Planes,
trains and automobiles greet Skylights
By Ryan
Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
The players and coaches in
the Montana State University-Northern basketball programs had to feel just like
they were in a movie. No, it wasn't "Hoosiers," "Blue
Chips" or any other basketball movie. It was more like "Planes,
Trains and Automobiles."
Unfortunately, Steve
Martin and John Candy aren't on this trip for entertainment as the Lights and
Skylights left Wednesday to head south to Salt Lake City to play Westminster
College tonight and hit the road to face Lewis-Clark State on Saturday.
While every road trip in
the conference is difficult, this trip is particularly grueling because of the
the form of travel. The Lights and Skylights will literally be taking planes,
trains and automobiles on this trip, just not in that particular order. And
thus far their trip has gone much like the movie.
Northern left Havre
Tuesday afternoon on Amtrak headed west to Spokane to catch a Wednesday evening
flight to Salt Lake City. However, the trip took a little longer than planned -
by about eight hours. The teams finally rolled into Spokane at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
After a quick practice at Gonzaga, they flew into Salt Lake City.
"It's definitely been
an interesting trip so far," said Lights head coach Shawn Huse on
Wednesday night.
Obviously, interesting can
be defined in several ways. But to say that the travel debacle doesn't take its
toll on a team would be naive.
Skylights head coach Mike
Erickson referred to the effects of travel before his team left Havre and on
its two-day odyssey.
"It's hard to stay
focused when you are traveling that long and that far," Erickson said.
"Obviously, going through all the changes will be difficult, but every
road trip in the Frontier Conference is difficult on some level."
Besides the distractions,
this trip will be challenging on the court as well. Both Westminster teams are
playing very good basketball as of late, while Lewis-Clark State was picked to
finish first in both preseason polls, with both teams featuring rosters loaded
with talent.
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SKYLIGHTS OUT TO END
ROAD WOES It's pretty simple for
the Skylights; when they score points, they win. Northern's offense,
particularly on the road, has been far from explosive in recent weeks. The
Skylights have failed to score over 80 points in their last 12 road games. It's not that they
aren't used to playing away from the MSU-Northern gym. On the contrary,
Northern has played just seven of its 22 games at home. The Skylights are
very used to playing on the road, but they must turn it up a level this
weekend against two of the better teams in the Frontier Conference. The Skylights will try
and pick up their second-consecutive win in Salt Lake City against
Westminster tonight. Northern picked up its first ever win in Westminster,
70-66, last season. However, the current
Griffin squad is much different than last season. Westminster returns
all-everything player Rebekah Steenblik, who led the Frontier in scoring and
rebounding. The 6-0 senior is second in the conference in scoring at 18.3 points
per game and fourth in rebounding at 7.9 boards per game. Steenblik's slight drop
in production is due to having a better supporting cast surrounding her this
season. The Griffins are no longer a one-woman show. "Last year, she was
their only player," Erickson said. "This year they have added
another post player and a guard to take some of the pressure off her." Sophomore forward Shalee
Fackrell is averaging 12.1 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. At 6-0, she
provides complements Steenblik's size and forces teams to not double team
Steenblik. Fellow sophomore Emily Johnson is averaging 10.1 points and 4.1
assist per game as the Griffins' point guard. "They are coming
off a big win over LC," Erickson said. "So they are going to be
playing with a lot of confidence. But I'm still glad we're playing them
first." Erickson's reasoning is
that his team should be able to use its rejuvenated full-court pressure to
force the Griffins into a full-court game which limits Steenblik and
Fackrell's effectiveness. "After the way we
played in the second half against Carroll last week, we're want to come out
with that same type of pressure," Erickson said. "I feel like we
can use that full-court pressure to get some turnovers. If we can turn it
into a running game it works to our favor." On Saturday, the
Skylights will face their toughest nemesis of last season in the Lewis-Clark
State Warriors. LC gave Northern fits last season with its full-court,
in-your-face, defensive pressure. The Warriors defeated Northern by 15 and 17
points last season and return almost every player from that squad led by
sophomore forward Cami Kalbfleisch and senior shooting guard Jessica Foote. Kalbfleisch is third in
the Frontier in scoring at 16.7 points per game while pulling down six
rebounds per game. Foote is averaging 13.7 points and 4.3 assist per game.
The duo are also the top two three-point shooters in the Frontier having
knocked down a combined 118 triples on the season. "They have very
good size inside and like to slow it down," Erickson said. "We need
to force them into our style of game and wear them down with our depth. Our
bench will be our key. We need to keep our intensity level high all weekend
and we'll need our bench to do that." Tonight's games will not
be broadcast on the radio, however Saturday's games can be heard on 92.5
KPQX-FM and start at 6 and 8 p.m. |
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