BILLINGS, Mont. – The 12th-ranked Rocky Mountain College women's basketball team enters the final two games of the regular season with a lot to play for. Rocky will open play on Thursday when they host No. 15 Montana Western. The Battlin' Bears then welcome Lewis-Clark State to town on Saturday. Both games will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Fortin Education Center.
Live video and stats will be available for both games of the weekend. Links to the live features are available at GoBattlinBears.com/live.
A Rocky win on Thursday secures the No. 2 seed in the Frontier Conference Tournament and a home game in the first two rounds. The Battlin' Bears could still tie for the regular season conference title with two wins and two losses by Carroll. If Rocky loses on Thursday, they would be locked into the No. 3 seed in the conference postseason.
Thursday night is Military Appreciation Night in the Fortin Center, sponsored by the Rocky Mountain College's Student Veterans Club. The Battlin' Bears will wear special jerseys that include the name of an RMC player and an honored fallen military member. Rocky will then honor its senior class during a presentation on Saturday.
With two games left in the regular season, Rocky holds a 21-5 overall record. They hit the 20-win mark for the first time in the 15 years of available records and the current .808 winning percentage is tied for 12th best in the NAIA this season.
At 11-5 in Frontier play, the Battlin' Bears have secured a home game in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on February 28. They are guaranteed a top-3 finish in the league for the first time since the 2011-12 season and the first winning conference season since 2008-09.
With the move up three spots to No. 12 in the NAIA Division I Women's Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll released on February 13, Rocky set a new school record for highest ranking for the third time this season. They received 138 points in the poll to move up in the rankings for the fourth consecutive poll.
Rocky is currently scoring 68.12 points per game and they are second in the Frontier by shooting 43.2 percent from the field. They make 6.65 threes per game by shooting a Frontier-best 34.1 percent from beyond the arc.
The Battlin' Bears rank third in the NAIA in scoring defense by limiting opponents to 50.92 points per game. They are fifth nationally by allowing 24.9 percent shooting from 3-point territory and 13th by holding the opposition to 34.9 percent overall.
Mikayla Jones leads the team in scoring at 12.5 points per game. She has scored in double figures 18 times and she scored a career-high 30 points in the win over Montana Tech on February 10. Jones is second in the Frontier at 2.46 steals per game – 20th nationally – and her 64 total steals place her 18th in the NAIA.
Brooke Jones has scored in double figures 16 times and is second on the team in scoring at 10.6 points per game. She shoots 51.0 percent from the field and has 159 rebounds.
Hailee Farstveet is up to 9.3 points per game after scoring in double figures in the past 12 games. She leads the team with 97 assists and ranks 33rd in the NAIA at 3.73 assists per game. Farstveet has scored 812 points in her Rocky career and she has 1,138 career points in the NAIA when you add the 326 she scored for Dickinson State as a freshman.
