2015-16 Northern Basketball Preview: New Skylights want the same success

Less than seven months ago, the Montana State University-Northern women’s basketball team was playing in the Elite 8 of the NAIA national tournament. That day was the culmination of a spectacular run by the Skylights.

Fast forward to tonight, and the Skylights are ready to take the floor once again — albeit with a very different MSU-N squad than the one that won 29 games, reached the Frontier Conference championship game and racked up two wins at the national tournament last season.

Gone from last year’s remarkable team are the likes of two-time NAIA All-American and 2015 Frontier Player of the Year A’Jha Edwards, as well as her 18 points and 14 rebounds per game. Gone as well is the leadership and command of All-Conference point guard Taylor Cummings, a three-year starter for the Skylights. And gone is the tough and steady inside presence of stalwarts Megan Feldman and Taybra Teeters, two more players that made up a scintillating Northern roster.

Back however, is the veteran leadership at the head coach position, as Chris Mouat returns for 11th season at MSU-N. And while the Skylights are looking like a much different team this fall and winter, than the one that dominated the Frontier a year ago, Mouat says that the cupboard is far from bare, and hopes and expectations are once again high in his highly successful program.

“This team is significantly different,” Mouat said. “We lost a lot of great players and great kids, all of whom were big pieces to our success the last two years, really. So it would be unfair to say we could just replace those kids.

“This team, we have new kids and new roles,” he continued. “It’s a new start, and we lost so many kids from a special run. But we still have a lot of talent, we have a lot of depth, and we have leadership. We have a lot of kids who still have that taste in their mouths from last year’s success. They know what it takes to get there, and they want to have that success in their own way.”

No question, the Skylights do have talent, depth and experience, despite what graduation did to their roster last spring.

Back is All-Conference standout guard Natalee Faupel (5-10) for her junior season. A year ago, Faupel averaged 13 points and shot better than 40 percent from the 3-point-line, and she returns as one of the most dynamic players in the Frontier, if not the NAIA. And Faupel is just the tip of the iceberg for MSU-N’s guard-rich squad.

The Skylights are also welcoming back senior Rachelle Bennett (5-8). An injury suffered during the 2014 national tournament sidelined Bennett for all of last year, but before that, she was an All-Conference guard, and one of the best lockdown defenders in NAIA basketball. Joining Bennett and Faupel in the backcourt is junior point guard Molly Kreycik (5-7), sensational sophomore shooting guard Jacy Thompson (5-6), sophomore point guard Brandy Lambourne (5-5), red-shirt freshmen Peyton Filius (5-6) and Kate Fetterer (5-6), as well as NCAA Division I transfer Tina Doughty (5-10).

“We’re probably as deep as we’ve ever been at the guard position since I have been here,” Mouat said. “And we have the potential to be one of the best perimeter shooting teams we’ve have had.

“Getting Rachelle back is big for us,” he continued. “She was an All-Conference player and is a tremendous defender. Then we have Natalee, Jacy, Molly and Brandy, who all have a ton of experience, and helped us win big games last year. Peyton and Kate did such a great job helping us in practice last year, they did things people never got to see, and the red-shirt year was really good for them. And now they’re ready to step up, they’re ready to go. And then we brought in Tina, who was a starter in Division I, so we’ve got great depth there. We’ve got leadership and experience, and the potential to be very, very good on the perimeter.”

Of course, Northern was very good on the perimeter a year ago, but the Skylights were absolutely dominating in the paint, thanks to Edwards and co. And that is where Northern will look very different this season.

The Skylights return sophomore Makhayla Farmer (6-2) and sophomore Cydney Auzenne (5-10), but Mouat also added a pair of junior transfers to the post. Sierra Richards (6-0) and Jessica Anderson (6-4) will be called upon immediately to help MSU-N transition in the paint, and keep its dominating defensive presence that the Skylights have long been known for.

“(Makhayla) Farmer had an outstanding offseason,” Mouat said. “She’s stronger now, and she’s in the best shape of her life. Cyd (Auzenne) is going to play a little of both positions for us this season, and our two new posts, they’ll help us right away. Both Sierra and Jessica were very successful at their junior colleges and we’re looking for them to step in and help us in the post immediately. We might not be as big as we’ve been in the past in the post, but I think we might be a little more athletic and diverse.”

And while the Skylights are a new-look team this season, some things certainly remain the same. Northern has been one of the best defensive teams in the NAIA the last few season, and Mouat will want the 2015-16 version to be the same. Offensively, the Skylights will tweak some things based on personnel, but fundamentals and discipline are constants.

“Offensively, it’s exciting because we’re going to play a lot of different ways and with a lot of different lineups,” Mouat said. “We have the ability to be very diverse offensively, we have a lot of different options, and that’s really exciting.

“Defensively, we are going to do what we do, with some subtle changes,” he continued. “We’ll play very hard and strive to be exactly what we’ve always been defensively. The area we really have to focus on though is rebounding. We have to do a great job on the boards and it isn’t going to be just one person. Everybody has to do a great job on the boards together. That has to be a big emphasis for us.”

Leadership and coming together will also be big for the Skylights as they navigate the non-conference season. But, what’s different about this season is, the conference schedule is now 18 games, with plenty of quirks, including starting league play in early December. Still, Mouat has assembled another difficult non-conference schedule, and it will certainly help his team prepare for the rigors of Frontier play, including a trip to play the vaunted University of Montana Lady Griz next month in Missoula.

And so will the veteran leadership he has on his team.

“From a leadership standpoint, we did lose a lot last year,” Mouat said. “Taylor (Cummings) was really the glue for us the last few seasons, and we lost a lot of other really good leaders. But we have a lot of kids back who learned from those leaders, and are ready to take on those roles. These kids, like Rachelle and Natalee, and others, have been part of a lot of special things, and they’re ready for that role now.

“As for our schedule, really, because of the 18-game conference season, that’s the meat of our schedule this year,” he continued. “So these non-conference games are all about getting us prepared for our league, which will be really tough again. And we’ve got some really tough games ahead of us. We’re very excited for the opportunity to go play Montana. They are a legendary program and coach (Robin) Selvig is a legendary coach. We play Wayland Baptist in Phoenix, and they were a national tournament team, and we have a home-and-home with Dickinson State, and they will be much improved this season. So we’ve got some opponents on our schedule these first two months that are going to be very tough and will certainly help prepare us for our league.”

And that preparation starts this weekend with the Duck Inn Classic, a three-game opener for Northern in which the Skylights will take on Concordia-Alberta tonight, King’s University Thursday night and Northwest Indian College Friday night.

While the first three games will give the new-look Skylights a chance to get their feet wet, Mouat is excited about the season in general, and is looking forward to seeing what this new MSU-N team can accomplish.

“It’s a new start for us,” Mouat said. “We’ve had great practices so far, and this team is very excited about this season. With the depth we have, every player understand that she has to go hard every time she’s on the floor. This team will be about giving great effort for 40 minutes every night. They know how to be competitive, and I’m really excited about the potential this group has. This is a great group to coach, and we’re looking forward to this season.”