Preview: Quick Turnaround, @UNCBearsWBB Takes on Liberty Wednesday

Wednesday, December 20

Kansas City, Mo.

12 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Liberty

12/19/2017 8:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Northern Colorado Notes

Northern Colorado faces a quick turnaround by facing Liberty in the Roos Holiday Classic Wednesday afternoon

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado women's basketball goes from a nine-day break to games on back-to-back days as they face Liberty Wednesday at noon. It is the second of two games for each team at the Roos Holiday Classic hosted by UMKC. Both UNC and LU are coming off wins on Tuesday with the winner of the game being named the champion.

Fans not in attendance can listen to the game on Liberty.edu/flames, follow live stats on UNCBears.com and look for live updates on the team's Twitter account at @UNCBearsWBB.

Opening Tip
• Northern Colorado picked up an 88-73 win over UMKC to begin the Roos Holiday Classic on Tuesday.
• The Bears shot well all game long with a 61.2 percent mark from the field.
• Senior Savannah Scott passed the 1,000 points scored mark as she finished the game with 21 points.
• Courtney Smith had a 17 point second half on her way to a 24 point performance.
• Liberty opened the Roos Holiday Classic with a 82-69 win over Denver on Tuesday.
• The Lady Flames are a hot team of late winning four of its five past games.
• Wednesday's game is the de facto championship for the Holiday Classic as the winner will finish it 2-0.
• This is the first meeting between UNC and Liberty.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado overcame adversity to earn an 88-73 win over UMKC. UNC played without Savannah Smith while Savannah Scott was battling the flu bug and Courtney Smith dealt with foul trouble. Despite all of the adversity, Northern Colorado ended up having four players finishing in double figures led by Scott and C. Smith's 45 combined points.

Scouting the Lady Flames
Liberty trailed by as much as 10 against Denver on Tuesday but ended up earning the come back win by defeating the Pioneers 82-69. LU improved to 5-5 on the season with the win.

The Lady Flames have won four of its past five games after starting the season 1-4. Three of those four wins have come at home for 19th-year head coach Carey Green.

KK Barbour is the lone player on Liberty's roster averaging double figures scoring with 10.5 points per game. Teammate Keyen Green is just a tick below double digits at 9.9 ppg. While only one Lady Flame is averaging over 10 points a game, five are averaging at least five.

Liberty is outrebounding its opponents by 6.9 a game led by the efforts of Barbour and Green grabbing 5.2 and 5.4 rebounds a game. Coming into the season, LU was picked to finish second in the Big South behind Radford.

Last Time Against Liberty
This is the first-ever meeting between Northern Colorado and Liberty.

Against the Big South
Just like it is the first meeting between UNC and LU, its the first time the Bears have faced a Big South school as well.

On This Date
It's been seven years since Northern Colorado played on December 20, when they hosted and defeated San Francisco 74-46. Overall on the day, the Bears are 5-3. The team has played just one game on the road on the date falling to North Dakota State in 1998.

Scotty's Senior Leadership
Savannah Scott joined a special group of in UNC women's basketball history on Tuesday when she joined the 1,000 points scored club. Scott became the 20th player in Bears basketball history to do so. She currently sits at 1,020 points for 17th all-time. She is 10 points behind Jenny Gallagher for 16th with 1,030 points.

It's no surprise that Scott joined the special club, as she is one of the leaders of this UNC team. Scott is currently averaging 17.4 points to lead the team, along with 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists, both third best on the team.

She earned her second Big Sky Player of the Week honor and the College Sports Madness Mid-Major and Big Sky Player of the Week award for her performances against BYU and Pacific. Scott, averaged 23.5 points, 5.0 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals in the two games. She shot an impressive 68.4 percent from the field including hitting five of her seven 3-point attempts and making all 16 of her free throws.

She led the Bears with a career-high 35 points, along with six rebounds, two steals, a block and an assist. Over her 36 minutes played, she hit nine of her 13 shot attempts including four 3-pointers. More impressive was her performance at the free throw line, going a perfect 13-for-13.

With the big first week of play, Scott earned a pair of weekly honors, being named Big Sky Player of the Week and the College Sports Madness Big Sky Player of the Week.

