Skylights pull away late to win season opener

On Friday night, the Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team started its season at home in Havre. But instead of playing at Armory Gymnasium, the Skylights played against The King's University at Havre High Gymnasium to open the year. Despite the venue change, the Skylights won, 75-56, to start the year.

While the Skylights came away with the win, MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat believed the Skylights could have been better. In their season opener, the Skylights shot 37.5 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from the free-throw line. More importantly, the Skylights had 20 turnovers in the game.

"I thought we did not execute at a high level for the majority of the game. Credit to (TKU) for their defense and the things they were doing but we were sloppy," Mouat said. "Twenty turnovers, bad shooting percentage, bad from three, too many missed free throws but those are all things we can fix so we'll go to work on it right now."

Thankfully for the Skylights, they played well on defense. As a team, the Eagles shot 39.6 percent from the field, 17.6 percent from the 3-point line and 53.6 percent from the free-throw line. They also had 30 turnovers and only eight assists as a team. Their leading scorer was Aneilia Ayotte who went 7-for-13 from the field and 7-for-13 from the line for 21 points.

It was a slow start on offense for both teams in the game. On their opening possession of the game, Ryley Kehr went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line to give the Skylights a 1-0 lead. That remained the score over the next few minutes as both teams missed shots and committed turnovers. Casey Belway finally made a layup to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.

About a minute later, Kehr went back to the free-throw line and made both shots to give Northern a 3-2 lead. After a turnover by the Eagles, Kehr made a layup to add onto the lead. Despite some struggles in the first half for the team, Mouat credited Kehr for her play as she finished the game going 5-for-10 from the field and 8-for-10 at the charity stripe for 19 points to lead the team.

The Eagles used some free throws to cut the Northern lead to 7-5. But on back-to-back possessions, a layup from Savannah Toms and a three from Sydney Hanson quickly extended the lead to 12-5. The Eagles responded with a 6-1 run to cut Northern's lead to 13-11 to end the first quarter.

The Skylights started the second quarter strong with a 9-0 run as four different players scored a basket to make it 22-11. The Eagles tried to break up the run but the Skylights pushed the lead to 31-16 late in the half.

The Eagles went on a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to single digits again. But Kehr ended the half strong with a pair of free throws and then a layup to make it 35-24 at halftime.

Throughout most of the third quarter, the Skylights and Eagles exchanged scores as the Skylights had a 46-35 lead. The Eagles found momentum with a 4-1 run to cut the deficit to 47-39. After a pair of free throws from Taya Trottier to make the lead double digits again, the Eagles went on a 5-2 run to cut Northern's lead to 51-44 heading to the fourth quarter.

Outside of a 3-pointer from Dulci SkunkCap, the first couple minutes of the fourth quarter were slow offensively. The teams then exchanged some free throws with Northern having a 57-45 lead.

Over the next few minutes, the Skylights began to pull away. After a bucket from the Eagles, Shyan Krass made a 3-pointer in response. Sydney Hanson then made a free throw and later a jump shot to extend the lead to make it 63-47 halfway through the final quarter.

Kehr got back in the action with a layup and a free throw to make it 66-47. After the Eagles scored, a layup from Jalen Callender and some free throws from Hanson extended the lead to 70-48. After some struggles throughout the game, Mouat believed the Skylights had found their rhythm in the fourth quarter.

"When we executed and when we knew where we were supposed to go and we looked organized, we scored or we got good looks," Mouat said.

With that sizable lead, the Skylights cruised over the next few minutes for the win to start the season. The Skylights will have a quick turnaround as they will next play Tuesday against Dickinson State University. While the Skylights will be coming off a victory, Mouat knows there is plenty of room for improvement.

"We're back to work, back to practice and getting ready for Dickinson State," Mouat said. "We're going to be seeing a team that the last time we played, they beat us so we're going to have to play a lot better."

The MSU-N women's basketball team will play Dickinson State University this Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Armory Gymnasium.

MSU-Northern 75, TKU 56

TKU - 11 13 20 12 - 56

MSU-N - 13 22 16 24 - 75

TKU - Aneilia Ayotte 7-13 7-13 21, Megan Aleman 5-13 8-14 19, Jamie Bunting 3-5 0-1 7, Ella Majeau 3-8 0-0 7, Casey Belway 1-4 0-0 2, Alyssa Yorke 0-2 0-0 0, Kayla Soetaert 0-2 0-0 0, Tori Day 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 19-48 15-28.

MSU-N - Ryley Kehr 5-10 8-10 19, Sydney Hanson 4-7 5-7 14, Shyan Krass 5-6 1-2 12, Jalen Callender 4-6 0-2 8, Briaunna McCullough 2-12 2-4 6, Savannah Toms 1-4 4-6 6, Taya Trottier 1-11 2-2 4, Dulci SkunkCap 1-4 0-0 3, ShaAnn Danelson 1-2 0-0 3, Rachel Van Blaricom 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 24-64 22-33.

Halftime: MSU-N 35-24. TKU 3-pointers 3-17 (Jamie Bunting 1, Ella Majeau 1, Megan Aleman 1), MSU-N 5-18 (Ryley Kehr 1, Sydney Hanson 1, Shyan Krass 1). Rebounds: TKU 33 (Megan Aleman 10), MSU-N 40 (Shyan Krass 8). Fouls: TKU 23, MSU-N 19. Fouled Out: Megan Aleman, Briaunna McCullough.