Benedictine will challenge Northern

It’s not unusual for a team like the Montana State University-Northern Skylights to be pretty unfamiliar with a first-round foe going into the NAIA national tournament. But, given the quality of the Skylights’ opponent in the first round of the 2016 national tourney, Northern will know plenty about the Benedictine Ravens before tipoff Wednesday morning.

The Ravens (26-6) are ranked No. 19 in the NAIA entering Wednesday’s battle with the No. 16 Skylights in Independence, Missouri. As an at-large team from the always-tough Heart of America Conference, the Ravens are making their second straight trip to the Big Dance, and not only will they be a tough opponent for the Skylights, they’ll have a pretty good home court advantage given their proximity to Independence from their home in Atchison, Kansas.

“They are a very good basketball team,” Northern head coach Chris Mouat said of the Ravens, who finished in the third place in their conference this season. “They are very well-coached. I’ve known Chad (Folsom) for a while now, and he does a great job. They’ll also be battled-tested. They come from a great league, who, like ours, is sending four teams to the national tournament.

“Another scary things is, they’ll have a great following,” he continued. “They are one of the closer teams to Independence, so they’ll have a good crowd there and that’s something we’ll have to deal with.”

Even if the Ravens weren’t so close to the host site of the national tourney, they would still be dangerous. They’ve won 20 or more games for 13 straight seasons, and they have three wins over nationally ranked opponents coming into Wednesday’s showdown with the Skylights.

They’re also ultra-talented, and a very dangerous offensive team. Averaging 70 points per game, the Ravens are a strong shooting team. But, they do it on defense too. Like Northern, the Ravens allow just 54 points per game, which is Top 5 in the NAIA. Still, as stingy as the Ravens are on defense, the 3-point shooting is what jumps out at Mouat, not to mention the talent.

“Their entire team can shoot from the 3-point-line,” Mouat said. “That’s their guards, their posts, their players off the bench. Across the board, they can shoot it. They’ll be the best 3-point shooting team we’ve seen this season.

“They also have so many quality players,” Mouat added. “They are long and athletic, they are quick, and they get it done on both ends of the floor. They are just a very complete team, and one that I think has been underrated all year long.”

Benedictine does shoot it well. On the season, the Ravens are shooting 48 percent from the floor, and 35 percent from beyond the arc. They have buried 258 threes on the season, and they have proven they aren’t afraid to let it fly, considering they’ve hoisted up over 700 triples in 32 games this year.

But, that stat doesn’t mean the Ravens are one-dimensional. They have talent at every position. They’re led by First-Team All-Conference performer Chayla Rutledge (5-11), who scores 14 points per game. Complimenting Rutledge is Jordan Kramer (5-10), a Second-Team All-Conference standout, who is the Raven’s deadliest shooter. Kramer has made 68 triples this season, and is one of three players averaging 10 points per night. Kristen Murphy (5-11) and LaRonda Thomas (5-7) also each score 10 per game, while Ali Taff (5-4) and Lexi Villegas (5-11) combine for another 12 per night.

So, from the stat sheet, the Ravens are very balanced, with no true scoring machine. But, with so much depth, which includes Haylee Beard (5-9) and center (6-0) Serena Parker, the Ravens get their scoring done by committee, and they are very hard to defend.

“They (Ravens) are very much like a Frontier Conference team,” Mouat said. “They are just very solid, very sound fundamentally. They shoot it well, they rebound well and they defend well, and that’s usually a recipe for success. And, because of how well-coached they are, they will make you pay for any mistakes you make. They are just a very complete basketball team.”

Of course, Northern, which reached the NAIA Elite 8 a year ago, wouldn’t expect anything less in the national tournament. The Skylights are complete themselves, and they have a wealth of experience from last year’s run. And should they beat the Ravens Wednesday, they’ll be back in familiar territory — taking on the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

That’s because the winner of Wednesday’s game will likely face top-ranked Our Lady of Lakes out of Texas in the Sweet 16. The Saints (29-2) haven’t lost a game since all the way back on Nov. 20 and that was to NCAA Division I Sam Houston State. They average nearly 90 points per game, and they ripped through their conference with a perfect 18-0 mark. They tout five All-Conference starters, and they are a heavy favorite to cut down the nets at the end of the week in Independence.

And yet, as good and as scary as the Saints might be, Mouat and the Skylights have nothing but Ravens on their mind. MSU-N has won its last three first-round games at the national tourney, and they would like to make it four in a row Wednesday morning. However, a good Benedictine team is certainly standing in the way of that.

“They’re a great team, it’s a tough matchup,” Mouat said of the Ravens. “But, our kids are confident in themselves, too. We feel good about how we’re playing right now. And we have experience at this level now. Even though we lost some great players off of last year’s team, we have a lot of kids who played three games in that gym last year. They understand the environment, they know what it takes to get it done at this level. And they’ll be ready to go out and play well on Wednesday.”

The Skylights and Ravens will meet at 11 a.m. M.S.T. Wednesday at the Silverstein Arena in Independence. The winner will play either Our Lady of Lakes or William Woods at 9:45 a.m. Friday.

Meet Benedictine College

(26-6, Heart of America 3rd Place)

Location: Atchison, Kans.

Enrollment: 1,300

Nickname: Ravens

Head Coach: Chad Folsom (15th Season)

Key Players: Chayla Rutledge (5-11, Sr, F), Jordan Warner (5-10, Sr. G), Kristen Murphy (5-11, So. F), Ali Taff (5-4, Jr. G).