Night one of the Big Sky Conference Women’s Basketball tourney went as expected, with higher seeds Montana State and Portland State taking first-round victories.
The Bobcats edged the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, 84-78 in a tense struggle that wasn’t decided until the final minute of play. Meanwhile the Vikings cranked up their perimeter shooting game and surged to an 11-point, 37-26 lead at halftime lead over the Northern Colorado Bears, before employing an efficient inside-outside passing game to extend the lead to 18 early in the second frame in an eventual 82-69 win.
The Bobcats will face the second-seeded Idaho State Bengals in Friday’s 5:30 p.m. semifinal round and the Vikings advance to the nightcap where they will challenge the top-seeded Montana Lady Griz, a team they beat by 10 during the last week of regular season play.
PHOTO: Northern Colorado's Danielle Hagen (#33) goes up for two of her game-high 37 points against Vikings forward Erin Yankus.
The first night of the tourney saw stellar performances by two seniors playing their final games. Northern Arizona’s Laura Dinkins scored 28 points on 10-of-18 shots and pulled down 14 rebounds in her team’s loss to the Bobcats. Northern Colorado’s Danielle Hagan – a native of Sidney, Montana – scored 37 points to tie the mark for the second-highest point total in conference playoff history, while at the same time eclipsing the 1000-point career scoring mark during her UNC career.
Montana State 84, Northern Arizona 78
The Bobcats pounced quickly and built first-half leads of as many as 13 points before settling for a 42-36 lead over the Lumberjacks. 
The Jacks upped the tempo of the game early in the second frame, converted several early offense opportunities, and led for much of the second half while Bobcat forward Nubia Garcia and point guard Erica Perry rode the bench with four fouls.
PHOTO: Bobcats Krislyn Wallace (left) and Sarah Strand, battle Northern Arizona post Ashley Ingle (#33) for a rebound.
But critical late-game NAU turnovers (they
had 22),
several of them unforced, enabled the Cats to hang close and eventually reclaim the lead. Garcia and Perry returned to the floor with four minutes remaining and hit key shots and – despite Dinkins’ inspired play – held off the Jacks for the win.
Both teams got balanced scoring down the lineup. Jacks’ guards Sade Cunningham and Janelle Matthews (photo left) scored 14 and 12 points respectively while forward Ashley Ingle scored 10.
Bobcat mainstays Rebecca Mercer and Krislyn Wallace paced the Cats with 19 each while Sarah Strand scored 13, Perry notched 12 and Jenny Herringer scored 11.
The Lumberjacks outboarded MSU 47-35, but gave the advantage away with their 22 turnovers. The Bobcats shot only 40 percent from the floor, but made 19-of-21 shots from the freethrow line. The Lumberjacks made 44 percent from the field.
Portland State 82, Northern Colorado 69
Vikings’ reserve Katia Hadj-Hamou came off the bench late in the second half and sank two treys from the right baseline to spark the Vikings to an 11-point spread after the teams had traded leads and momentum through much of the first frame.
The Vikings capitalized quickly on that momentum, surging to an 18-point early second-half margin on continued hot perimeter shooting by Hadj-Hamou (17 points) and forward Delaney Conway, who made two treys during that early surge. Conway paced the Vikings with 19 points, sinking 50 percent of her field goals and converting 5-of-6 freethrows.
But it may have been the tough inside play of forward Kelli Valentine – who scored 16 points – and the heady floor play of point guard Claire Faucher – who made 14 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 10 assists – that spelled the difference for the Vikings. Portland State’s powerful inside-outside passing game simply overwhelmed the Bears, who had used a zone defense efficiently during the first half.
PHOTO: Portland State forward Kelli Valentine scores two of her 16 points (on 7-of-8 shooting) over UNC guard Jamie Schroeder.
The balanced Vikings’ game was more than enough to offset the individual performance of the tourney so far, which was turned-in by the Bears senior Danielle Hagen.
The wiry Bears’ post caught fire early in the second half and it didn’t make any difference who the Vikings put on her. She was unstoppable after she got the ball on the low blocks, converting 14-of-24 shots from point blank range to pace the Bears.
Desite Hagen’s stellar game, she could have produced more. Hagen started the game slowly, and several of her first-half shots simply bounced off of cold iron.
The only other UNC players to reach double digits were Jamie Schroeder and Courtney Stormer, with 11 apiece.
The Vikings, paced by Faucher’s 10 boards, dominated the glass by 12, and shot a sizzling 57.7 percent from the field, compared to the Bears’ 38.5 percent.
Both teams shot well from the free throw line, 81.3 percent by the Vikings (13-16), and 77.1 percent by the Bears (27-35).
The only down point of the game was when Portland State guard Lexi Bishop collapsed with a lower-leg injury late in the first half. Bishop left the arena on crutches after the game.
PHOTO: Northern Colorado guard Jamie Schroeder drives past Portland State's Lizzie Cooper. Schroeder scored 11 points in the loss to the Vikings.
Second round action begins at 5:30 Friday when the Bobcats meet the second-seeded ISU Bengals. Montana and Portland State play 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
