SKYLINE SPORTS & BIG SKY CONFERENCE
Only two undefeated women’s basketball teams remain in the Big Sky Conference.
After the second week of the Road to Reno, Eastern Washington and Montana State are the only remaining undefeated teams in league play, as the Eagles defeated rival Idaho, while the Bobcats earned road wins over Sacramento State and Portland State.
Montana State senior center Jasmine Hommes played a large role in the Bobcats’ success, and earned her second Big Sky women’s basketball Player of the Week award for the season.
Hommes averaged 20.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 55 percent from the field as the Bobcats won a pair of Big Sky Conference road games to remain undefeated and a half game ahead of Eastern Washington atop the league standings.
“We have quite a bit of confidence and we know what we can do,” Hommes said. “We have seen that be successful so far this season.”
In Montana State’s 80-79 win at Sacramento State, Hommes posted a team-high 19 points and nine rebounds, shooting 50 percent from the field. In MSU’s 106-59 win at Portland State, the Lynden, Washington product recorded a game-high 22 points, while adding five rebounds in 19 minutes of action. Hommes also averaged one steal and one blocked shot on the weekend.
Montana State beat Sac thanks to a 3-pointer by Hannah Caudill with six seconds remaining. The next night out, MSU scored a school record for points on the road behind a school-record 32 assists.
“The next game is the most important game and we take that to heart,” Hommes said. “We didn’t want to take Portland State lightly. We wanted to get better that day as a team. We did the simple things, played our game, were solid on defense and kept it simple on offense.
Other Big Sky players had outstanding performances from the weekend. Montana’s Kayleigh Valley averaged 26 points on 62.5 percent shooting and 10 rebounds as Montana went 1-1 on its first Big Sky Conference road trip of the season.
Valley matched her career high with 29 points in Thursday’s 79-58 victory at Portland State, then had her second double-double in three games with 23 points and a career-high 14 rebounds in Saturday’s 83-75 overtime loss at Sacramento State.
Sacramento State’s Adella Randle-El led the Hornets to an 83-75 overtime win over defending Big Sky champion Montana after a narrow one point loss against Montana State. She averaged 23.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.0 steals, and 3.0 assists per game and knocked down six 3-pointers in two games last week.
Randle-El scored a career-high 29 points against the Bobcats, the most points a Hornet player has scored in a game since 2012. She shot 11-of-19 (57.8 percent) overall and 5-of-10 (50 percent) from 3-point range and also had a game-high five steals, three rebounds, and two assists and was 2-of-2 at the free throw line.
She followed that performance with her first career double-double on Saturday with 17 points and a career-high 11 rebounds in the win over Montana. Randle-El had five steals against the Griz as well as four assists and a block in a season-high 32 minutes played. Two of her steals led to baskets in overtime as the Hornets pulled out the win.
Other players nominated for weekly honors include: Dari Frandsen, Southern Utah; Mikayla Ferenz, Idaho; Isabel Vara De Rey, Idaho State; Makailah Dyer, North Dakota; Savannah Scott, Northern Colorado; Regina Okoye, Weber State; Pia Jurhar, Southern Utah; Alyssa Rader, Northern Arizona; Kayleigh Valley, Montana; Ashli Payne, Eastern Washington; and Adella Randle-El, Sacramento State
