GREAT FALLS — After winning 11 of their past 12 games — including a Frontier Conference tournament title — the Providence Argo women are set to host the first and second rounds of the NAIA national tournament starting Friday in Great Falls.
The Argos received a No. 5 seed in their respective bracket, and will start a redemption tour in the tournament against the College of Idaho at UP's own McLaughlin Center.
"I just am confident we still got a ways to go," head coach Bill Himmelberg said Thursday. "I think we still have better basketball in front of us, and so it's exciting to get a chance to continue to play and see if we can do better."
"It's great to know that when we can all come together, trying to get a goal that if we all just buy in and give our best effort — do what we need to do — then we can do it," Monique Carter said. "It's all about us."
"It's nice having a little bit of like confidence going in to it," Kolby Pimperton said. "We know what we have to do to get (back to Sioux City, Iowa for the NAIA national site), the same steps. We went through those roller coasters to start the season, but now we're on the uphill climb so it's just nice to see everyone working together again."
Himmelberg, Carter and Pimperton — who's a native of Belt — emphasized the importance of being able to host the first two rounds.
"We didn't have to travel, we got a lot of rest, so I think our girls are well-rested, excited, ready to go," Himmelberg said.
"It is beautiful," Carter said. "When we were at the selection show everybody was so excited. There's hands going, everybody's cheering when we found out that we were playing here. And it's great to have like our people to come and watch us."
"It's a really nice advantage," Pimperton said. "It brings the community in. My parents will get to come, I mean it's my last year, so it's great to see family coming in, and just like the community around here and even from Belt. So it's just nice to see everyone coming in."
Providence already defeated College of Idaho 71-61 earlier in the season, but all three said they know it'll be challenging to win against the Yotes again.
"Obviously things are a little bit different after they've gone through conference," Himmelberg said. "They do some new stuff, we do some new stuff. But we had a baseline, our girls know what we're facing and kind of what we're up against, and they're a good program. (Montana native and Yotes head coach Kyle Erickson) does a great job, so it's going to be an interesting run for us there."
"We already know what they're going to run, who they got, what they do from earlier in the year," Carter said. "We know what we need to do, we need to go out and do it."
"They're a great team, and they're well coached," Pimperton said. "We have to keep our mindset right and just be able to work hard enough to beat them."
The Argos play the Yotes Friday night at 5 p.m., with the winner advancing to Saturday's second round against the victor of the game between Jamestown (N..D.) and Georgetown (Ky.).
