The women’s basketball team will cross the U.P. to their second straight tournament to start the season this weekend at the campus of LSSU in Sault Ste.
Marie, Mich.
The ’Cats will be taking on a pair of two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opponents in the LSSU Tournament, tipping off against the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21 before closing out tournament play against the Minot State University Beavers at 2 p.m. on Sunday,
Nov. 22.
Freshman guard Darby Youngstrom said these tournaments are good tuneups for their GLIAC season.
“These tournaments are very beneficial for us,” Youngstrom said. “These are all good teams and they show us where we’re at, what our strengths and weaknesses are and what we have to work on before conference play.”
The Wildcats are 0-2 on the season after facing two of the GLVC’s top opponents last weekend in the GLVC/GLIAC Challenge in Quincy, Ill.
NMU dropped their season opener to Quincy University 89-60 on Saturday, Nov. 14 then fell to Truman State University the following afternoon 71-54.
NMU head coach Troy Mattson said his young team’s needed adjustments were clear over the weekend.
“We looked good and played well at times, but as far as a 40-minute game we weren’t good,” Mattson said. “We’re allowing too much dribble penetration coming from the perimeter, which is something you take for granted after the guards we’ve graduated the last few years. We have to learn to stop that and not allow the ball to get in on our centers as much.”
Last weekend, the Bulldogs played the No. 8-ranked Michigan Tech Huskies in Houghton, where Tech came out as the top dog with a 72-43 win over Duluth.
The Bulldogs are suffering key injuries to their team and played with only seven players in their lineup.
Senior forward Taylor Meyer, who led Duluth in scoring a season ago, is one of the Bulldogs that did not suit up the last few weeks.
“Duluth’s had the injury bug bite them a bit,” Mattson said. “They’re supposed to get a few players back, which will help them a lot.”
On Sunday, the ’Cats will face a Minot team led by junior guard Alex Haley, who one season ago averaged 11.2 points per game while her 6-foot-3 teammate, senior forward Savanna Kingsbury led her squad in rebounds averaging 6.3 per game.
The Beavers will have played three opponents in six days before facing the ’Cats on Sunday, as Minot hosts two conference games against Presentation College and Dickinson State University earlier in the week before playing LSSU Saturday.
Mattson said his team will be looking for the continued success of freshman center Taylor Hodell, who came off the bench in both games last weekend to put up 14 points in her first game as a Wildcat against Quincy and followed up her performance against Truman, scoring eight point and a team-leading six rebounds.
“She’s just learning her way, and she’s going to be a major player for our program,” Mattson said. “She needs to continue to improve, and she’ll do that. She’s an outstanding lady, and she’s only going to get better. She has all the talent in the world to be a great basketball player.”
Mattson also spoke highly of senior center Kendall Martenet, a Division I transfer who joined the program last season averaging 2.6 points per game her first year to scoring 10 points against Truman Sunday.
“It takes time for people when they come in to a program, whether they are a freshman or a transfer,” Mattson said. “She’s more comfortable with how I teach and the things we’ve taught her. She had a great weekend, and I’m excited to see her moving forward.”
Freshman guard Chloe Tompkins and sophomore guard Anna Liewen also reached double-digit scoring in matches last weekend.
Youngstrom said her team can build off of their performances last weekend for their LSSU
tournament.
“We learned a lot about ourselves,” Youngstrom said. “It didn’t go as planned, but we made progress, and we’re going to keep making progress. This week in practices and this weekend. We need to hit our goals, and be the best that we can be moving
forward.”
