Preview: @UNCBearsWBB and Weber State Battle for First Saturday

Saturday, February 10

Greeley, Colo

12pm

University of Northern Colorado

Weber State

Tickets

Photo by: Woody Myers

2/9/2018 1:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Northern Colorado Notes Weber State Notes

Northern Colorado women's basketball battles Weber State for first place in the Big Sky Saturday afternoon

By: By Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado women's basketball is set for another Big Sky showdown on Saturday as Weber State comes to Bank of Colorado Arena. The Bears (17-6, 9-3 Big Sky), currently sit a half-game ahead of WSU (16-6, 8-3 Big Sky) for the lead in the Big Sky.

Tipoff between UNC and WSU is set for 12 pm MT. Fans unable to make it to the game, can watch on Pluto TV channel 241, listen to it on UNCBears.com, follow the live stats on UNCBears.com and look for updates on the team's Twitter page at @UNCBearsWBB.

Opening Tip
• Northern Colorado started the week with an impressive 75-52 win over Idaho State Thursday afternoon.
• The Bears had arguably the best quarter of its season when they scored 36 points on 68.8 percent shooting, nailing four 3-pointers.
• Savannah Smith dazzled the fans at Bank of Colorado Arena Thursday knocking down long-range 3s and dropping dimes to teammates. She finished with 17 points and six assists.
• After the dust settled on Thursday night, UNC is back atop the Big Sky standings by a half game over Weber State.
• WSU traveled to North Dakota Thursday night and fell to the Fighting Hawks 80-67.
• The Wildcats were right there with UND, until the fourth quarter when they made just one shot in 16 attempts and scored three points.
• All three of Weber State's Big Sky losses have come on the road, and five of their six overall.

Gameday Happenings
Northern Colorado women's basketball and athletics is celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) beforehand. Prior to the game a clinic featuring a combination of eight varsity and club sports teams from 10:15 – 11:30 am. The event and registration for it will take place inside the Campus Recreation Center next door to Bank of Colorado Arena. Registration for the event begins at 10 am. Those who register day of will receive a voucher for discounted tickets to Saturday's game, along with the first 100 girls receiving a t-shirt.

Last Time Out
Northern Colorado exploded for 36 points in the second quarter and blew the game open on the way to a 75-52 win over Idaho State. Savannah Smith scored 12 of her 17 points in the second quarter by knocking down a trio of 3s to help the Bears earn the win. For the game, UNC outshot ISU 48.1 percent to 36.0.

Scouting The Wildcats
Weber State enters Saturday's game a half-game behind the Bear for the lead in the Big Sky conference at 8-3 and 16-6 overall. The Wildcats have been tough to beat at home, with an 11-1 record overall including having not dropped a conference game yet. Meanwhile, WSU is 5-5 on the road including its three Big Sky losses at Northern Arizona, North Dakota and Portland State. The most recent came on Thursday at UND 80-67.

Guard Larryn Brooks leads Weber State with her variety of ways to score, averaging 20.3 ppg. Brooks is one of four Wildcats scoring in double figures this season.

Draining 3-pointers and holding its opponents to a low 3-point percentage has been a key to the strong start for WSU. They are hitting 10.0 triples a game while holding opponents to 30.5 percent shooting and just making 6.3 3-pointers.

The Wildcats defeated UNC at home earlier this season 82-73.

Against the Big Sky
UNC joined the Big Sky in the 2006-07 season and has gone 115-99. Overall, the team is 127-137 against Big Sky Schools.

On This Date
The Bears aim to go over .500 when playing on February 10. The team is currently 5-5 on the date, but three of those wins have come at home. Northern Colorado hasn't played on the date since 2011 when Montana State visited Greeley, ending in a 64-46 UNC win.

