It feels like the Starch Madness women’s conference tournament is a two-spud race.
Northern Arizona and Montana State are on a collision course to meet in a fry-tastic conference finals matchup, unless someone else else arrives latke to the party. The Lumberjacks have three straight runner-up finishes and are in the midst of arguably its best season in program history.
Rev up those friers, let’s get to it with one sentence per team.
No. 1: Montana State (17-1 Big Sky, 27-3 overall)
The sturdiest of the potatoes, Montana State gets it done on defense allowing a league-low 55.7 points per game and has a margin of victory of a whopping 16.5 … which is kinda wild to look at.
No. 2: Northern Arizona (16-2 Big Sky, 25-6 overall)
The polar opposite type of potato that Montana State is … the Lumberjacks are waxy and have the best offense in the league at 80.3 points per game playing with a fast-paced style which happens to lend to the worst scoring defense in the league giving up 71.8.
No. 3: Idaho (10-8 Big Sky, 18-11 overall)
This is when the Big Sky starts to drop off ever so slightly, as the rest of the league is more akin to russets and Idaho is a solid marker of that with a defense that contends with that of Montana State.
No 4: Weber State (10-8 Big Sky, 13-15 overall)
Weber State hit the double-digit win mark for the first time in three seasons and is led by the league’s top 3-point shooter Lanae Billy (45% on 64 makes).
No. 5: Idaho State (8-10 Big Sky, 13-16 overall)
The Bengals hit the boards, hard, leading the league in offensive boards at 13 per game, and have the second-highest rebound margin at 4.6.
No. 6: Montana (8-10 Big Sky, 12-17 overall)
Montana had some midseason coaching moves, as previous head coach Brian Holsinger retired in February after he was on leave since mid January for “personal reasons.”
No. 7: Sacramento State (7-11 Big Sky, 14-17 overall)
Sacramento State is third in the conference in steals (8.69) and fourth in blocked shots (3.29) per game.
No. 8: Eastern Washington (7-11 Big Sky, 11-19 overall)
The defending champs have fallen off a bit, and enter the tournament losers of four of five games.
No. 9: Northern Colorado (6-12 Big Sky, 13-16 overall)
Northern Colorado really likes to make games ugly, scoring 61 points per game and allowing just 61 points per game.
No. 10: Portland State (1-17 Big Sky, 4-27 overall)
Well, the Vikings won three in a row in November … but have won just once since.