Gaining National Respect
Northern Colorado's strong start to the 2017-18 season is receiving respect from around the nation. UNC earned votes for the second time in program history in the November 20th AP Top 25 ending up with three points in the poll. The first time the Bears earned votes in the poll came last January.

The Bears also received votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll Top 25 that was released Tuesday, November 21, ending up with a total of 25 points in it.

UNC currently stands at No. 14 in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25, released on December 19th. The Bears cracked the top five earlier in the season when they were ranked No. 3, the highest the program has ever reached in the poll.

Not only are the Bears earning respect from the College Insider poll, but Swish Appeal ranked UNC one of the Top 10 Mid-Major teams to watch out for in 2017-18. UNC took the No. 6 spot on the list.

Northern Colorado is ranked No. 2 in ESPN Mid-Major power rankings done by Graham Hays.

Big Time Wins
The Bears have started the season strong, with a pair of big-time wins against DePaul and LSU. The win over DePaul to open the season was not only a big win for the 2017-18 Bears, but for the program. The 94-88 victory over the No. 20/25 Blue Demons is the first in the program's DI history over a top 25 ranked team.

When UNC hosted LSU, it was the first time that the Bears played an SEC opponent. Outside of a Pac 12 team, the win was the first over a power five school.

Northern Colorado added to its list of solid wins, by knocking off BYU at home in overtime 79-74. The Cougars are a constant near the top of the Mid-Major polls every year and often in the NCAA Tournament.

Charity Stripe
The free throw line should be automatic points for a team, and that is definitely the case for Northern Colorado. The Bears are second in all of NCAA Division I with an 84.7 free throw percentage. The team has hit 138 of its 163 free throw attempts. Savannah Scott leads the team with an 88.9 percentage from the charity stripe, ranking third in the Big Sky and 38th in the NCAA.

Free throws have been a key factor in the team's wins this season. When the Bears make more free throws than its opponents they are 5-0 this season. Against DePaul, UNC connected on 33 of its 37 free throw attempts for a percentage of 89.2. Savannah Scott hit 13 of those 33 made free throws, not missing any of her attempts.

Northern Colorado had another strong free throw performance against BYU going 23-of-25, including Savannah Scott's 10-for-10 performance.

Dominating the Paint
Courtney Smith presents big presences in the paint for UNC to offset the guard duo of Savannah Smith and Savannah Scott. Smith is averaging 15.3 points and 5.4 rebounds a game while leading the team in field goal percentage at 55.2 percent. Smith's shots are not just close to the basket, but she can step away from the paint and knock down plenty of jumpers too.

After facing foul trouble in the first half against UMKC, Smith scored 17 points in the second half on her way to a game-high 24 points. She shot 10-13 from the field in the game and also grabbed eight rebounds.

Louisiana State may have had the height advantage on paper, but it was Northern Colorado's Courtney Smith who dominated the paint against the Tigers. She led all scorers with 26 points as LSU looked to slow down the UNC guards giving Smith plenty of room to do work.

Three-Headed Monster
The Bears' three-headed monster of Savannah Scott, Savannah Smith and Courtney Smith is off to a good start this season, averaging a combined 45.2 points per game for the team.

With the Assist
Since Kamie Ethridge took over the UNC women's basketball program in 2014, ball moment and assists have been a big part of the Bears identity. That is once again the case this year, with Northern Colorado averaging 16.8 assists per game this season. That ranks first in the Big Sky and 63rd in the NCAA.

Krystal Leger-Walker leads the team with 5.3 apg and a 2.04 assist-to-turnover ratio. Those numbers rank her third and second in the Big Sky in both categories and 68th and 127th in the nation, respectively.

Leger-Walker put together her first career double-digit assist game against Colorado State when she had 10 of the teams 17 assists in the game. The 10 assists were two shy of the program's DI record of 12 by Courtney Stoermer.

Kiwi Does it all
Senior Kianna Williams does a little bit of everything for the Northern Colorado women's basketball team. She is averaging 6.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.5 steals per game. She is leading the team with those 5.5 rebounds. Williams biggest impact for the team doesn't even make it into her side of the box score but instead locking down the opponents top scorer with her versatility to guard four different positions on the court.

With teammate Savannah Smith out against UMKC, Williams helped step up for UNC on the offensive end. She ended up finishing the game with 17 points hitting a pair of 3s and making all six of her free throws. Williams also grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists.

