The Skylights (No.6 seed) fell to the Battlin’ Bears (No. 3 seed) in the first round of the Frontier Conference Tournament Sunday afternoon 70-61.
The first quarter started with both teams trading baskets and leads. Rocky couldn’t extend the lead by more than 2 until 3:42 left in the quarter when they went up 13-9. Dominique Stephens would go on to score 11 of the 21 points for Rocky in the first, with Morgan Baird scoring 6 off the bench in the quarter. Rocky would take a 21-13 lead into the second.
In the second, it was all Ryley Kehr for the Skylights. She would score 8 in the quarter including going 2-3 from beyond the arc. The Skylights defense also bared down (pun fully intended) and held Dominique Stephens to only 2 points and the Bears as a whole to only 14. The Skylights, however, would still go into the half down 10, 35-25.
The second half stated out by both teams coming out hot, again trading baskets within the first couple of minutes. MSUN had one of their best third quarters of the season scoring 20, but Rocky was just as good scoring 25. Mackenzie Dethman would be the one to take over the scoring duties in this quarter for the Bear, scoring 8 on 3-3 shooting from the field and making both free-throws she attempted. For the Skylights, it was Savannah Toms. She would score 7 on 3-5 shooting including some great post moves on Stephens and Dethman. Ryley Kehr would also add 5 more points and another 3 to her stat line.
The fourth quarter was the only quarter the Skylights would win as they scored 16 to the Bears 10, but Rocky had built their lead up to 15 early in the quarter. Briaunna McCullough and Ryley Kehr would do their best to try to cut into the deficit, accounting for 10 of the 16 points in the quarter, but again, the Bears were able to keep with their pace all quarter ultimately winning 70-61.
Ryley Kehr would end with 18 points on 6-12 shooting, 4-6 from three. McCullough (12), Toms (11) and Callender (10) would all end with double figures. The Skylights also had one of the best shooting games of the season as a whole, shooting 50% from both the field and from the three-point line.
The Skylights end their season 8-21 after their first round loss and will look to regroup over the summer and bounce back next year.
