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Wildcat women hit the road

Troy Mattson, Northern Michigan University women's basketball head coach, guides his team from the sidelines during the 'Cat's game against MSU-Moorhead Sunday at the Berry Events Center. (Journal photo by Trinity Carey)

MARQUETTE — Some of us in the Upper Peninsula will be traveling out of town on Thanksgiving weekend and the Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team is doing the same.

The Wildcats (4-1) will be competing in the Radisson Hotel Classic at Concordia St. Paul and are coming in on a two-game winning streak. They will open the weekend against the host Golden Bears at 3 p.m. today and will play NAIA opponent Jamestown (N.D.) at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Concordia (2-1) has won its last two games, one by two points over Washburn (Kan.) and a blowout victory over Wisconsin-Superior. Lindsay Dorr is averaging more than 20 points per game for the Golden Bears, while Anna Schmitt has just over 15 ppg. Jamestown (5-3), on the other hand, has lost its last two games.

“Concordia is really good,” NMU head coach Troy Mattson said in a press conference Tuesday. “We played them last year and unfortunately for them, one of their players got injured in our game and we snuck out a seven-point win. They have everybody back, their three main players are back from last year. They just went down to Kansas City and beat a very good Washburn team that was a nationally-ranked team and a team that is always in the national tournament. They cause some major problems for us and they’ve got three seniors leading the way and they all cause problems for us. We’re going to need to go down and be really good on their home court. If we continue to play the way we do and shore up a couple of issues that we are having right now, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win every single night and that’s what we’re looking for right now.”

NMU defeated Minnesota State Mankato handily last Friday and then outlasted Minnesota State Moorhead on Sunday, so the Wildcats have built up some momentum going into the holiday weekend.

“Considering we had five games in nine days, which was probably a little excessive, and against the kind of competition we played, I got to feel like we’ve accomplished something,” Mattson said. “It’s a long season and we’ve got a long way to go and we can get a lot better than how we played. But to beat a Lewis (team) and an Indianapolis (team), who is playing well right now, and then to come back and play three Minnesota schools and come out of there with two out of three wins at home, we feel pretty good. We’re pretty confident with what has happened here, but we can still get a lot better and we’ll continue to work on those things.”

Two positive things that are helping with the Wildcats’ good start to the year are its improved shooting and the fact that everybody seems to be contributing both on and off the court. If one of the starters is having an off night, another will step up her game or somebody will come off the bench with a solid performance.

“We recruit shooters here and when you lose your top three players, you get into people that probably weren’t ready to accept the major roles that they were put in last year,” Mattson said. “That has a lot to do with shooting and percentage shooting-wise. We’re in good shape here. We needed this rest. We had yesterday off other than film and we had today. We’re starting practice now and we’re going to go light and cover the things that we need to cover and the same will happen tomorrow and Thursday. We’ve got a few days to get ourselves back and organized. We need to concentrate on a few issues out on the court and if that all happens, I think this team can get way better to be honest.

“If they want to, we’re going to get way better and then it’s going to be trouble for people because have a lot of talented players out there and we do have some depth.

“We’ve got good players here and we had good players here last year. Unfortunately, we were just decimated. Everybody is contributing. I’ve got two girls on the bench that can play for us and they’re not right now. Their efforts on the bench have been absolutely incredible with the team morale and those are all important things. So everybody is contributing, not just the 10 people that are on the court. It’s also people that haven’t got minutes, or many minutes, and they’ve been unbelievable on the bench and great in practice. If that continues, we’ll have a chance to be successful.”

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