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Skylights host Shootout Invitational tourney
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Home court advantage works best when you actually play a few games at
home. For the Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team, it's
a welcome return to the friendly confines of the MSU-Northern gym, albeit a
slightly unfamiliar one.
The Skylights have played just two games at home this season and, despite
practicing in the gym every day, it will be a somewhat unfamiliar setting
when they host Concordia University College tonight in the Skylights Shootout
tournament.
"Last season, we didn't really play well at home until the conference
season," said head coach Mike Erickson. "We haven't played many
games at home this year and it's going to be a little different. It's a
different place when there are fans and people in the stands."
Concordia comes into Havre with a 10-2 record in the Alberta Colleges
Athletic Conference. The Thunder sit atop the ACAC North Division and average
71 points per game while shooting 52 percent from the field.
Still, Concordia is a relative unknown to Erickson, who couldn't get much
information, let alone game film, on the Thunder.
"I really don't know a lot about them," Erickson said. "I do
know they have some size. I am sure they are like most Canadian teams. They
are usually very aggressive and like to press. They are going to come at us,
that's for certain."
The Thunder gets its offense from a variety
of places. No player averages in double figures, but instead there are
several players averaging six to eight points per game, led by 6-0 forward
Lisa Francis and point guard Amber Smart.
One thing Erickson doesn't want his team to do is overlook Concordia. It's
easy to do, especially with a game with Minot State University, coached by Northern
hall of famer Sheila Green-Gerding, looming on Saturday night.
"I know the girls really want to get Minot, but we still have to focus
on Concordia first," Erickson said.
But after tonight, the Skylights will have no trouble motivating themselves to
play Minot. The Beavers handed Northern a 75-56 whipping in Minot about two
weeks ago.
"We did not play well at all," Erickson said. "We just weren't
mentally ready and the ladies all agreed that we need to make an adjustment
in being prepared to play."
In its two losses this season, Northern has been plagued by turnovers. There
are always a few more turnovers early in the season, but these weren't the
type of turnovers that Erickson wanted to see.
"They were unforced turnovers," Erickson said. "We just threw
the ball away. I don't think they forced a single turnover."
Two weeks ago, Northern was still feeling its way through its set offense.
With a passel of new faces, the cohesion would take time. It appeared to get
better in last week's win over Black Hills State as the offense showed signs
it was beginning to click.
However, the cohesion may take a bit of a hit with the possibility of two
starters missing. Transfer Michele VanDyke suffered a broken nose in last
Friday's loss to University of Mary. She played the following night against
Black Hills and scored a season-high 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. But
VanDyke had to have surgery this week and it is highly doubtful she will
play.
Also hurting is senior point guard Anna Bateman. After battling injuries for
much of her career, Bateman was completely healthy last week. However, she
has been bothered by the flu this week and hasn't practiced much. Erickson
said that Bateman's competitive nature probably wouldn't allow something like
the flu to keep her off the court.
Erickson is also banking on the competitive nature of his players to motivate
them for Saturday night's game.
"These girls are so competitive and they come from winning
backgrounds," Erickson said. "I know they want to come out and
avenge the earlier loss."
For Northern to do that, the Skylights must take care of the basketball and
handle Minot's defensive pressure.
"I am hoping we play smarter," Erickson said. "We tried to run
our transition game without any guidance and it turned into a free-for-all.
We threw the ball away and when we didn't do that we took terrible
shots."
Besides handling the Beavers' defensive pressure, Erickson would also like
his team to apply a little defensive pressure.
"We want to pressure them into not running their offense," Erickson
said. "They like to work the shot clock down to 10 seconds. We want to
take away their inside game and make them shoot some quick shots from
outside, basically mess with the tempo of their offense."
Minot State is led by former Malta standout LeAnn Pekovitch. The 5-7
guard/forward won't wow you statistically, but she makes her teammates better
and makes things happen on the floor.
"She's pretty tough," Erickson said. "The ball always goes
through her hands on their offense and she makes them go."
Beside Pekovitch, Minot also gets production from senior guard Andrea
Sebelius and forward Jennifer Sundahl.
The Beavers play with the same relentless intensity that Green-Gerding played
with during her Skylight days.
"Sheila's such a competitor and it definitely rubs off on her
kids," Erickson said. "I'm sure they'll have plenty of people
cheering for her. I know the ladies are very fired up to play them again. It
should be a fun weekend."
The University of Great Falls Argos will be the fourth team in this weekend's
tournament. UGF is led by former MSU-Northern player Nichole Neill and former
Big Sandy standout Sasha Ritter.
UGF will face Minot tonight at 6 p.m. with the Northern-Concordia game to
follow at 8 p.m. Saturday night, UGF will take on Concordia at 6 p.m. with
Northern and Minot tipping off at 8 p.m.
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