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Overlook' not in Skylights' vocabulary
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Overlook.
Montana State University-Northern women's basketball coach Mike Erickson must
have said the word 747 times this week in practice as his team prepared for
today's Frontier Conference tournament first-round game against the
Univeristy of Great Falls Argos (4-26).
But with his team playing some of its best basketball season and a home court
advantage for this opening round game, Erickson will use the word for the
748th time if it will make a difference.
"When you beat a team like Great Falls that has been on the bottom of
the league for the last few years, it's easy for teams to overlook
them," Erickson said. "We've beat them soundly both times this
year, but it's a different game. Every team is much better this time of the
year and obviously they are a much better team right now."
Indeed, as strange as it may seem to some people not familiar with the recent
conference games, the Argos are playing some of the best basketball in the
conference. UGF has won three of its last five games to vault itself from
last place into the tournament's sixth seed.
Great Falls is coming off a weekend split with Westminster College and
Lewis-Clark State UGF edged Westminster 66-61 and fell to LC 78-76.
"Watching them on videos, I really
believe it's confidence," Erickson said of UGF's recent success.
"They're playing with nothing to lose and everything to gain. They've
been playing the same style of basketball they always have, they're just
making their shots right now."
Make no mistake, Great Falls can shoot the basketball. The Argos have two of
the conference's top five scorers in forward Kim Freeman and guard Nichole
Neill.
And with the recent solid play of former Havre High standout Jayla McPherson,
UGF has a much-needed third scorer which has proven to be the difference in
their recent success.
"It's no secret," Erickson said. "They have them some shooters
on their team. They have gals that can score. If you're not scoring, you'll
be in a tough ball game."
Freeman is third in the conference, averaging 17.2 points per game while
leading UGF with 5.9 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game.
"Freeman is so athletic," said Northern point guard Anna Bateman.
"She can take you inside or hit from the outside. She's one of the best
players in the conference."
Neill, who played with Bateman and the Skylights last season, is fifth in the
conference in scoring at 15.8 points per game and is shooting 39 percent from
three-point range and has sank 51 treys on the season.
"We know that Nichole can shoot it from the outside if left open,"
Erickson said.
Said Bateman: "We need to try and make her first couple shots. If she
makes those first few, she gets confident and really gets going."
McPherson is the wildcard of the trio. At 5-10, she is UGF's tallest starter
and really its only post presence. She established herself as a scoring
threat with a pair of 20-plus point games against Montana Tech and Western.
"We've got to key on their key players, and they have three key players
in Freeman, Neill and McPherson," Erickson said.
UGF's key players will take the majority of the shots and they will take them
early and often. The Argos don't exactly work the shot clock down too much.
"They take quick shots and they get a lot of shots off in a game,"
Erickson said. "Usually it's only one or two passes before a shot goes
up. We have to be aware of that."
To combat Great Falls' quick-strike offense, Northern will look to the one
aspect that has propelled it to three-straight conference wins - ball
pressure.
"That's been our game lately is ball pressure," Bateman said
"That's why we've been on our little run is because we changed up our
defensive strategy and we bring it at teams and see how they handle it."
Ball pressure has proven to be effective against Great Falls in the past. The
Argos committed 52 turnovers combined in the two games against Northern this
season. They are susceptible to mistakes, especially against full-court
pressure. And the Skylights will introduce them to the full-court pressure
early and often in hopes of pushing the pace of play.
"We have to get them in an up-tempo game by making them put it on the
ground in the full-court and half-court and force them into turnovers,"
Erickson said. "We have to be in attack mode on defense and make them
try to play our style of game."
Northern's style is a fast-paced full-court game that should wear down UGF if
executed properly. Both Freeman and Neill play close to 40 minutes per game
and UGF doesn't exactly go real deep into its bench.
"We know that if we play at the tempo we want, we can wear them
down," Erickson said.
To play at the tempo, Northern must not only be good defensively, but it must
rebound and make good decisions with the basketball. You can't start a fast
break without getting a defensive rebound, and you can't score on a fast
break by turning it over.
In the win over UGF in Great Falls, the Skylights made things close in the
first half by committing some silly mistakes with the basketball.
"We need to take care of the ball, down there we didn't do a very good
job," Bateman said. "And rebounding, you can't have a transition game
without rebounding."
Rebounding really hasn't been a problem against UGF 71-48 in the two games.
And with McPherson offering the only low-post defensive presence, the
Skylights' frontcourt, particularly center Megan Valgardson, has flourished.
Valgardson had 23 points and six rebounds in a win over the Argos in Havre,
and Erickson is looking for a repeat performance.
"Megan needs to be our primary factor to our offense," Erickson
said "I told her to expect to be double and triple teams. She's good enough
passer to find our shooters."
The Skylights have two of the most accurate three-point shooters in the
conference in Jessi Reome and Bateman. Reome leads the Frontier in
three-point percentage at 44 percent (32-66). Bateman is eighth at 38 percent
(28-65).
Thanks to Erickson's constant reminders, the Skylights shouldn't overlook the
Argos. Still, that doesn't mean UGF isn't dangerous.
"I must have said it at least five or six times this week, but we can't
allow them even a sniff of victory," Erickson said. "They've won
some games lately and if we allow them to think that they can beat us, they
will play well."
Playing well shouldn't be a problem for Northern. The Skylights have played
extremely well at home of late with their only home conference loss coming to
regular season champ Carroll College.
"We know that this our home crowd and home gym and our last home game
this year," Bateman said. "It's all on our side to perform well and
if we can get a little run early, we can take them right out of the game."
Said Erickson: "I think the girls are excited. The tournament is
something new to everybody. We've accomplished a lot of our goals we set at
the beginning of the season. I just hope they're not satisfied with that. We
can definitely overachieve in what we wanted to do this year and were in a
great position to do it."
The Skylights and Argos tip off at 7 p.m. and can be heard on 92.5 KPQX-FM.
The winner will advance to Monday's semifinal in Butte.
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