Preview: @UNCBearsWBB Heads to League Leading Montana

Thursday, February 1

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Montana

Photo by: Rob Trubia

1/31/2018 4:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Northern Colorado Notes Montana Notes

Northern Colorado women's basketball aims to take down league leading Montana Thursday night

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – As the calendar flips to February, basketball teams around the nation enter the dog days of the conference season. For Northern Colorado women's basketball, they start the month on the road against league-leading Montana Thursday night. The Bears and Lady Griz tip-off at 7 pm MT inside Dahlberg Arena.

The game will be on Pluto TV channel 237 or on WatchBigSky.com. Live stats can be found through UNCBears.com and game updates will come from the team's Twitter account @UNCBearsWBB.

Opening Tip
• Northern Colorado went 1-1 last week, falling to Idaho 79-71, and defeating Eastern Washington 68-62.
• Five Bears averaged eight or more points a game last week, led by Savannah Smith's 16.5 ppg. Smith, also led the team with 6.0 rebounds and 5.5 assists.
• The other Savannah, Scott, wasn't far behind her teammate with 15.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game last week.
• UNC enters Thursday's game in a tie for third place in the Big Sky, one game behind leader Montana and half a game behind Weber State for second.
•Montana is off to an impressive 7-2 start at the halfway mark of the Big Sky season to lead the conference.
• The Lady Griz, two losses came to UNC and Montana State on the road.
• Last week, UM won at Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado outlasted Eastern Washington to pick up a home win over the Eagles 68-62. The Bears were led by Savannah Smith's 24 points, six rebounds, four assists game. UNC did a good job of getting to the foul line and converting to defeat EWU, making 20 of their 21 free throw attempts.

Scouting The Lady Griz
Montana has started Big Sky play strong, leading the conference at the mid-way point with a 7-2 record. The Lady Griz, lead Weber State by half a game in the standings.

A balanced offensive game makes it hard to guard Montana as they have just one scorer in double figures for the season, but six other players averaging at least 6.0 points or more. McKenzie Johnston leads UM with 11.4 ppg overall and is averaging 12.1 in Big Sky Play.

The addition of Caitlin Lonergan after the first semester has been helpful for the Lady Griz. Lonergan is a mid-year transfer who had to sit out the first half of the season. Since she joined the team's rotation eight games ago, she is averaging 8.5 points and 5.1 rebounds a game.

UM is 8-3 at home this season, but a perfect 4-0 in Big Sky play.

UNC defeated Montana when they visited Bank of Colorado Arena earlier this season 68-50.

Against the Big Sky
UNC joined the Big Sky in the 2006-07 season and has gone 112-99. Overall, the team is 124-137 against Big Sky Schools.

600 and Counting
The Northern Colorado women's basketball program recorded its 600th win on January 27th when they defeated Eastern Washington. UNC women's basketball first started in 1970.

On This Date
The Bears currently are on a three-game losing streak when playing on the first day of February. UNC is 4-7 overall on the date, including being 2-3 away from Greeley. The Bears last played on the date in 2014, falling by a point to Eastern Washington at home 52-51.

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 1,190 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 17.2 points to lead the team, along with 5.0 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 16.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.4 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. Smith currently has 1,039 career points, for 16th all-time.

Smith has picked up her play during Big Sky play, averaging 20.0 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals..

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.

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 7.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. She is leading the team with those 5.6 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 9.1 ppg, including scoring double figures in six of the nine 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 on the All-Tournament team for the Roo Holiday Classic.

Making Most of an Opportunity
Sophomore center Bridget Hintz is making the most of her opportunity put in front of her last week. Now in an expanded role for the team, Hintz showed she can't just be forgotten about. Against Idaho and Eastern Washington, She averaged 9.5 points and 4.0 reboounds over 34.0 minutes per game.

Hintz scored a career-high 12 points vs EWU on 4-of-6 shooting and connecting on 4 of her 5 free throw attempts.

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 82.9 free throw percentage. The team has hit 276 of its 333 free throw attempts. Savannah Scott leads the team with a 90.6 percentage from the charity stripe, ranking first in the Big Sky and eighth in the NCAA.

The Bears attacked the basket against Eastern Washington on January 27, and the stratagy worked out drawing 19 fouls and earning a trip to the charity stripe 21 times. The Bears sank 20 of those attempts, led by Savannah Smith's 8-for-8 performance.

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 15.2 assists per game this season. That ranks third in the Big Sky and 83rd in the NCAA.

Krystal Leger-Walker leads the team with 3.9 apg and a 1.35 assist-to-turnover ratio. Those numbers rank her eighth in the Big Sky in both categories and 178th and 206th 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. 25 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 18.6 minutes off the bench leading to 5.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.5 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.

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?
UNC finishes out the road trip on Saturday, heading to Bozeman to face Montana State. The Bears and Bobcats tip-off at 2 pm MT. Northern Colorado defeated MSU earlier this year in Greeley, 82-69.