Lady Bison had Walla Walla sweet experience

By B.L. Azure

PABLO — The young ladies of the Salish Kootenai College Lady Bison hoop team went west over the weekend and it ended up being a very sweet trip as they captured the championship of the Walla Walla University Classic Basketball Tournament.

“It was a great weekend for us,” said Juan Perez, Lady Bison coach. “The girls were impressive. They have played very well all this quarter.”

The Lady Bison are 4-2 so far in 2012. They lost a pair of road games at Sheridan (Wyoming) College to open the year but now have won four in a row since, that include two home victories over the University of Great Falls JV and a pair this past weekend at the Walla Walla Classic.

The Lady Bison owned the paint on both ends of the floor in both games at the classic. They outrebounded Northwest Indian College 57-36 in the L-Bison 88-71 victory, and outrebounded Walla Walla University 53-35 in their 74-70 victory in the championship game.

“We knew going there we would have a tough game against Walla Walla (University) and we knew that Northwest Indian College would bring their ‘A’ game, their best effort against us,” Perez said. “The girls responded well. Going into the first game I challenged all the girls to be leaders in different categories. I challenged (Sharna) Frazier to get 25 rebounds, she responded with 21. All the girls worked hard. Eva (Green) hauled down 12 boards, a solid effort. Kristi (Olney), our smallest player got six boards. Rebounding was huge for us in both games.”

Lady Bison Sharna Frazier had a Monster Mash weekend scoring 62 points and snagging 37 rebounds in two games. Steady-Betty Chantel Jenkins dropped in 42 points and hauled down a dozen boards.

• SKC 88, NWIC 71
Northwest Indian College of Bellingham, Washington opened the game with the first two points then the Lady Bison responded and then some. Once the got the lead, they kept it, however Perez never felt that the L-Bison’s lead was stuffed away in the warm and fuzzy ‘W’ column until late in the game.

“Northwest Indian College played the best they could against us. We expect that when we play other tribal college teams,” Perez said. “They got the first two points but we quickly captured the lead and never surrendered it. But even though we had the lead the rest of the game, it seemed that we couldn’t shake them.”

Chantel Jenkins played a solid game on both sides of the ball.

“Chantel played her usual consistent game, working hard on offense and defense,” Perez said of the Lady Bison point guard. “I would like to see her shoot a higher percentage. She challenges the defense but that means she takes a lot of tough shots, difficult shots. I’m sure better shot selection will translate into a higher shooting percentage for her.”

Lady Bison post Sharna Frazier led the Lady Bison with 34 points and 21 rebounds; Chantel Jenkins had 14 points and five rebounds, Eva Green had 11 points and 12 rebounds and Kristi Olney had 11 points and six boards.

“Northwest couldn’t match up against Frazier. No one could jump as high as she can and they didn’t have the height to contain her in the paint,” Perez said. “We took advantage of our strengths. If teams can’t stop her down low, that’s where we go.”

Sarah Brady led NWIC with 31 points and Selena Frajman had 19 points and seven rebounds.

Perez said Brady and Frajman were a dangerous offensive combo that couldn’t be held down even with SKC’s ramped up defensive pressure on them.

“Sarah was very aggressive offensively. She did well with our tight defense on her,” he said. “Selena hit a lot of threes with our defense in her face. Both of them were making shots with our defensive pressure all over them.”

But in the end it all worked out for the Lady Bison round-ballers.

“It was a good win for us,” Perez said. “It was a good opportunity to get the feel of the court. We got our legs under us and our confidence up for the next game.”

• SKC 74, WWU 70
The “next game” against Walla Walla University was a tad tighter and a bit of a hair puller for Perez. The host team — WWU — scooted out to a narrow lead early and expanded it to an eight (43-35) at the half.

“Walla Walla had a very offensively aggressive player, Dani Carlman, who took it hard to the basket. We had a very hard time stopping her,” Perez said. “When we were able to contain her she would find an open teammate. We weren’t getting many defensive stops the first half.”

At the halftime break, Perez challenged his charges to step it up on both sides of the ball. Frazier scored 20 of her 28 points in the first half to keep SKC in the game.

“I asked them, who else was going to step it up on offense,” Perez said. One of the players who amped up their offensive production was Chantel Jenkins who canned 20 of her 28 points in the second half. That helped turn the tables on WWU as the Lady Bison outscored them 39-27 in the final 20 minutes. “I also challenged them to take the defense a notch or two higher and stop their shooters. I challenged them all to do something for themselves on the court. They all did a lot better in the second half. We took care of the ball better and cut down our turnovers. That gave us 10 more shot opportunities than we had in the first half. Three of the shots were critical 3-pointers that Chantel made.”

Sharna Frazier led the Lady Bison with 28 points and 16 rebounds; Chantel Frazier had 28 points and seven rebounds, and Eva Green had a Herman Cain Meat Loaf special with nine points and nine rebounds.

“Towards the end of the game we were taking some ill advised three-point shots that weren’t falling. We had a small lead and we didn’t need to play like we were behind. We just needed to take care of the ball and take better shots. It wasn’t until there was about six seconds remaining in the game that I felt that we had it in the bag,” Perez said. “We were up by three and Kristi got fouled. She missed the first one then I called a time out to go over our defensive scheme ready whether she missed or made the second free throw. When she made the second free throw that put us up four with six seconds remaining, I finally relaxed because the game was in the bag.”

Walla Walla University didn’t score in the final six seconds and the Lady Bison walked off the court with a 74-71 victory and the championship of the tournament.

Five Lady Bison — Sharna Frazier, Chantel Jenkins, Eva Green, Kristi Olney and Kayla Johnson — were named to the all-tournament team.

“Kristi (Olney) is coming along nice, doing well,” Perez said of his 2-guard. “Right now it’s all about getting her confident in what she can do on the court. We are challenging her to be more aggressive offensively and to step it up a notch or two defensively.”

“Eva (Green) is a steady hard worker who battles hard all game,” Perez said of the Lady Bison front liner. “We can count on her to give us her best every time she steps on the court.”

“Kayla (Johnson) despite being hobbled a bit with an ankle injury still competes hard. It’ll take more than that to slow her down,” Perez said of the other Lady Bison frontliner. “She does a lot of the little things that have to be done. Critical things that don’t show up in the scorebook but are just as important as points when it comes to hammering out a win. She had some key big blocks down low for us in the final stretch against Walla Walla. They were very crucial in keeping our narrow lead late in the game.”

• The SKC Bison and Lady Bison play at the Montana Tribal College Athletic Association Basketball Tournament at Rocky Boy’s Reservation this Friday, Feb. 3 through Sunday, Feb. 5.

The SKC teams are the defending champions of the tournament.

“We will go into the tournament pretty healthy and we are anxious to hit the floor and play the other tribal college teams. It’ll be a mini-preview of the AIHEC tournament,” Perez said. “Stone Child and Fort Belknap should provide us with our biggest challenges. They’ll come well prepared and ready to play.”

The tournament will provide all the teams an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming American Indian Higher Education Consortium National Tribal College National Basketball Championship Tournament. It is scheduled for Wednesday, March 21 through Saturday, March 24 in Rapid City, South Dakota.

The Bison men are the defending AIHEC champions. The Lady Bison placed second last year while defending their crown from the year before.

“We have a history of success and are always the team to beat at AIHEC,” Perez said. “We lost the tournament last year against Turtle Mountain so we will be looking for a rematch with them; we’ll bring our best game. Teams want to dethrone champions, we’re no different.”