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Skylights, Lights basketball squads face alumni in season opening
tune-ups
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Although it's October, the round orange things rolling around the Montana
State University-Northern gymnasium won't be pumpkins. Strange as it may
sound, college basketball season is looming and the Lights and Skylights will
kick off their 2003-2004 season with a pair of alumni games on Saturday.
It will be a special night for the Skylight program as the 1993 NAIA national
championship team will be honored at halftime of the men's game. The majority
of the members from that championship team will be playing in the alumni game
as well.
"This is a really big thing for our program," said Skylights head
coach Mike Erickson. "We're trying to bring back the tradition that this
team helped build. It's great that our girls get to see that and meet them
one-on-one."
The squad will feature the entire coaching staff from the championship season
as former head coach and current University of Charleston head coach Sherry
Winn returns to Havre. Her longtime and current assistant Lynne Fitzgerald
will accompany her, and former assistant Jerry Wier will also be in
attendance.
The alumni squad will feature: Shelly (Oakland) Stremcha, Kari (Fike) Filius,
Sheila Ausmus, Jennifer (McGlothlen) Tremblay, Kristin Lawerence, Kim (Fike)
Finn, Jennifer (Horak) Simonson, Charna Ophus, Nikki Fetter and Jodi Kruta.
Filius won't be playing because she is pregnant and former All-American
Kristi Kincaid couldn't be in attendance. Still, the alumni squad features
plenty of talent.
Kruta and Lawerence rank second and fifth on
the Skylights all-time scoring list while Ophus holds the career mark for
assists and Ausmus for three-pointers made.
"The alumni gave us all we could handle last year," Erickson said.
"And they've added some more players. The older you get, the smarter you
are on the floor. It doesn't matter how good of shape the alumni are in, they
are going to be competitive."
All of that experience will be a stark contrast to Erickson's Skylight squad.
The youthful Skylights will have plenty of players making their college
debuts.
"We basically have seven players playing in their first college
game," Erickson said. "It will be interesting to see how they react
to it. We've told them not to be afraid to make mistakes."
Northern does return a solid core of players including starters Kristie
Pullin, Khadiga Mohamed, Anna Bateman and Brett Vermandel along with reserve
Kristal Lohse. Bateman, who was bothered by foot problems at the end of last
season, will not play as she is still recovering from off-season foot
surgery.
Erickson will also look for some production from transfers Michelle VanDyke,
Chasi Buffington and Megan Valgardson. All three have previous college
experience and are expected to be heavy contributors.
Perhaps the thing that Erickson is most interested in is the reaction of his
talented freshman class. Jessi Reome, Heather Riener, Sheena Darlington,
Ashley Trulock, Laura Keaster and Jenna Heggem will all be donning a
Skylights uniform for the first time. And Erickson will be watching closely
how his youngsters adjust to the bigger, faster more intense college game.
"I've been waiting all year for this," Erickson said. "You go
out and recruit and build a team, you can't wait to see them playing against
someone other than themselves."
Thus far into the season, Erickson likes what he sees.
"Defensively, we're ahead of where we were last year," Erickson
said. "We are so much deeper and more athletic. Our defense is going to
keep us in games."
Like Erickson, Lights head coach Shawn Huse has plenty of new faces joining
his nine returning players. The Lights will probably suit up 16 players for
the game.
"It's going to be tricky but we're going to try and get everyone some
minutes and see how they react to the emotion and intensity of a game
situation," Huse said.
However, with his first non-conference games only a week away, Huse isn't
going to burn out his starters this early in the season. Returning
All-American and leading scorer Larry Morinia had some foot problems in early
workouts and won't see a ton of action.
With so many new faces, Huse is using the game as chance to see which players
work best in certain combinations.
Huse returns starting point guard Lamar Morinia, sometime starter Zach
McLean, starter Travis Moran, top reserves Landen Grant and Brian McGowan and
redshirts Leo Bullchild and Walter Runsabove.
They will be joined by transfers Trenton Harbaugh, Dustin Sawejka, Berhane
Williams, Pathe Yatera and Braden Draggoo along with true freshmen Cody
Gillespie, Kellen Hall, Cory Cromwell and Ed Lowe.
"This is a good opportunity to give some our kids that are going to
redshirt a little bit of the limelight," Huse said. "It's a long
season and they're going to have to be full-time practice players and fans so
it's nice to give them a little taste of what they're working towards."
The Lights will be taking on a squad led by last year's captain, Charlie
Ereaux. Joining Ereaux will be alumni squad regulars Buck Merriwether, Tim
Henry and Art Krueger. Also returning is Tim Vandemars, who ranks 12th on
Northern's all-time scoring list.
Other players include Powell Becker, Tom Hennessy, Shawn Wetzel, Walter
Armstrong, Lee Larson, Josh Larson and current assistant coaches Derek Azure
and Tabarus Phillips.
"Buck is a fixture at these games and he plays a lot," Huse said.
"I also have heard that Powell is in good shape and playing. And
Charlie, it doesn't matter what kind of shape he's in, you know he'll play
hard."
"It should be a nice competitive game to start our season," Huse
said. "This will be our only test before we start our nonconference
season next week."
The Skylight alumni game starts at 6 p.m. with the Lights alumni game to
follow. The 1993 championship squad will be honored at halftime of the men's
game.
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