Lady Bison prepare for Yellowstone Christian

Salish Kootenai College women’s basketball coach Juan Perez is looking to avenge two earlier losses to Yellowstone Christian College.

The Lady Bison will host Yellowstone Christian College back-to-back nights Thursday and Friday at Joe McDonald Gym.

“The first two games against Yellowstone were competitive games,” Perez said. “This time, we will come in prepared and it will be a different story. You know one thing is that we played on a smaller court and our team is used to larger collegiate-sized courts. Conditioning wise, we outlasted them and that is going to help us (when we play them again). They were getting winded. We have to tended to start out slower than we should (against Yellowstone Christian) and then we have had to play catch up.”

The Lady Bison (10-4 overall, 5-0 against Tribal Colleges) are progressing well, according to Perez.

“The first half of the season we played two weeks worth of tough games,” Perez said. “The last two weeks we are 2-2 and with two more weeks coming up, hopefully that will help us gain some experience because I really think we are progressing well.”

The Lady Bison are finishing the latter half of the season in hopes they are peaking by the time the AIHEC National Basketball Tournament, which will be in Rapid City this season.

“Throughout the season the players have gotten smarter and they are understanding what it is going to take for us to go and be successful in the tournament,” Perez said. “We are getting some games under our belts and that is helping us get ready for tournament time.”

Prior to the tournament, the Lady Bison will have a few weeks to recover from their regular season.

“We will have a few weeks of no games and before we head out to our national tournament,” Perez said. “That gives us a chance to refine some things that we need to work on, give us a little rest physically, give us a chance to get healthy and strong, and a few weeks to work on our game as well.”