Westminster puts Skylights’ season in the books

Friday, March 2

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

gferguson@havredailynews.com

It wasn’t the end to the season the Montana State University-Northern women’s basketball team was looking for, but the 2006-2007 season ended nonetheless.

On Thursday night at the Frontier Conference women’s basketball tournament in Butte, MSU-N’s season came crashing down when the Skylights were beaten by Westminster College, 68-53.

The loss ends MSU-N’s season at 17-12 while the Griffins will move into tonight’s semifinal game against top-seed Lewis-Clark State. The win by Westminster likely assured the Griffins of an at-large bid to the NAIA national tournament, regardless of how they fair the in the rest of the Frontier tourney.

On Thursday night, Northern succumbed to what has been an achilles heel all season long on. The Skylights got off to a very poor start, especially offensively, and they found themselves down 41-22 at halftime. Westminster used a 10-0 run to take a 25-11 lead with 5:31 left in the first half. The Griffins then used a 9-0 run to take a 38-18 lead on a basket by Elisa Leader with 1:48 left in the half. Conversely, the Skylights shot 25 percent from the field in the first half and just 28 percent for the game. Northern also struggled at times from the foul line despite the Griffins being whistled for 26 fouls

“It’s very disappointing right now because we just didn’t play well,” MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well at all and we put ourselves way behind. You just can’t do those things and expect to win in the postseason.”

The Skylights did rally in the second half despite the shooting slump. Twice, MSU-N cut the Griffins’ lead down to seven points late in the second half, the second of which came on a long 3-pointer by backup guard Amanda Hovey.

But Westminster responded by finishing the game on an 11-3 run, a run that MSU-N just didn’t have an answer for.

Leader and Janae Hirschi scored 15 points each to lead Westminster (21-10) to the victory. Northern got 14 points and nine rebounds from DeLayne Johnston in the loss. Johnston made 12 free throws but was held to just one field goal on the night. Michele VanDyke added eight points and Jena Heggem chipped in with six.

“Westminster deserves all the credit tonight,” Mouat said. “They played harder, they played smarter and they played better than we did. They just went out and beat us.”

The season was up-and-down for the Skylights. Just a year removed from making it to the NAIA’s Sweet 16, Northern finished fifth in the league standings with a 6-8 record this year. The road was especially unkind to the Skylights, but even at home, MSU-N did not shoot the ball well over the last three weeks and it caught up with them on Thursday night.

The Skylights lose five outstanding seniors, including Jena Heggem, Jayla McPherson, Chelsie Searle, as well as Johnston and VanDyke. Johnston will likely earn First-Team All-Conference honors for a second straight season.

“It was just tough to watch it end like that,” Mouat said. “It’s always tough when your season ends, but these seniors really care about this team and this program, so I feel terrible that their career ended like this. But I am really proud of every one of them. They have all had a big impact on this program and we will miss all of them.”

In the other women’s quarterfinal on Thursday, third-seeded Carroll College beat Montana Tech, 73-62 setting up today’s other semifinal between the Saints and Rocky Mountain College. The Bears (12-17) shocked second-seeded and ninth-ranked UM-Western in the first round Wednesday.

The 2007 Frontier Conference tournament runs through Saturday night at the MAC in Butte. The women’s championship game is slated to tip off at 6 p.m. on Saturday night.

Westminster 68, MSU-N 53

WC — Evans 2-8 4-6 9, Haberle 3-8 2-3 8, Eckman 1-5 3-3 5, Hirschi 5-12 3-4 15, Leader 6-11 2-2 15, Hoskins 4-4 0-1 9, Padjen 0-0 0-0 0,McDonald 0-0 0-0 0, Remund 2-6 3-4 7, Dodge 0-5 0-0 0, Haslam 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 23-62 18-23 68.

MSU-N — Searle 1-5 2-3 4, Sorenson 1-5 2-2 5, Johnston 1-7 12-16 14, Heggem 3-6 0-1 6, VanDyke 2-5 3-5 8, Starr 2-5 4-4 9, Hovey 1-3 0-0 3, Quartuccio 0-2 0-0 0, McPherson 0-3 0-2 0, Trulock 2-4 0-1 4. Totals 13-45 23-34 53.

Halftime: WC 41, MSU-N 22. 3-point goals: Westminster 4-24 (Hoskins 1-1, Hirschi 1-3, Evans 1-5, Leader 1-5, Eckman 0-2, Haberle 0-4, Dodge 0-4), MSU-N 4-11 (VanDyke 1-1, Starr 1-2, Hovey 1-2, Sorenson 1-2, Scarle 0-1, Heggem 0-1, Quartuccio 0-1, McPherson 0-1). Fouled out: VanDyke. Rebounds: WC 44 (Hirachi 11), MSU-N 40 (Johnston 9). Total fouls: WC 26, MSU-N 23. Technicals: VanDyke 14:25 2nd. .