Reome's shooting leads Skylights past Tech; Bulldogs get revenge
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
All things considered, Montana State University-Northern women basketball
head coach
A sluggish Skylight squad fought its way back from an early first-half deficit,
to knock off the Montana Tech Orediggers 72-62 on Saturday night in
"It wasn't our best game by any means," Erickson said. "I don't
know if it was the elevation or the travel, but we just seemed really sluggish
early on and never got in a rhythm."
Because of that lack of energy, the Skylights weren't able to use their vaunted
full-court pressure, which allowed Montana Tech to get comfortable early on.
And the Diggers were anything but sluggish to start the game. They jumped out
to a 17-6 lead, as Letty Powell buried a pair of early three-pointers.
"Tech came out and played with a lot of emotion early on," Erickson
said. "They hit some early shots and got some confidence."
One Northern player who wasn't exactly sluggish was Jessi Reome. She buried
four 3-pointers to pull the Skylights back into the game and left them trailing
35-32 at halftime.
Despite a not-so brilliant first half, Erickson
wasn't too worried since his team has been in the situation before.
"We weren't panicking," he said. "We just needed to start
getting some stops and start getting some shots to fall."
Northern picked up the intensity in its half-court defense and Reome took care
of the offense.
Reome sank four more 3-pointers in the second half to tie the school-record of
eight and propel a big second-half comeback against the upset-minded Diggers.
"Jessi really got going," Erickson said. "When she is able to
get good looks and in rhythm, she's going to make those shots.
"The rest of the girls did a good job of recognizing that Jessi was hot
and getting her the ball for good looks."
Once Reome got going, her teammates followed suit. Camille Gardner and Jaci
Heny buried big 3-pointers down the stretch as Northern sealed the game late.
Reome finished with a game-high 26 points on 9-16 shooting and 8-13 shooting
from 3-point range.
But for all the long-range bombing, Erickson credited Northern defensive
intensity as the reason for the win.
"We won the game with our defense in the second half," he said.
"Since we weren't able to press, we really defended them in the half court
and took them out of their sets. It was big to get a win considering we didn't
play our best basketball."
Unfortunately, that theory wouldn't hold up on Saturday night in Dillon.
Again the Skylights came out sluggish against a vengeful UM-Western squad, but
this time there would be no comeback for the Skylights.
The Bulldogs, despite missing All-American center Jill Feller, avenged an
earlier loss to Northern with a 74-51 win.
"They just beat us," Erickson said. "Western was more aggressive
than us and came out ready to play."
The sluggishness contributed to an extremely poor shooting night for the
Skylights. They shot an icy 27 percent (15-55) from the field, continuing their
poor shooting record in Western's Stroud Gymnasium.
"I don't know what it is about that place, but we just don't shoot well
there," Erickson said. "It was ugly. But we didn't do a very good job
of working as hard to get open looks. They took us out of our offensive sets and
we looked a step slow."
The Skylights were ice cold in the first half, making just seven field goals
and committing costly turnovers to trail 34-22 at halftime.
Still, Northern had chances in the second half to make a game of it, cutting
the lead to nine with eight minutes left. However, the Bulldogs scored on three
straight possessions to push the lead back to double figures.
Western was not particularly sharp offensively, shooting just 40 percent from
the field. However, the Bulldogs outrebounded Northern
53-32 and corralled a whopping 22 offensive rebounds.
"We just didn't play very well," Erickson said. "I take some of
the blame for it, because I didn't have the girls
prepared enough. It was a lesson to be learned."
Nortehrn's only player in double figures was Heny with 14 points. Hillary
Taylor led Western with 17 points. Katherine Sunwall added 10 points and 14
rebounds.
MSU-NORTHERN 72, MONTANA TECH 62
MSU-NORTHERN (20-6, 6-2)
Jessi Reome 9-16 0-0 26, Camille Gardner 4-8 2-2 14, Jaci Heny 5-11 0-0 11,
Michele VanDyke 3-6 0-2 6, Ashley Trulock 1-2 0-0 2, Heather Riener 0-0 0-0 0,
Kristie Pullin 0-4 0-0 0, DeLayne Johnston 2-9 2-2 6, Jena Heggem 0-0 0-0 0,
Megan Valgardson 2-5 3-3 7. Totals 26-61 7-9 72.
MONTANA TECH (4-18, 1-7)
Letty Powell 7-11 3-6 17, Kate Streitz 2-5 0-0 4, Collette Phillips 7-1 0-0 14,
Marcie Alzheimer 4-10 2-2 10, Kaila Fowler 2-8 2-3 6, Shelli Vicars 0-1 0-0 0,
Jessie O'Neil 1-2 0-0 3, Kyle Cook 0-0 0-0 0, Stephanie Baertsch 3-9 0-0 8,
Carrie Porter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 26-57 4-5 62.
Halftime: Tech 35-32. 3-point goals: MSU-N 13-27 (Reome 8-13, Gardner 4-7, Heny
1-4, Pullin 0-1, Valgardson 0-1), Tech 6-13 (Powell 3-6, Fowler 0-1, O'Neil
1-2, Baertsch 2-4). Rebounds: MSU-N 33 (Heny 6, Trulock 6), Tech 35 (Phillips
10). Assists: MSU-N 12 (Heny 5), Tech 12 (Strietz 3, Fowler 3). Blocks:MSU-N 2 (Reome 1,
UM-WESTERN 74, MSU-NORTHERN 51
MSU-NORTHERN (20-7, 6-3)
Michele VanDyke 2-7 3-6 7; Megan Valgardson 2-7 0-2 4; Jessi Reome 3-17 0-0 6;
Jaci Heny 2-7 10-12 14; Camille Gardner 2-8 2-2 7; Heather Riener 1-1 1-2 4;
Kristie Pullin 1-3 1-2 3; DeLayne Johnston 0-1 0-0 0; Jena Heggem 2-4 0-0 6.
Totals: 15-55 17-26 51.
UM-WESTERN (18-6, 6-3)
Hillary Taylor 8-15 0-0 17; Katherine Sunwall 2-8 6-8 10; Alyssa Matter 1-6 7-8
9; Megan Schmitz 3-9 3-4 11; Billi Suhr 2-6 0-2 5; Lindsey Scott 3-7 0-0 8;
Laura Shea 1-1 0-0 3; Michelle Sullivan 1-1 0-0 2; Heather Kennedy 2-6 3-4 9.
Totals: 23-59 19-26 74.
Halftime score: UM-W 34, MSU-N 22. 3-point shooting: MSU-N 4-18 (Valgardson
0-1, Reome 0-7, Heny 0-2, Gardner 1-4, Riener 1-1, Pullin 0-1, Heggem 2-2),
UM-W 9-28 (Taylor 1-4, Matter 0-3, Schmitz 2-6, Suhr 1-4, Scott 2-5, Shea 1-1,
Kennedy 2-5). Rebounds: MSU-N 32 (VanDyke 5, Heny 5,