The Bobcat Nation

Bobcat women's school game-playing Minot State this morning/afternoon.
Finally ran into a college coach who doesn't see implementing a zone defense as a moral failing (ahem Logie...). Minot played the 2-3 zone and watched the Bobcats brick a lot of threes. Meanwhile Minot hit a bunch of threes and made this somewhat close in the first half. Credit to them. It's starting to stretch out now in the second half.

We don't have Esmerelda Morales to hit threes like last year, but Addy Harris is playing at Marah Dykstra's level so far this season and Brooke Fatupaito has made us even faster and more relentless on defense. Teagan Erickson is getting some minutes today-and she looks tall on our already pretty tall team. She just needs to get the rust off.

Cats win 76-37. As with the Portland game the four Bobcats scoring in double figures were Chirrick, Harris, Bailey, and Fatupaito. Nice to have (almost) the full roster back healthy. Keep practicing those 3s!

It was good to see both Tegan and Courtney play today.

Amazing Defensive Stat

The ‘Cat women win by 39 points and get three comments! We are indeed getting spoiled. In a good way — thanks Coach Bin. And I think Coach Sunny coaches the defense, is that right?

Of note in this game — Minot State scored 37 points. 9 3s for 27, 4 free throws for 31, and only 3 2-point baskets! There must be a record in there somewhere. That’s an incredible amount of focus to do that. No sloppy inbounds defense. Nobody getting a steal for an easy basket. Only 3 baskets in 40 minutes. The ‘Cats game plan was probably suffocate them inside the arc, and they can’t beat us shooting threes! The Beavers made 9 three-point shots, but required 29 attempts to do it. The three two-pointers took 21 attempts, and they ended the night 12-50 from the field.

After allowing 4 threes on 11 shots in the first quarter, the ‘Cats clamped down in the second, giving up just one three, one two, and two free throws for 7 points! With both benches playing, the ‘Cats gave up only three points (1 free throw, 1 two) in the fourth quarter, including none in the final 7:40!

Yes, Minot State is a Division II team, but I don’t care if you are playing any organized team, to nearly blank them almost at choice is an amazing feat. I just wanted to spotlight this pretty rare performance. Congratulations to the players and the coaches. How many other teams have allowed three two-pointers (or less) in a game this year?

The School Day games always go under the radar since most of us are at work while they're going on. It certainly was another highly impressive defensive performance!

MSU01 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 11, 2025 2:09 pm

The School Day games always go under the radar since most of us are at work while they're going on. It certainly was another highly impressive defensive performance!

Makes sense. I didn’t watch it until last night on ESPN+. There’s something about morning basketball (10 a.m. my time) , unless it’s a high school tournament, that just doesn’t feel right. The team looked sleepy (literally) in the first quarter. There must be nothing like an 8 o’clock mass lecture on game day to really fire up a student/athlete.

Minot zoned us quite a bit and we didn't seem to have a clue how to attack it. Threw it around the perimeter until somebody had to shoot a three. Didn't hurt us against Minot, but might be a problem against a better team.

84CatGrad wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 12, 2025 12:13 pm

Minot zoned us quite a bit and we didn't seem to have a clue how to attack it. Threw it around the perimeter until somebody had to shoot a three. Didn't hurt us against Minot, but might be a problem against a better team.

This is the 1st team of the year that has played zone like that. With as many young players as we have, they are drinking from a fire hose right now. Reps will help..

Fun Fact.

- MSU has averaged 33 Made Field Goals a game, and has only given up 48 Made field Goals ALL YEAR

SACCAT wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 12, 2025 3:07 pm

84CatGrad wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 12, 2025 12:13 pm

Minot zoned us quite a bit and we didn't seem to have a clue how to attack it. Threw it around the perimeter until somebody had to shoot a three. Didn't hurt us against Minot, but might be a problem against a better team.

This is the 1st team of the year that has played zone like that. With as many young players as we have, they are drinking from a fire hose right now. Reps will help..

Fun Fact.

- MSU has averaged 33 Made Field Goals a game, and has only given up 48 Made field Goals ALL YEAR

That is a fun fact. They are amazingly hard to score against. Minot had an oh-fer record but they’ve been on the road. They had a close game with Western Washington who features yet another Dykstra — Demi. Four daughters.