Four Skylights earn all-conference honors

Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/[email protected]

Four Montana State University-Northern women's basketball players have earned Frontier Conference all-conference honors for their performances this season.

Senior guard Anna Bateman was the only Skylight to earn first-team honors despite playing most of the season with a painful, lingering foot injury.

Bateman, who hails from Rupert, Idaho, averaged 11.1 points and 3.8 assists per game this season. She was seventh in the conference in three-point field goal percentage at 38 percent, sinking 28 of 65 treys on the season. Bateman was also second in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio and picked up 58 steals on the season.

Northern had three players earn second-team honors led by senior Khadiga Mohamed of Oxnard, Calif. Mohamed was the Skylights' third leading scorer at 10.8 points per game and second leading rebounder at 4.9 rebounds per game.

Joining Mohamed on the second team was junior transfer Megan Valgardson of Provo, Utah.

In her first season as a Skylight, Valgardson led Northern in scoring and rebounding, averaging 12.3 points and seven rebounds per game while shooting 48 percent from the field.

Also earning second-team honors in her first year at Northern was freshman Jessi Reome of Nine Mile Falls, Wash.

Reome averaged 10.5 points per game for the Skylights and was the conference leader in three-point field goal percentage, sinking 44 percent on 32-66 shooting.

Former Havre High standout Alyssa Matter also garnered second-team kudos while helping lead the University of Montana to its second straight Frontier Conference tournament title this season.

Matter averaged 11.1 points and 2.8 rebounds per game for the Bulldogs this season. Matter was third in the conference in steals with 79 while shooting 32 percent from three-point range.

Carroll College guard Tara Zoanni was named this season's most valuable women's basketball player in the Frontier. Carroll coach Shawn Nelson won coach-of-the-year honors.

The Saints spent much of the season ranked first in the Frontier before losing 72-71 to Lewis-Clark State in Monday's semifinals.

Zoanni, a senior from Conrad, finished second in the conference in scoring at 18.4 points per game. She also led the conferenece in free-throw percentage at 88 percent while sinking 79 three-pointers on the season.

Nelson, conference scoring champ in his senior year at Carroll, is finishing his first season as Saints head coach after working as an assistant men's coach.

Westminster center Shalee Fackrell was voted newcomer of the year, and Montana-Western's Katherine Sunwall was freshman of the year. Defensive player of the year honors go to Lewis-Clark State's Jessica Foot.

First team

From Carroll - Zoanni and Emili Woody of Summerville, Ore.;

From Westminster - Rebekah Steenblik of Salt Lake City;

From Lewis-Clark State - Foot and Cami Kalbfleisch of Lewiston, Idaho;

From Great Falls - Kim Freeman of Augusta;

From Montana State-Northern - Anna Bateman of Rupert, Idaho;

From Rocky Mountain - Amber Griffith of Miles City;

From Montana-Western - Sunwall and Hillary Taylor of Great Falls.

Second team

From Westminster - Fackrell and Emily Johnson of Riverton, Utah; from Montana State-Northern - Megan Valgardson of Provo, Utah, Khadiga Mohamed of Oxnard, Calif., and Jessi Reome of Nine Mile Falls, Wash.; from Lewis-Clark State - Ashley Baker of Okanogan, Ore.; from Montana Tech - Melissa Ritter of Butte and Kaila Fowler of Great Falls; from Montana-Western - Alyssa Matter of Havre; and from Carroll - Andrea Hall of Missoula.