Skylights lose heartbreaker at Tech, fall to Bulldogs
Jan. 29, 2006
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
With road games at much improved Montana Tech and No. 6 UM-Western this weekend, Montana State University-Northern women’s basketball coach Chris Mouat knew the going could be tough.
What Mouat
didn’t anticipate would be just how heartbreaking this Friday night’s trip to
The Skylights were devastated by the Orediggers when Tech’s Kelsey DeVries hit a game-winning 3-pointer as time expired to lift Tech to a 76-75 win on Friday night. And to make matters worse, MSU-N fell to the nationally ranked Bulldogs, 69-58 on Saturday night in Dillon.
“We knew that if we didn’t play well this weekend, we were in trouble,” Mouat said. “We knew these were two very good teams.
“We played well enough to win against Tech and not well enough to lose,” he added. “And credit them. They had the ball last and they made a great play.”
In a seesaw
affair in
Tech’s plan was to get the ball into the hands of star guard Rebecca Gimeno for the final shot. Gimeno drove into the lane, but the Skylights had the play defended, so she kicked it out to DeVries, who in turn, nailed the game-winning shot.
“We wanted the ball last,” Mouat said. “But we went a little early and that gave them time. You have to credit Michele for making those free throws. That was huge. But we left them some time on the clock.
“Our plan was to not let Gimeno get off a shot,” he added. “And we did a great job of that. But she made a great pass and DeVries made a huge shot. That’s the way it goes sometimes. It hurts, and our kids were really disappointed. But it happens.”
MSU-N had fought all night to stay with the Orediggers, who were determined to turn around their 1-4 start in league play. In a high-scoring first half, the Skylights led 40-37.
Tech got a
game-high 24 points from Angela Gimeno and another 18 from Rebecca Gimeno,
which helped keep the Orediggers in the game right to the end. Still, it looked
like the Skylights would walk out of
“It’s a learning experience for us,” Mouat said. “We played hard and we did the right things to win the game. Unfortunately, they just had enough time to make one great play at the end.”
Lost on DeVries’ game-winning shot was an inspired effort by MSU-N senior Jena Heggem. The former Winifred star led the Skylights with a team-high 23 points, including three treys. Heggem was also a a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line. In all, MSU-N had five players in double figures as Becky Sorenson scored 12 points, Chelsie Searle added 11, and VanDyke and DeLayne Johnston chipped in with 10 points apiece.
“
After the devastating loss to Tech on Friday night, MSU-N had to try and find a way to regroup against the highly-touted Bulldogs on Saturday night.
Northern played extremely well defensively, but in the end, Western’s big tandem of Kathrine Sunwall and Becky O’Neil proved to be too much for the Skylights to overcome as the Bulldogs won, 69-58.
“I was really pleased with the way we played defensively,” Mouat said. “Especially in the first half. But we couldn’t make shots. We missed right along with their misses and so the game stayed very low-scoring for a long time.
“Eventually though, their size really changed the game,” he added. “Sunwall wound up with six blocks, and they just were too much for us. They are a great team with a lot of weapons. But I was really pleased with the way our kids played, especially after Friday night.”
VanDyke had
another big game for MSU-N on Saturday night. The senior from
Meanwhile, Sunwall was the force that everyone expected her to be. The 6-3 senior scored 13 points and pulled down 14 boards to go along with her six blocks. O’Neil chipped in with 12 points for UM-Western.
“This was a tough trip,” Mouat said. “But we’ll learn from it, and now it’s time to respond. We have a lot of tough games ahead of us, but we have five at home. These kids have been through a lot over the last 18 months and I trust that they will rebound from this.”
Northern is
now 3-4 in the Frontier Conference and in a tie for fourth place with Tech and
The
Skylights will be at home this weekend to host
Orediggers 76, Skylights 75
MSU-N — Chelsie Searle 5-8 0-1 11, Becky Sorenson 5-9 0-0
12, DeLayne
TECH — Rebecca Gimeno 5-17 6-6 18, Angela Gimeno 10-19 1-2 24, Andrea Thomas 5-10 3-4 14, Teresa Merrill 2-5 0-0 4, Jenessa Todd 3-6 1-2 8, Kelsey DeVries 2-5 1-1 6, Becky Roll 1-3 0-0 2.
Halftime: Northern 40, Tech 37. Three-pointers MSU-N 6-11 (Searle 1, Sorenson 2, Heggem 3), Tech 8-21 (R. Gimeno 2, A. Gimeno 3, Thomas 1, Todd 1, deVries 1). Rebounds: MSU-N: 35 (VanDyke 6), TECH 33 (Thomas 8). Fouls: MSU-N 14, TECH 17. Fouled out: A. Gimeno, Thomas.
Bulldogs 69, Skylights 58
MSU-N — Chelsie Searle 2-6 0-0 6, Becky Sorenson 2-10 3-4 9, DeLayne Johnston 2-8 4-5 8, Jen Heggem 2-8 0-0 8, Michele VanDyke 7-12 0-2 16, Amanda Quartuccio 1-2 0-0 2, Jayla McPherson 0-2 1-2 1, Ashley Trulock 4-9 0-0 8. Totals: 21-61 8-13 58.
UMW — Laura Shea 3-7 0-1 9, Becky O’Neil 6-12 0-0 12, Katherine Sunwall 5-6 3-4 13, Cyrstal Kain 4-8 0-1 8, Megan Schmitz 2-7 2-2 8, Kaylee Williams 2-3 0-0 5, Colette Behrent 0-2 4-4 4, Heather Brooks 1-4 0-0 3, Jill Dana 1-8 2-2 5. Totals: 24-56 11-14 69.
Halftime: UMW 25-22. Three-pointers: MSU-N 8-17 (Searle 2-4, Sorenson 2-5, Johnston 0-1, Heggem 2-5, VanDyke 2-2), UMW 10-28 (Shea 3-5, Kain 2-6, Schmitz 2-6, Williams 1-2, Brooks 1-4, Dana 1-5). Rebounds: MSU-N 39 (Trulock 6), UMW 38 (Sunwall 14). Fouls: MSU-N 17, UMW 13. Fouled out: none.