Skylights gladly take two road wins at
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily
News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Montana State University-Northern women's basketball coach Mike Erickson
will gladly take a pair of road wins, even his team
didn't play its best basketball of the season.
The Skylights picked up a 72-67 win over the Dickinson State Bluehawks on Friday night of the Montana National Guard
Classic in
"I thought we played good enough to get by," Erickson said. "Any
time you can pick up a pair of wins on the road, you'll take it because they
aren't easy to come by."
Northern jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first half against DSU and led
33-29 at halftime. However, a sluggish second-half start left the Skylights
trailing midway through the second half. With the Bluehawks
holding Northern's post players Megan Valgardson and DeLayne Johnston largely ineffective, the
Skylight guards took over.
Jessi Reome hit a clutch
three-pointer, Kristie Pullin
and Jena Heggem came off the bench to hit key
three-pointers and Jaci Heny
played tough down the stretch as Northern erased a five-point deficit with two
minutes remaining to pick up the win.
"Our guards really carried in us that first game," Erickson said.
"Jessi had a great weekend and Kristie and
Reome finished with a
game-high 19 points, including 5-7 shooting from three-point range. Heny pumped in 18 points and dished out four assists, while
Camille Gardner added 10 points and four assists. Northern's
post players still rebounded very well with Valgardson
pulling down 12 rebounds and
On Saturday night, Northern once again jumped out early against an undermanned
Albertson squad. The Skylights led by as much as 16 points early on and led
34-24 at halftime.
But the Skylights couldn't hold the lead as Albertson came back to cut the lead
down to seven. Northern finally pulled away late in the game thanks to a
balanced score attack.
"We wanted better balance scoring from our inside and outside game and we
did that," Erickson said.
Reome had her second straight 19-point, sinking three
three-pointers. Valgardson rebounded from her tough
Friday night with a 15-point, 11-rebound performance.
"Jessi had a great weekend for us,"
Erickson said. "She is really shooting the ball well."
Despite the wins, Erickson wasn't pleased his team's inability to put teams
away.
"We're not playing two halves of basketball right now," Erickson
said. "I think we get a little tired and have some mental lapses. We start
taking quick shots and not running our offense. We also start giving up easy
shots in our transition defense.
"We can't take plays off. I think we're doing that on offense and defense,
especially when we're up in games. We need to be more disciplined."
Northern will now embark on a three-game
MSU-NORTHERN (72)
Camille Gardner 3-10 2-2 10; Jaci Heny
6-13 3-4 18; Jessi Reome
7-9 0-0 19; DeLayne Johnston 3-8 0-1 6; Megan Valgardson
2-11 1-6 5; Kristie Pullin
2-2 0-2 5;
DICKINSON STATE (67)
Jenna Jellison 2-4 0-0 6; Stacey Milanovich
2-8 2-2 6; Jessica Campbell 4-8 1-2 9; Sara Berglund 6-12 1-2 14; April Tormaschy 3-13 4-6 10; Tiffany Saatzer
0-2 0-0 0; Tanya Saatzer 1-2 0-0 2; Simone Epskamp 1-1 0-1 3; Dana Johnson 2-7 0-1 4; Omoh Odiey 3-6 7-7 13. Totals:
24-63 15-21 67.
Halftime scores: MSU-N 33, DSU 29. Three-point goals: MSU-N 12-24 (Gardner 2-7,
Heny 3-6, Reome 5-7, Pullin 1-1, Heggem 1-3), DSU 4-17
(Jellison 2-4, Berglund 1-6, Tormaschy
0-1, Tiffany Saatzer 0-1, Epskamp
1-1 Johnson 0-4). Rebounds: MSU-N 40 (Valgardson 12,
MSU-NORTHERN (64)
Jessi Reome 8-13 0-0 19;
Camille Gardner 4-9 0-0 9; Jaci Heny
1-7 0-2 2; DeLayne Johnston 2-5 0-0 7; Megan Valgardson
5-11 5-9 15; Kristie Pullin
0-1 1-3 1; Michele VanDyke 3-7 1-1 7; Jena Heggem 2-3 0-0 5; Laura Keaster
0-2 0-0 0; Heather Riener 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 25-58
8-17 64.
Kim Strunk 5-6 8-9 18; Angie Gribble 1-7 4-4 6; Valissa Sneck 2-15 0-0 4; Kasey
Hooter 6-13 0-0 12; Desirae Boudreaux 3-4 1-1 7;
Annie Roeser 0-1 0-0 0; Melissa Murray 1-7 0-0 3;
Megan Dufurrena 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 18-54 13-14 50.
Halftime Score: MSU-N 34, ALB 24. Three-point goals: MSU-N 6-13 (Reome 3-6,