Skylights look to continue winning ways in conference season
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Montana State University-Northern women's basketball coach
Nope, there is a daily reminder when he walks into his office in bold letters
of the headline: "Bulldogs thump Lights."
Technically, it should be the Skylights, but it really doesn't matter to
Erickson. All he wants is to erase that 80-54 loss to UM-Western in last year's
Frontier Conference tournament from his mind, by starting off the conference
season with a win over the 22nd-ranked Bulldogs tonight at the MSU-Northern gymnasium.
"It's been there reminding me every day," Erickson said of the
clipping. "I am excited to get the conference season started and put that
game out of my mind."
While Erickson wants to forget the game, he isn't letting his players.
"If they didn't remember, they do now," he said. "I'm not going
to beat it to death, but it should be some motivation. It wasn't our best
performance by any means."
Really though, any time Northern and Western
hook up there shouldn't be a lack of motivation. The two teams have played some
very tough games in the past two seasons with Northern besting the Bulldogs at
home the last two seasons.
Under ninth-year head coach Kevin Engellant, Western is looking to continue the
standard of excellence it has set during his tenure.
Despite losing starting center Jill Feller for the season, the Bulldogs won the
tournament championship game last season and advanced to the NAIA national
tournament with a relatively inexperienced squad.
Just about everyone returns from last year's squad and a healthy Feller returns
to make the Bulldogs a viable conference title contender again.
Feller is one of the most dominant post players in the conference. The 6-4
senior transferred in two years ago from
But this season, she appears to be completely healthy, averaging 15.5 points
and 9.5 rebounds per game. She is also shooting 59 percent from the field.
Basically, when she gets the ball inside - she scores. To make matters worse,
Feller's frontcourt mate Katherine Sunwall also causes teams problems.
The 6-1 Sunwall was named the Frontier Conference player of the week after
scoring 43 points, grabbing 19 rebounds and blocking seven shots in two games
for the Bulldogs.
"Western is beating up teams inside," Erickson said. "That's
their mainstay and we have to try and take it away."
It's not a totally implausible idea. Northern is one of a few teams that has
comparable size and athleticism, but it boils down to execution.
"They run a lot of high-low looks," Erickson said. "It's
something that we are very familiar with. We match-up pretty good in terms of
size and quickness. But we have to play smarter defensively, we can't have our
post players get into foul trouble because we aren't very deep up front."
To make matters worse for Erickson, the Bulldogs outside shooting is very
capable of hurting the Skylights if they focus too much on defending inside.
Leading the Bulldog perimeter attack is former Havre High standout Alyssa
Matter. Now a senior, Matter has given Erickson his fair share of headaches the
past few years.
"I don't know what it is, but Matter absolutely kills us from the outside
every time we play," he said. "She always seems to shoot well from
outside against us."
To be even more specific, Matter seems to play well when she returns home. Last
year, she basically kept Western in the game here in Havre, sinking five
three-pointers en route to 19 points.
"We have to know where she is at all times," Erickson said.
Matter will also have some help on the perimeter from fellow senior Hillary
Taylor, who is averaging 12.4 points and 4.6 rebounds per game and is shooting
50 percent from three-point range. Sophomore point guard Megan Schmitz is also
a factor from the outside, having made 24 three-pointers on the season.
"Our philosophy is still to take away the inside game and make them beat
us from the outside," Erickson said. "Western is a very disciplined
team and they run their sets very effectively. They are going to be patient and
take good shots."
A key for Northern will be rebounding so the Bulldogs don't get second
opportunities to reset up their offense.
"We have to give them one shot and one shot only on a possession,"
Erickson said. "They will capitalize on second opportunities. We also have
to be smart on defense, not just in the post, but the entire team. It is going
to take team-effort defensively."
While Northern is completely focusing its efforts on tonight's game against
Western, Saturday's game against Montana Tech is also in the back of the
Skylights' minds.
The Orediggers may only sport a 4-10 record so far, but Erickson is still wary
of the game.
"Tech's a very streaky team," he said. "They have played very
well at times this season against some good teams. They like to work the ball
inside and have some good shooters."
Indeed, junior post player Marcie Alzheimer is averaging close to 10 points and
nine rebounds per game, while senior shooting guard Kaila Fowler is averaging
11.1 points per game and is threat from three-point range.
"Tech has the same philosophies as Western," Erickson said. "The
big thing is that they are going to come in here with nothing to lose and
compete hard."
Erickson hopes his players, who are in the midst of a 10-game winning streak,
are ready for it. The majority of his players know exactly what Frontier
Conference play is all about and he hopes they respond accordingly.
"We seem to really get up for the games we need to get up for,"
Erickson said. "I think it's a sign of maturity. It's a different
mentality for conference play. You're playing for keeps."