Eye on the Big Sky
Only six or seven games remain in the regular season for all of the Big Sky schools and the conference race is starting to take shape. Coming into Friday, Northern Colorado sits atop the standings by half a game over Weber State and Idaho. The Vandals have a chance to tie the Bears for first when they travel to Eastern Washington Friday night. Other key games in the conference on Saturday include Montana at Sacramento State and Montana State at Portland State.

36 in our Bag of Tricks
Northern Colorado played one of its best quarters of basketball on Thursday against Idaho State. UNC scored a season-best 36 points in the 10 minute period to go from down two entering it to up 20 at the half with the game in hand. The Bears shot 68.8 percent including connecting on four 3-pointers in it. They also went 10-for-12 from the free throw line.

Scotty's Senior Leadership
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 17.0 points to rank second on the team, along with 4.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists, for second and third best on the team, respectively. She has scored 20 plus points nine times this season. Scott is averaging 15.9 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 17.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.2 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 1,100 career points, for 14th all-time.

Smith has picked up her play during Big Sky play, averaging 20.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals.

In the past six game, she has hit the 20 point mark four times. For the season, she has scored 30 or more once, 20 or more seven times and in double figures 18.

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, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.0 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 opponent's 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 8.7 ppg, including scoring double figures in seven of the 12 games.

At Montana State, Kiwi recorded her second double-double of the season and third of her career. Williams hit some tough shots as the shot clock expired for 12 points and cleaned the glass with 10 rebounds. Her other double-double came against MSU this season as well.

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 January 4 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 a few weeks back. Now in an expanded role for the team, Hintz showed she can't just be forgotten about.

In the past five games, she is averaging 7.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 23.8 minutes played.

Against Idaho and Eastern Washington, She averaged 9.5 points and 4.0 rebounds 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.

Spark off the Bench
With the mainstays in foul trouble and struggling offensively in the first half against Montana, Northern Colorado needed help from somewhere else. That came in form of Abby Kain and Kirsten Kramer. The duo combined for eight of the team's 10 points in the second quarter to keep the UM lead to just four at the half.

For the game, the duo combined for 14 points and six rebounds over 28 minutes played. Kain had eight of those points and all of the rebounds over 24 minutes. For Kramer it was her first action of the 2017-18 season, draining a pair of long balls in her only two shots taken.

Kain has carried the momentum from that Montana game with her over the past three games. She is playing an average of 21.7 minutes while scoring 7.3 ppg and grabbing 4.7 rpg. Those 7.3 points have come on an impressive 73.3 percent shooting.

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 16.7 minutes off the bench leading to 4.9 points and 1.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists a game.

Gaining Confidence
Freshman Alexis Chapman is one of the most athletic players on Northern Colorado's roster, and her confidence and understanding of the team's offense are turning into results on the court. Chapman had a strong game against Idaho State on February 8 when she scored a career-high 12 points, adding in an assist, steal and block to her stat line.

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 81.8 free throw percentage. The team has hit 302 of its 369 free throw attempts. Savannah Scott leads the team with an 87.7 percentage from the charity stripe, ranking third in the Big Sky and 14th in the NCAA.

The Bears attacked the basket against Eastern Washington on January 27, and the strategy 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 12-2 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 15.1 assists per game this season. That ranks third in the Big Sky and 86th in the NCAA.

Krystal Leger-Walker leads the team with 3.7 apg and a 1.37 assist-to-turnover ratio. Those numbers rank her eighth and seventh in the Big Sky in both categories and 195rd and 208th 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.

History Made
Northern Colorado made a little history on Saturday in its 78-63 win over Montana State. The Bears completed the first-ever season sweep of Montana and Montana State. The program had only swept the Gem State road trip once, back in 2014-15 season, before this year.

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.

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 February 6th. 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.

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 36-14 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?
Northern Colorado heads out for its final road trip of the 2017-18 season next week by taking on Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. UNC first heads to NAU on February 15 at 6:30 before playing SUU on February 17 at 12:30.

The Bears will close out the 2017-18 season with a three-game homestand starting Saturday, February 24 vs North Dakota.