Step into the Light
Freshman Tiarna Clarke earned her first career start against UMKC with Savannah Smith out with an injury. Clarke didn't play like a freshman seeing the extended minutes, scoring 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting including hitting a trio of 3-pointers. She also passed out a career-best six assists while playing all 40 minutes.

The Opening Month
UNC has a track record of getting out to a strong start to begin its year. The Bears are 93-73 during the month of November, including going 18-6 under head coach Kamie Ethridge. Last season, Northern Colorado went 5-1 during the 11th month of the calendar year.

UNC once again got out to a strong start this season, with a 5-2 record that included wins over DePaul, LSU and BYU.

High Expectations
Expectations are high inside the gym for the 2017-18 UNC women's basketball team both internally and externally. The Bears are the preseason favorites to win the Big Sky this season according to both the conference's media and coaches. Northern Colorado edged out North Dakota in both polls released earlier in October.

Bracketology
It's early in the season, but by being picked as the preseason favorites in the Big Sky UNC earned spots in a pair of Bracketologies to begin the year. According to both ESPNW and College Sports Madness coming into the year, they had the Bears as a No. 15 seed. ESPNW had the Bears traveling to Notre Dame and CSM with UNC going to Ohio State.

Preseason Honors
Redshirt junior Savannah Smith has the eye of opposing coaches coming into this season. Smith earned a spot on the Preseason All-Big Sky team. The team is voted on by the conference's coaches. Smith was a big part of the team's success last year leading the team in scoring with 15.9 points per game while averaging 3.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals. That strong performance earned her first team All-Big Sky honors.

Familiar Faces
A big reason for the high expectations for this season's team is due to the fact so many familiar faces return to the court. The Bears return all five of its starters from last season, and 78.5 percent of all its minutes played.

To Be the Best, Play the Best
Head coach Kamie Ethridge and her staff put together a strong and challenging non-conference schedule for their team. It all starts against preseason Top-25 DePaul on November 10 in Chicago. Other highlights of the schedule include the home opener on November 13 against LSU and home dates against BYU, Nov. 30, and Colorado State, Dec. 10. UNC takes on Quinnipiac, who made it to the Sweet 16 in last season's NCAA Tournament on the road as well on Nov. 22.

Welcome Freshman
Northern Colorado welcomes a pair of athletic guards in Tiarna Clarke and Alexis Chapman. Clarke comes to UNC from New Zealand, where she was a teammate of fellow Bear Krystal Leger-Walker on the countries U17 team. Chapman caught the eye of the Bears coaching staff with her dynamic playmaking to bring her to Greeley from Garland, Texas.

Home Sweet Home
The Bears enjoyed playing on their home court last season, going 11-3 inside Bank of Colorado Arena. The strong home record included a 10-game win streak on home court. Under Coach E, UNC is 32-12 when playing in Greeley.

Feeling 22!
Northern Colorado felt 22 during the 2016-17 season tying the school's win record for a single season. The 22 wins tied with the 2014-15 team that went on to the third round of the WNIT that season.

U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A!
Head coach Kamie Ethridge has plenty of international experience having been on the seven different USA national teams as a player, including the 1988 Olympic Gold winning team. That's not the only international experience she has though, over the past three summers Ethridge has helped coach some of the USA's national teams. She is just one of 48 current NCAA coaches to also coach for the United States.

New Bear Cubs
The Northern Colorado women's basketball program welcomed a pair of new players to its 2018 recruiting class on Nov. 8, when Grace Vaofusi and Michaela Jones signed their National Letter of Intent to join the program. Both are athletic and versatile 5'9' guards that can play a variety of positions for UNC. Vaofusi comes to UNC from Wellington, New Zealand bringing the team's Kiwi count up to three, while Jones is from Wymore, Nebraska.

UNC added in one more new Bear just before the November signing period closed out, with Micayla Isenbart signing with the team. The Stratton, Colorado native adds some size to the Bears roster coming in at 5' 11".

What's Ahead?
UNC takes a break for the holidays before opening up Big Sky play on the road. The Bears head to the Pacific Northwest for the New Year's taking on Eastern Washington on December 28 and Idaho on December 30.

Northern Colorado's next home game is on January 4 against defending Big Sky Champion Montana State at 7 pm.