northern shot an icy 18-60 from the field, but made 11 of 19 free throws built a big enough lead to withstand a late Fraser Valley comeback.

If Northern was cold, Fraser Valley was freezing, shooting a 13 for 60 from the field.

"We jumped out to a 21-2 lead," Erickson said. "It was a good thing because we started running out of gas in the second half. We couldn't put the ball in the basket in the second half and it carried over to the Tech game on Saturday."

Mohamed led all scorers with 14 points and seven rebounds. No other Skylight player reached double figures. Reome scored nine points while Valgardson added eight.

"Overall, I liked how we tried to fight through the weekend," Erickson said. "Everybody got chances to play and everybody had some shining moments."

"We worked on a lot of different zone sets. Our defense is our biggest strength right now. We certainly haven't peaked yet. But I think we're ready to with conference season coming up."

Northern, 11-6 on the season, will open Frontier Conference play on Saturday in Havre against the University of Great Falls.

SOUTHERN ALBERTA INSTITUTE (36)

Tammy Dubinsky 0-4 0-3 0, Kelly Post 2-7 0-2 4; Jenna Etcheverry 2-3 2-3 5, Krystal Fahie 1-8 0-1 2, Whitney Jekobssn 0-1 0-3 0, Bobbi Bachynski 0-4 0-0 0, Mara Pratt 6-16 0-0 16, Nicky Connell 0-2 1-3 1, Laura Beeksma 3-6 2-2 8; Lisa Sarrasin 0-1 0-2 0, Kristy Haskell 0-3 0-1 0. Totals: 14-54 4-19 36.

MSU-NORTHERN (73)

Jessi Reome 4-8 2-4 12, Kristie Pullin 2-6 0-0 4, Anna Bateman 2-7 1-2 6, Kristal Lohse 3-4 3-3 10, Khadiga Mohamed 4-13 2-2 10, Chasi Buffington 1-6 2-2 5, Brettney Vermandel 1-5 1-2 3, Sheen Darlington 2-4 1-2 5, Michele VanDyke 4-7 4-5 12, Megan Valgardson 2-7 2-4 6. Totals: 25-67 18-26 73.

Halftime: MSUN 41, SAIT 20. Three-point goals: SAIT 4-21 (Dubinsky 0-2, Post 0-3, Bachynski 0-3, Pratt 4-11, Connell 0-2), MSUN 5-11 (Reome 2-2, Pullin 0-1, Bateman 1-4, Lohse 1-1, Buffington 1-3). Rebounds: SAIT 33 (Fahie 11); MSUN 39 (Valgardson 11, Mohamed 8) Assists: 11 (Connell 4); MSUN 21 (Reome 5, Bateman 5 ). Total fouls: SAIT 21, MSUN 17. Fouled out - none; Technicals - none.

FRASER VALLEY (38)

Kalisha Reid 1-3 4-4 6; Natasha Younker 3-10 0-0 6; Jamie Born 3-8 0-0 6; Estee Clifford 3-16 1-2 9; Shiloh Minor 2-11 1-2 9; Leah Garrigus 0-2 0-0 0; Lauren Alonzo 1-4 0-0 2; Deanna McRae 0-1 0-0 0; Ashley Teister 0-3 1-2 1; Olivia Hunt 0-2 1-2 1. Totals: 13-60 9-14 38.

MSU-NORTHERN (51)

Megan Valgardson 2-8 4-5 8; Anna Bateman 2-13 1-2 6; Khadiga Mohamed 7-11 0-0 14; Brettney Vermandel 1-6 2-2 4; Michele VanDyke 1-2 1-4 3; Jessi Reome 3-10 0-0 9; Kristal Lohse 0-0 0-1 0; Chasi Buffington 1-5 0-0 2; Sheena Darlington 1-3 2-2 4. Totals: 18-60 11-19 51.

Halftime: MSUN 31, FV 16. Three-point goals: FV 3-21 (Reid 0-2, Born 0-1, Clifford 2-11, Minor 1-6. Garrigus 0-1), MSUN 4-14 (Bateman 1-5, Vermandel 0-1, Reome 3-6). Rebounds: FV 40 (Clifford 8, Alonzo 8); MSUN 34 (Mohamed 7) Assists: FV 10 (Reid 3); MSUN 16 (Bateman 4, Pullin 4). Total fouls: FV 20, MSUN 9. Fouled out - none; Technicals - none.

MONTANA TECH (68)

Kyle Cook 1-4 0-0 2, Krystin Mengon 3-4 4-4 12, Letty Powell 4-10 3-4 13, Ali Clarys 1-3 0-0 2, Melissa Ritter 2-5 0-0 4, Kaila Fowler 8-13 2-3 21, Johanna Fryer 2-4 0-0 4, Marcie Alzheimer 3-10 2-4 10. Totals: 24-53 11-15 68.

MSU-NORTHERN (63)

Jessi Reome 2-13 2-3 6, Kristie Pullin 0-3 0-0 0, Kristal Lohse 2-4 1-1 5, Khadiga Mohamed 8-19 7-8 23, Brettney Vermandel 1-6 2-2 4, Michele VanDyke 2-9 1-2 5, Megan Valgardson 6-11 6-10 20. Totals: 21-68 19-29 63.

Halftime: TECH 31, MSUN 22. Three-point goals: TECH 7-14 (Cook 0-1, Mengon 2-2, Powell 2-6, Fowler 3-5), MSUN 3-11 (Reome 1-7, Mohamed 2-3, Buffington 0-1). Total fouls: TECH 18, MSUN 13. Fouled out - none; Technicals - none.