@UNCBearsWBB Voted Big Sky Preseason Favorites

OGDEN, Utah – Northern Colorado women's basketball team has a target on its back this year, after being picked to finish atop the Big Sky Conference for the 2017-18 season by both the conference coaches and media. The conference released both the Preseason Polls and All-Conference team Friday morning. To go along with being the Big Sky favorites, UNC's Savannah Smith was selected to the Preseason All-Conference team.

The Bears earned the top spot from the coaches by garnering nine first-place votes and 115 total points to finish 15 points ahead of second place North Dakota. Meanwhile, in the media poll, UNC received eight of the 16 first-place votes and finished 20 points ahead of once again second place pick North Dakota 176-156.
Fourth-year head coach Kamie Ethridge leads a team that returns 84.2 percent of its playing time from last season including its top three scorers, leading rebounder and assists leader. Last season, the Bears went 22-8 and 14-4 in Big Sky play finishing third in the conference.

The team's big three of Savannah Smith, Savannah Scott and Courtney Smith return this season. Savannah Smith led the team with 15.9 points per game, connecting on 34.3 percent of her 3-pointers while grabbing 3.6 rebounds and dishing out 2.6 assists a game. Her efforts earned her First Team All-Big Sky honors as a redshirt sophomore, and bring even higher expectations for the 2017-18 season with the Preseason All-Conference selection.

Savannah Scott earned Second-Team All-Big Sky accolades and returns for her senior campaign after finishing tied second in points (14.0), rebounds (5.6) and assists (3.6) per game on the team last year. She led Northern Colorado in 3-point shooting, with an impressive 45.0 percent mark.

While the Savannahs provided a 1-2 punch for Northern Colorado on the perimeter, Courtney Smith did her work in the paint. She finished tied with Scott scoring 14.0 points per game and leading in rebound (5.9) and blocks (1.2). Courtney led the team by shooting 60.1 percent from the field.

Following UNC and North Dakota as 1, 2 in both polls, the results of the media and coaches' poll became mixed. Montana State, Idaho and Montana rounded out the top five of the media poll in the respective order. The coaches chose those same three teams to round out their top five, but in the order of Montana, Montana State and Idaho.

Joining Northern Colorado's Savannah Smith on the Preseason All-Big Sky team is Preseason MVP Delaney Hodgins of Eastern Washington, Ashley Bolston of Portland State, Idaho's Mikayla Ferenz and North Dakota's Lexi Klabo. The sixth member of the team was supposed to be Montana senior guard Kayleigh Valley. Valley was originally voted Preseason MVP, but the Griz announced earlier this week that her season and career came to an unfortunate end when she suffered a knee injury for the second consecutive year.

The preseason favorite Bears start the 2017-18 season with an exhibition on Halloween night against Division II Colorado State-Pueblo. Tip-off between UNC and CSUP is set for 7 pm MT. Northern Colorado's regular season starts on November 10th at DePaul. The team's home opener takes place five days later when LSU visits Bank of Colorado Arena on November 15. Big Sky play begins just before the New Year for UNC when they travel to Eastern Washington on December 28th.

Season tickets for the women's basketball season start at just $60. UNC welcomes some of the best in women's basketball to Bank of Colorado Arena this season in LSU, BYU, and Colorado State. The 15 game home slate also features top Big Sky teams Montana, Montana State and North Dakota.

To stay up to date on all things UNC women's basketball, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Twitter at @UNCBearsWBB.

Coaches' Poll

Place	Team (1st Place Votes)	Total Points
1	Northern Colorado (9)	115
2	North Dakota (1)	100
3	Montana (2)	89
4	Montana State	83
5	Idaho	82
6	Portland State	75
7	Eastern Washington	73
8	Idaho State	63
9	Sacramento State	37
10	Weber State	34
11	Northern Arizona	24
12	Souther Utah	17

Media Poll

Place	Team (1st Place Votes)	Total Points
1	Northern Colorado (8)	176
2	North Dakota (2)	156
3	Montana State (3)	144
4	Idaho	127
5	Montana (2)	120
6	Eastern Washington	118
7	Idaho State	116
8	Portland State (1)	110
9	Weber State	66
10	Sacramento State	61
11	Northern Arizona	24
12	Souther Utah	20