Lady Bison earn wins over Alumni, Stone Child College

Salish Kootenai College coach Silas Perez knows there is nothing more valuable in basketball than court time.

Perez and his coaching staff will put even more of an emphasis on gaining minutes with only three returners from last year’s Lady Bison team that placed third at the American Indian Higher Education Consortium Tournament.

“Our experience was valuable, there were a lot of players on the court, and conditioning was much harder because they need to work on their conditioning,” Perez said. “You can run your offense all you want, and during practice, if there is a mistake you can stop it and correct it. When you are running 5-on-0 and you actually see it against a defense, it’s beneficial for the players on the court to see the speed (at game speed).”

This weekend, the Lady Bison played a team they will most likely see down the road come tournament time at AIHEC in Stone Child College. The SKC Lady Bison split their weekend series with Stone Child.

Perez knows his team will most likely meet them during AIHEC play.

“We lost to them in the championship game a couple of years ago,” Perez said. “They are a good team, they understand their offense and they have good three-point shooting. They are a very good, and they are usually (at AIHEC).”

The Lady Bison ended up avenging their loss with an 81-67 victory over Stone Child on Saturday at Joe McDonald Gym.

With several new SKC players, they are still getting acclimated to the varsity level.

“Some of our players are very young,” Perez said. “They were a little nervous, and yesterday’s game was tight for a while. We started really good, and then we went flat and tightened up. Everyone on our team got to play yesterday. It was a tight rotation, and some of our bench players didn’t play as long or as many minutes as they got to play in the two previous games.”

The Lady Bison also played former members of the Lady Bison in the alumni game and avenged their 30-point loss in last year’s contest.

“We won two out of three (this weekend),” Perez said. “We had a good showing Friday night at the alumni game and ended up winning by 30.”

Perez said he is noticing his young team is starting to grasp the basic fundamental concepts of basketball.

“I think now that we’ve played nine games it is happening, and they are finally starting to understand what it takes to play competitive basketball,” Perez said. “You can see the confidence in them with their court time, and that is important to see them grow in their confidence.”

Each year at SKC, Perez has the challenge of introducing several of his rostered players to the speed of college hoops.

“We have to get them and some of the players to understand the basketball lingo at the start of the season,” Perez said. “We try to get them to understand the technique, and try to teach them how to play basketball. That is part of practice. You work on your offense, technique and getting them to understand basketball lingo.”

In the second game of their two game series, the SKC Lady Bison flipped the script from the previous game as they successfully dialed the operator long distance from beyond the arc while holding their visitor to small numbers. Coach Silas Perez said the rematch featured solid defense, strategic rebounding and good energy. The presence of Taylor Whitney on the court also injected some additional spark into the lineup that helped dictate the momentum leading up to the win.

SKC (1-1, 2-7)

SKC 81, Stone Child College 67

STONE CHILD COLLEGE – Dom Garviso 17.

SALISH KOOTENAI COLLEGE – Kylie Coby 22, JanTeesa Fisher 16, Braylee Stone 14, Nina Orozco-Charlo 10, Taylor Whitney 10, Chaleina LittleSun 7, Roselynne Parker 2.

3FGs – SCC 4 (), SKC 11 (Coby 6, Taylor 2, Stone, Fisher, LittleSun). (Su18Nov18)

Stone Child College 73, SKC 57

SCC 11 22 19 21 – 73

SKC 17 11 11 8 – 57

STONE CHILD COLLEGE – Jaylin DayChild 28, Jude TheBoy 15, Dom Garviso 14, Lyssa Lamere 5, Rhe PlainBull 5, Jurnee LaForge 4.

SALISH KOOTENAI COLLEGE – Nina Orozco-Charlo 5 1-5 12, JanTeesa Fisher 5 0-1 10, Braylee Stone 3 2-2 9, Camille Whiteman 3 2-6 8, Ione Chimburas 2 0-0 5, Roselynne Parker 2 0-1 4, Chaleina LittleSun 2 0-0 4, Jaime HeavyRunner 1 1-2 3, Ashley Tryon 2, Gabriella Houle 0, Verlina BlackKettle 0, Kylie Coby 0, Charine Whiteman 0.

3FGs – SCC 10 (Daychild 3, TheBoy 3, Varviso 2, Lamere, Plainbull), SKC 3 (Orozco-Charlo, Stone, Chimburas). (Sa17Nov18)

SKC Lady Bison 67, Alumni 37

Alumni 12 11 3 11 – 37

Currents 10 23 9 25 – 67

SKC ALUMNI – Kaylea Skunkcap 13, Eva Green 7, Crystal Matt 4, Carla Torrosian 4, Moriah Friedlander 2, Katie McDonald 2, Shanelle Skunkcap 2, Cecelia Koskela 2, Misty Ostlie 1.

SKC LADY BISON – Braylee Stone 5 2-2 13, Kylie Coby 4 2-2 13, Nina Orozco-Charlo 11, Roselynne Parker 10, Camille Whiteman 6, Jantessa Fisher 5, Ione Chimburas 4, Ashley Tryon 1 1-2 3, Gabrielle Houle 2, Jamie HeavyRunner, Verlina BlackKettle, Charmaine Whiteman.

3FG – Alum 4 (K.Skunkcap 3, Green), SKC 7 (Coby 3, Orozco-Charlo 2, Stone, Fisher). (Fr16Nov18)

— John Heglie contributed to this story.