Montana Tech women at Rocky
As we get ready for Tech-Rocky let's start by looking at the conference as a whole.
Frontier conference womens standings
#12 UM Western 5-1 17-2
#18 Carroll College 5-1 14-5
#20 Rocky 5-1 13-5
Montana Tech 2-4 6-10
Providence 1-5 11-8
MSU-Northern 0-6 7-12
Thursdays games:
MSU Northern @ Providence
Carroll College @ Western
Montana Tech @ Rocky
Rocky lost their first conference game last Thursday at Western, then got right back in the Win column with a 67-43 victory at Providence. The Bears have won 4 of their last 5, and 8 of 10.
Morgan Baird had herself a game in Great Falls, going 9-15 from the floor, for 20 points and 7 rebounds in 22 minutes of play. She was the only Bear breaking into double digits.
On the season Baird is their leading scorer, averaging 12 points a game overall, her conference scoring average is a point lower at 11. Kloie Thatcher comes in at 13 points a game in conference, and 11 points overall. Dominique Stephens comes in at 10 points a game overall, and 9 a game in conference.
Rocky’s defense has been rock solid this year, only allowing 55 points a game, good for 12th in the country, and to pile a bit more on, the Battlin’ Bears haven’t lost at home this season.
Montana Tech hops the bus to Billings to after going 1-1 in conference games this past weekend. This will be the second meeting between the two programs, the first back on December 1st when Rocky won 59-42. It was the first conference game of the year and the first conference game for new head coach Jeff Graham.
Round 2 should be a much different ballgame.
Tech is far more of a ‘team’ now than they were in December. The Diggs are led by Junior Tavia Rooney, averaging 14 points a game (17 in conference games). Tavia will join the 1,000-point club in this game, you can read more about that in an article I wrote earlier this week HERE. Freshman Aubrie Rademacher is next in the scoring column for the Diggs, averaging 10 points a game.
That brings us to Dani Urick, Dani has been outstanding the last couple of games. Against Western, she finished with 13 points and 5 rebounds. Going back to the Northern game, she put 6 points in the book, but also ended with 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and 3 steals. Dani is the key, if Tech can get her going early, they will be in great shape. Keep an eye on Madison Allen, McKayla Kloker, and Ally Cleverly too. Allen has shown a great ability to drive to the rack and get easy layups this season, and Cleverly and Kloker will look to knock down the deep ball. Cleverly connecting on 42% of her 3’s, Kloker at 37%.
Thursday will add more waves to the Frontier conference pool, by the time this weekend is done we will see who is in need of a life preserver.
