(RMC Athletics release)
BILLINGS – The No. 18 Rocky Mountain College women’s basketball team opens the postseason on Wednesday with a home game against Montana Tech in the quarterfinals of the Frontier Conference Tournament. The action between the No. 3-seed Battlin’ Bears and No. 6-seed Orediggers will tipoff at 7 p.m. in the Fortin Education Center.
Game coverage, including links to live video and live stats, is available on the Playoff Central page at GoBattlinBears.com/wbbpostseason.
Wednesday’s other quarterfinal games in the Frontier features No. 2-seed Montana Western hosting No. 7-seed MSU-Northern and No. 4-seed Providence at home against No. 5-seed Lewis-Clark State. Carroll is the No. 1 seed and they will host the lowest remaining seed after Wednesday’s play on Saturday with the other two winners playing at the home site of the higher seed. The championship game will be played at the home of the highest remaining seed on March 6.
Rocky enters the postseason after going 21-7 overall in the regular season. They finished third in the Frontier after an 11-7 mark in conference play. The third-place finish is the best by a Rocky team since they tied for third in the 2011-12 season. Wednesday will be the first home playoff game for the Battlin’ Bears since 2012.
Since the 2003-04 season, Rocky has compiled a 3-11 record in the Frontier Conference Tournament. They have dropped six straight tournament games dating back to the 2009 semifinals. Rocky has gone 1-2 in the Fortin Center during tournament games. They are 0-1 against Montana Tech in the tournament since 2004, losing in Butte in the 2010 quarterfinals.
The Battlin’ Bears will enter the postseason scoring 66.75 points per game and shooting 42.5 percent from the field. They are third in the Frontier by making 6.43 threes per game and second in shooting 33.6 percent from deep. They distribute 13.54 assists per game and have a 1.08 assist-to-turnover ratio that ranks 10th in the NAIA.
At the defensive end, Rocky holds the opposition to 51.25 points per game to rank third in the country in scoring defense. Rocky is 14th in the NAIA in field goal defense by holding opponents to 35.1 percent shooting and sixth by limiting opponents to 25.5 percent on 3-pointers. The Battlin’ Bears average 9.79 steals per game to rank 27th nationally while placing 23rd at 3.29 blocks per game.
Mikayla Jones leads the team in scoring at 12.4 points per game while scoring in double figures 19 times. She scored a career-high 30 points in the win over Montana Tech on February 10. Jones leads the Frontier at 2.50 steals per game – 18th nationally – and her 70 total steals place her 16th in the NAIA.
Brooke Jones has scored in double figures 18 times and is second on the team in scoring at 10.8 points per game. She shoots 51.6 percent from the field and has 169 rebounds.
Hailee Farstveet is up to 9.3 points per game after scoring in double figures in 13 of the past 14 games. She leads the team with 107 assists – 24th in the country – and her 3.82 assists per game rank 28th in the NAIA. Farstveet has scored 831 points in her Rocky career and she has 1,157 career points in the NAIA when you add the 326 she scored for Dickinson State as a freshman.
