Skylights roll to wins in first-ever AmericInn Classic
Monday, Dec. 4
Chris Peterson
Havre Daily News
cpeterson@havredailynews.com
Although the play of the Montana State University-Northern women’s basketball team was not quite flawless, it was plenty good enough for a two-game sweep in the AmericInn classic this weekend.
After picking up an easy win over The King’s University Friday night, the Skylights set their sights on the Vikings of Alberta-Augustana Saturday.
Northern jumped out to an 18-9 advantage, but the scrappy Vikings were determined to not to go down without a fight. They cut the lead down to eight points at 25-17 midway through the first half.
However, the Vikings could not hang on for much longer, and with a 26-11 run to end the first half, the Skylights took a 51-28 lead into the locker room.
“I thought that we did some good things this weekend,” MSUN head coach Chris Mouat said. “We did a pretty good job of running our offense, but we were a bit sloppy at times, causing a lot of turnovers. And we also made some mistakes on defense that we just can’t afford to be making as we prepare for the conference season.”
The Skylights continued to assert their dominance in the second half, extending their lead to 36 points at one point at 86-50, on their way to an easy 99-62 victory.
Senior DeLayne Johnston had a spectacular game, as she scored 24 points grabbed six rebounds and had three assists. Ashley Trulock also had a big game, putting together an impressive double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Chelsie Searle added 14 points and five assists, and Becky Sorenson a contributed with eight points and 10 assists.
As a team, the Skylights tied a school record by amassing an impressive 40 assists in the game.
“I thought that we did play well on offense at times,” Mouat said. “We had a lot of kids that played a lot of minutes, and they all did a good job of sharing the basketball and playing together. But we also made some silly mistakes, and those are the things that we need to correct.”
On Friday night, the Skylights went head-to-head with The King’s University, and despite struggling a little bit in the first half, Northern went on to win easily, 77-42.
The Eagles kept the game fairly close in the first half, and at intermission, the Skylights lead was just eight points at 29-21.
However, in the second half, Northern asserted its dominance over the Eagles, outscoring them 48-21 over the final 20 minutes to give them the 35-point victory.
Michelle
VanDyke led the Skylights with a game-high 17 points.
“I thought we really defended well,” Mouat said. “We held them to just 21 points in each half, which I thought was pretty good. I still think that we had some mental breakdowns that we have got to fix, but overall, it was a pretty good weekend. We still have to get better, and I think we will find this next week how good we are, because we play some very difficult nonconference games, and they will act like a measuring stick for us to determine where were are at right now.”
The Skylights will on the road on Wednesday when they travel to NCAA Division II Montana State-Billings.
Skylights 77, Eagles 42
KU — Trene Tang 2-5 0-0 5; Mala de Clark 3-11 0-0 6; Karin Buisman 1-6 0-1 2; Hilary Smith 4-9 0-0 8; Stacey Sperling 3-9 0-0 9; Meachel Carnahan 2-2 1-2 5; Amy McColl 1-3 1-2 3; Sarah Ramsey 0-1 0-0 0; Sara Johansen 0-2 0-2 0; Karina Leslie 1-4 2-2 4. Totals: 17-52 4-9 42.
MSU-N Chelsie Scarle 2-8 0-0 4; Becky Sorenson 3-9 1-4 7; DeLayne Johnston 7-9 0-0 14; Jena Heggem 3-6 0-1 8; Michele VanDyke 7-9 3-3 17; Kylee Starr 2-4 3-4 7; Amanda Hovey 1-4 0-0 3; Amanda Quartuccio 1-4 1-1 3; Jayla McPherson 1-2 0-0 2; Ashley Trulock 6-10 0-0 12. Totals: 33-65 7-9 77.
18.
Skylights 99, Vikings 62
UAA — Kristin Pierce 2-5 3-4 7, Megan Hogendoorn 1-5 0-0 2, Jessica Binder 3-11 0-0 8, Genna Flinkman 1-4 0-0 2, Meghan Martyna 2-5 2-4 6, Amanda Chytracek 4-6 0-0 11, Jamie Sparrow 4-7 0-0 8, Karla Binder 3-10 2-2 10, Carlee Lussier 0-4 2-2 2, Bryarly Parker 2-6 0-0 4, Madelaine Merkel 0-4 2-2 2.
MSU-N — Chelsie Searle 7-14 0-0 14, Becky
Sorenson 3-6 0-0 8, DeLayne Johnston 10-13 4-5 24,