Frontier Conference hoops earning kudos
Area players faring well at Western, Montana Tech
The Daily Inter Lake
The state of Montana was well represented in last week's NAIA college basketball polls.
The women's Top 25 poll had four Frontier Conference teams receive votes while the men's Top 25 poll had two Frontier teams get votes.
The perennial power University of Montana-Western women, who are coached by Kevin Engellant - the brother of Flathead High School boys assistant Darren - are ranked sixth in the nation. Going into the weekend, the Bulldogs were 16-1. Two of the team's leaders are former FHS star Becky O'Neil and former Whitefish High School standout Laura Shea.
O'Neil is second on the team in points, averaging 15.33 per game. The 6-foot-1 senior post is 11th in the nation in field goal percentage (58.7 percent), 15th in the nation in defensive rebounds (6.33 per game), 20th in blocks (1.4 per game) and 22nd in free-throw percentage (78.3 percent).
Shea, a 5-9 junior guard, is fifth on the team in scoring at 6.29 ppg. She also averages 3.12 rebounds, 2.59 assists and 1.18 steals per game.
Both of the Carroll College programs are in the Top 20. Neither team has players from Northwestern Montana.
Both Montana State University-Northern programs received votes, but don't appear in the Top 25. The only Northwestern Montana player on those squads is Troy's Ashley Trulock.
The other team that received votes is the Montana Tech women, who received enough votes to rank 26th. The Orediggers have no players from Northwestern Montana on their roster.
The teams with the most players from this part of the state are the Western and Tech men.
Tech has three men, two from Ronan and one from Libby, playing from this region. Libby senior point guard Luke Harman is sixth on the team in scoring with 7.21 points per game. Ronan seniors Nate Harris and Billy Williams combine for 5.57 points per game for the 'Diggers. The Orediggers were 1-0 in Frontier play and 6-8 overall heading into last weekend.
The Orediggers got their conference season started on the right note, ending a 1-for-10 drought against Western with a 78-76 victory, bringing the Digger-Dawg Cup back to Butte for just the second time in history.
The Western men have Kalispell's Kellen Ori and Ronan's Zach Pitts playing. Ori, a 6-8 senior post, is sixth on the team in scoring. He averages 8.14 points, 4.86 rebounds and 2 assists per game. Pitts, a 6-0 junior guard, averages 9.86 points, 3.07 rebounds, 2.21 assists and 1.5 steals per game. The Bulldogs were 0-1 in conference and 6-8 overall on the season heading into last weekend.