Preview: @UNCBearsWBB Hosts EWU, Aiming to Get Back to Winning Ways

Saturday, January 27

Greeley, Colo

12pm

University of Northern Colorado

Eastern Washington

Tickets

1/26/2018 2:12:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Northern Colorado Notes Eastern Washington Notes

Northern Colorado women's basketball aims to stop two-game skid when Eastern Washington comes to town

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado women's basketball aims to end a two-game skid on Saturday when Eastern Washington comes to town. The Bears are coming off a home loss to Idaho Thursday night 79-71. Both UNC and EWU look to keep pace with Big Sky leading Montana at 6-2, while the Bears and Eagles are 5-3.

Tipoff between the teams is set for Noon. Tickets are available at UNCBears.com/Tickets, the UNC Box office open 10-5 or by calling 970-351-3645. For those unable to attend, the game will be aired on Pluto TV channel 241, along with streamed on WatchBigSky.com. An audio broadcast along with live stats can be found at UNCBears.com

Opening Tip
• Northern Colorado aims to end a two-game slide after dropping Thursday night's contest to Idaho 79-71.
• Every Bear that played in the game ended up in the scoring column, led by Savannah Scott's 15 points.
• Savannah Smith was held to just nine points, but she found other ways to impact the game with seven assists and six rebounds.
• Eastern Washington is coming off of an 81-79 loss at North Dakota Thursday night.
•The trio of Symone Starks, Delaney Hodgins and Violet Kapri Morrow combined for 65 of EWU's 79 points on Thursday. Morrow led the team with 28 points.
• Delaney Hodgins will present a huge threat for UNC on Saturday, as she comes in averaging 20.4 points a game this season and 22.4 in conference play. She also crashes the boards hard with 8.5 rpg.
• UNC and EWU are tied for third in the Big Sky, along with Montana State and Idaho.

Last Time Out
In a Big Sky battle that saw both teams trading blows throughout the game, Idaho outlasted Northern Colorado, 79-71. The Bears were unable to make the timely basket or free throw needed to stay in the game with the Vandals. UI ended up outshooting UNC 53.7 percent to 42.2. Idaho's Mikayla Ferenz led all players with 33 points.

Scouting The Eagles
After opening the Big Sky season going 1-2 in its first three games, Eastern Washington went on a four-game win streak to work its way towards the top of the Big Sky standings. North Dakota snapped the win streak on Thursday with an 81-79 win over EWU.

The Eagles four wins came against Sacramento State, Idaho, Northern Arizona and Southern Utah, with only the Sac State game being on the road.

Like Idaho, EWU has a dynamic scorer in Delaney Hodgins. Hodgins is putting up 20.4 ppg on the season and 22.4 in the Big Sky. The senior forward is also helps control the glass for her team with 7.9 rebounds a game. She is close to averaging a double-double in conference games with 8.5 rebounds.

Outside of Hodgins, only Violet Kapri Morrow is the only other Eagle scoring in double figures with her 13.9 ppg.

Eastern Washington's defense has been key to its recent success. In conference games, EWU is outscoring its opponents by 4.6 points by shooting 42.0 percent from the field and holding teams to 40.1 percent.

Along with outshooting teams, the Eagles have a +2.0 rebound margin and +2.75 turnover margin.

Against the Big Sky
UNC joined the Big Sky in the 2006-07 season and has gone 111-99. Overall, the team is 123-137 against Big Sky Schools.

Closing in on 600
The Northern Colorado women's basketball program is closing in on a big number, that being 600 wins. The next time UNC wins a game will be the program's 600th overall.

On This Date
January 27 has been a good day for Northern Colorado historically, holding a 10-3 record on the date. When at home, UNC is a perfect 5-0, including the most recent time played on the date against Northern Arizona in 2011, winning 72-58.

Scotty's Senior Leadership
Savannah Scott joined a special group of in UNC women's basketball history on December 19 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 1,175 points for 12th all-time. The next player Scott can pass on the list is Lou Piel and her 1,260 points for 11th.

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 17.3 points to lead the team, along with 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists, for second and third best on the team, respectively. She has scored 20 plus points seven times this season. Scott is averaging 16.1 points and 4.8 rebounds in Big Sky play.

Scott earned MVP of the Roo Holiday Classic by averaging 23.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists on 66.7 percent shooting.
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.

Oh So Savvy
Savannah Smith impacts the game in a multitude of ways for UNC, with her scoring ability leading to open teammates and finding them, along with her quickness on defense to swipe away the ball from opponents.

Smith is averaging 16.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.6 steals per game this season. She became the 21st member of the 1,000 points club at UNC on January 20. Smith, joins teammate Savannah Scott in the club. The last time two Bears joined the 1,000 points club in the same season was in 2014-15 when D'shara Strange and Stephanie Lee did so.

She scored a career-high 32 points against Montana State on January 4, shooting 10-of-22 from the field including knocking down six 3-pointers. She was also perfect from the free throw line making all six of her attempts. Fifteen of those 32 came in the fourth quarter to help put the game away for UNC.

Smith has been playing well during the early part of the Big Sky season, averaging 19.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 3.5 assists.

During the first week of conference play, she earned College Sports Madness Big Sky Player of the Week by averaging 20.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 2.0 assists. Not noted on the stat line were the hockey-like, second assists that Smith had against Eastern Washington and Idaho.

Kiwi Does it All
Senior Kianna Williams does a little bit of everything for the Northern Colorado women's basketball team. She is averaging 7.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.1 blocks 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.

Since the beginning of the Big Sky season, Williams' scoring output has increased to 9.5 ppg, including scoring double figures in six of the eight games.

Williams packed the stat sheet at Weber State when she recorded a career-high in steals with eight, to go with 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and three blocks.

She recorded her second career double-double on Thursday against Montana State with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Six of her 11 rebounds came on the offensive end.

Williams hit some key shots for the Bears against Idaho including draining a pair of 3's late to secure the win for the team. The Vandals challenged Kiwi to beat them, and she did just that scoring 14 points on 6-of-15 shooting while dishing out four assists and coming up with four steals.

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. She joined teammates Savannah Scott and Courtney Smith on the All-Tournament team for the Roo Holiday Classic.

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 82.1 free throw percentage. The team has hit 256 of its 312 free throw attempts. Savannah Scott leads the team with a 90.0 percentage from the charity stripe, ranking first in the Big Sky and seventh 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.

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 15.4 assists per game this season. That ranks third in the Big Sky and 79th in the NCAA.

Krystal Leger-Walker leads the team with 3.9 apg and a 1.39 assist-to-turnover ratio. Those numbers rank her eighth and seventh in the Big Sky in both categories and 192nd and 165th 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.

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. 23 in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25, released on January 16th. 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.

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.

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.

Clarke has become the team's sixth man, averaging 20.2 minutes off the bench leading to 5.0 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists a game.

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.

Bracketology
The Bears continue to show up in a pair of Bracketologies this season done by ESPNW and College Sports Madness. According to both ESPNW, the Bears are currently projected to be a No. 11 seed come March. UNC would head out to Hollywood to face Rutgers in the first round with the winner to most likely face UCLA. CSM has Northern Colorado a little further down the seed line at No. 15 and facing second-seeded Louisville in the first round.

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.

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.

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 33-13 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?
The Bears are back on the road for the next to last time of the regular season when they head to the Gem State. Northern Colorado swept Montana and Montana State at home earlier this year and is looking for the first-ever season sweep of them next week.

UNC will first face Montana on February 1 at 7 pm before heading to Bozeman to take on Montana State February 3 at 2 pm.