Skylights soar past Eagles; Sweet 16 up next
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
When it comes to postseason basketball, more times than not, seeding means very
little. It doesn't matter if its the NAIA or NCAA tournament.
On Wednesday afternoon at the Oman Arena in Jackson, Tenn., the Montana State
University-Northern Skylights proved that theory correct as the sixth-seeded
Skylights opened their NAIA women's national tournament in rousing fashion by
crushing the third-seeded Oklahoma Christian Eagles 82-68. The win puts the No.
24 Skylights (20-9) into the NAIA Sweet 16 on Friday afternoon.
Northern defeated the No. 13 Eagles (18-10) with a blend of torrid outside
shooting from Jaci Heny, Camille Gardner and Jena Heggem, and a strong inside
game from both DeLayne Johnston and Ashley Trulock.
The Skylights broke open a 9-9 tie with three
first-half 3-pointers from Camille Gardner en route to a commanding 53-31 halftime
lead.
The 3-point shot neutralized the Eagles the entire game as the Skylights made
9-of-14 shots from beyond the arc. That performance offset a game-high 25
turnovers by MSU-N.
“I just had a really good feeling going into the game,” MSU-N head coach Chris
Mouat said. “We looked really sharp in practice this week and the kids came out
and played really well in the first half.”
The Eagles made a run at the Skylights in the second half, and twice they
shaved the lead to nine points. But Heny knocked in four treys on her way to a
game-high 27 points, and the Skylights outrebounded the taller Eagles 45-31.
Both were huge factors in the Skylights' ability to hold off Oklahoma Christian
in the second half.
“It looks like we blew them out, but in reality we really had to hang on late
in the game,” Mouat said. “They are a great team, not a good team. And with 13
minutes left in the game, every one of our post players had four fouls.
“So we really did have to hold on at the end,” he added. “But give our kids a
lot of credit. They were poised and they played with a lot of confidence and
they got the job done.”
Heny and Gardner combined to score 46 points, and together they made seven
threes. Gardner scored 19 points and also dropped in seven assists.
In the paint, the Skylights were also tough despite foul trouble. Junior
DeLayne Johnston poured in 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for her 11th
double-double of the season. Trulock added nine points and 10 rebounds off the
bench. As a team, Northern shot 55 percent from the floor and an astounding 64
percent from the 3-point-line.
Conversely, the Eagles shot a dismal 36 percent (26-72) from the field and they
made just 4-of-20 3-pointers. Senior All-American Lauren Decker paced Oklahoma
Christian with 24 points and leading scorer Rachel Martin chipped in with 16
points. Tasha Turney was the only other Eagle to reach double figures with 13
points.
“I thought the kids did a great job defensively,” Mouat said. “They have a lot
of great athletes and great scorers and our kids did a really good job of
keeping them in check.”
In other first-round action involving Frontier Conference teams, conference
champion UM-Western breezed past William Carey University, 67-51. Both Carroll
College and Lewis-Clark State play opening round games today.
“It's an amazing feeling right now and our kids are ecstatic,” Mouat said. “It
was a lot of fun today. We had the other Frontier schools in the stands pulling
for us and it was just a lot of fun to go out and play as well as we did.
“Now we are back to square one, however,” he added. “We have to put the
emotions of this win behind us and get ready to play another very good team on
Friday.”
The Skylights' second-round opponent will be second-seeded The Master's College
of California. Master's (26-7) defeated Auburn-Montogmery University on
Wednesday night 65-50. The game between MSU-N and Master's will tip off at 2:30
p.m. Friday.
Skylights 82, Eagles 68
OC - Lauren Decker 10-20 4-6 24, LaToisha Ware 1-3 0-0 3, Tasha Turney 4-9 5-5
13, Carlissa Plowden 3-10 0-3 6, Rachel Martin 6-14 2-3 16, Katie Fariss 2-13
0-0 6. Totals: 26-72 12-19 68.
MSU-N - Camille Gardner 4-10 8-8 19, Jaci Heny 8-15 7-10 27, DeLayne Johnston
7-14 1-2 15, Jena Heggem 2-2 0-0 6, Michele VanDyke 3-5 0-1 6, Ashley Trulock
4-5 1-2 9. Totals: 28-51 17-23 82.
Halftime - MSU-N 53, OC 31. 3-pointers - MSU-N 9-14 (Heggem 2, Heny 4, Gardner
3), OC 4-20 (Martin 2, Fariss 2). Rebounds - MSU-N 45 (Johnston 1), OC 31
(Plowden 8). Total fouls - MSU-N 17, OC 21. Fouled out - Martin, Johnston,
VanDyke, Trulock.