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Mar. 14—GREAT FALLS, Mont. — The University of Jamestown women's basketball team's season will continue for at least one more day after they got an at-large bid in the 2025 NAIA Women's Basketball Championship.
"We want to play a great game," Jimmies head coach Thad Sankey said. "We know it's tournament time, national tournament time so we know our opponent is a great team and will be really tough. Just watching Georgetown on film, they're pretty impressive, defensively and offensively too, great offensive balance and skill and size. So the experience that we've had at the tournament the last couple years at the tournament just tells us that we gotta play a great game in the first round."
The No. 13-seed Jimmies will be taking on No. 4-seed Georgetown College (Kentucky) at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 14, at Providence College's (Montana) McLaughlin Center Gymnasium.
"They've had a great season and play in a great league," Sankey said. "Their balance of size and athleticism and shooting, they have all three of those things and really dynamic off the dribble and they can really space teams out. Our goal is not get stuck on one matchup, our goal is to have some team help and be able to plug drive gaps and push out to shooters. ... Of course we're gonna have to finish our possessions with defensive rebounding."
This game will be the first time the Jimmies and Tigers have ever played.
"Some of it is just having the balance of how much do we have to trust our stuff, how much do we have to trust who we are and what we've done well to get there and how much is it to adjust and modify our structure to make it fit against our opponent," Sankey said. "There's a little bit of a balance there. I think we'll see that as we get started playing, where we'll have two or three different scouting report pieces that are unique to our style but we'll try to fit them into the structure of our defense specifically and try to balance that out."
The Jimmies (19-10) enter the tournament after losing 65-59 to Dakota State in the North Star Athletic Association Championship game on March 4.
The Tigers (20-8) are coming off an 84-58 loss to Bethel in the Mid-South Conference tournament quarterfinals. In that game, the Tigers went 5-for-20 on 3-pointers.
Sankey said he and his team are watching all of the Tigers' conference games to see what opponents did to give them issues.
The Jimmies are heading into this game with a 9-4 overall record in the first round of the national tournament and are currently riding a four-game winning streak in the opening game.
Both the Jimmies and Tigers put a lot of emphasis on grabbing rebounds with the Jimmies averaging 39.2 per game and the Tigers averaging 37.0 per game. In order to win the rebounding battle, Sankey said his team has to be physical, force the Tigers to miss shots, play tight defense on their post players and send multiple players after rebounds.
This year, the Jimmes are 12-1 when they score 75 points or more and 7-9 when they score below that number.
"Really our goal is to play early offense, can we get into our offense around 25 seconds on the shot clock, even earlier than that if possible," Sankey said. "If we can do that it gives us more time. If we don't get into our offense until there's under 20 seconds on the shot clock, we're losing three extra passes or a drive and a couple actions. So really the early offense piece, our ability to shoot the ball earlier and have quality looks, maybe turn down a good shot and get a great shot, those are situations for us that we want to create. When you see us score those higher point totals, it's because we're doing a great job of those things in the game."
Last year, the Jimmies headed into the tournament as a No. 12 seed and made it to the Sweet 16. This year's Jimmies return 10 players from last year's roster, including this year's leading scorer, Kate Cordes.
"It helps for sure, just understanding what the stakes are for the game and the level of intensity and focus and just being committed to playing great basketball and the details that it takes," Sankey said. "I think that's the biggest part that experience gives us. Some of it is also, we've got new players that have playoff experience in high school, just the prep, the focus, the calm, the ability to play well on the road, all those things matter. So hopefully we can make it work for us with a really great opponent on Friday."
This is not the Jimmies first trip to Great Falls this season, as they previously played there on Nov. 8-9, splitting the two games.
"We played some great basketball in Montana early in the first semester. That's a big part of what got us to the national tournament was our first semester and even right after Christmas, going to Billings and playing great basketball on the road," Sankey said. "I think for sure for our team it's a comfort zone ... can we draw a little confidence from that, sure we can, but it really just matters how well we play on Friday."
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"We want to play a great game," Jimmies head coach Thad Sankey said. "We know it's tournament time, national tournament time so we know our opponent is a great team and will be really tough. Just watching Georgetown on film, they're pretty impressive, defensively and offensively too, great offensive balance and skill and size. So the experience that we've had at the tournament the last couple years at the tournament just tells us that we gotta play a great game in the first round."
The No. 13-seed Jimmies will be taking on No. 4-seed Georgetown College (Kentucky) at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 14, at Providence College's (Montana) McLaughlin Center Gymnasium.
"They've had a great season and play in a great league," Sankey said. "Their balance of size and athleticism and shooting, they have all three of those things and really dynamic off the dribble and they can really space teams out. Our goal is not get stuck on one matchup, our goal is to have some team help and be able to plug drive gaps and push out to shooters. ... Of course we're gonna have to finish our possessions with defensive rebounding."
This game will be the first time the Jimmies and Tigers have ever played.
"Some of it is just having the balance of how much do we have to trust our stuff, how much do we have to trust who we are and what we've done well to get there and how much is it to adjust and modify our structure to make it fit against our opponent," Sankey said. "There's a little bit of a balance there. I think we'll see that as we get started playing, where we'll have two or three different scouting report pieces that are unique to our style but we'll try to fit them into the structure of our defense specifically and try to balance that out."
The Jimmies (19-10) enter the tournament after losing 65-59 to Dakota State in the North Star Athletic Association Championship game on March 4.
The Tigers (20-8) are coming off an 84-58 loss to Bethel in the Mid-South Conference tournament quarterfinals. In that game, the Tigers went 5-for-20 on 3-pointers.
Sankey said he and his team are watching all of the Tigers' conference games to see what opponents did to give them issues.
The Jimmies are heading into this game with a 9-4 overall record in the first round of the national tournament and are currently riding a four-game winning streak in the opening game.
Both the Jimmies and Tigers put a lot of emphasis on grabbing rebounds with the Jimmies averaging 39.2 per game and the Tigers averaging 37.0 per game. In order to win the rebounding battle, Sankey said his team has to be physical, force the Tigers to miss shots, play tight defense on their post players and send multiple players after rebounds.
This year, the Jimmes are 12-1 when they score 75 points or more and 7-9 when they score below that number.
"Really our goal is to play early offense, can we get into our offense around 25 seconds on the shot clock, even earlier than that if possible," Sankey said. "If we can do that it gives us more time. If we don't get into our offense until there's under 20 seconds on the shot clock, we're losing three extra passes or a drive and a couple actions. So really the early offense piece, our ability to shoot the ball earlier and have quality looks, maybe turn down a good shot and get a great shot, those are situations for us that we want to create. When you see us score those higher point totals, it's because we're doing a great job of those things in the game."
Last year, the Jimmies headed into the tournament as a No. 12 seed and made it to the Sweet 16. This year's Jimmies return 10 players from last year's roster, including this year's leading scorer, Kate Cordes.
"It helps for sure, just understanding what the stakes are for the game and the level of intensity and focus and just being committed to playing great basketball and the details that it takes," Sankey said. "I think that's the biggest part that experience gives us. Some of it is also, we've got new players that have playoff experience in high school, just the prep, the focus, the calm, the ability to play well on the road, all those things matter. So hopefully we can make it work for us with a really great opponent on Friday."
This is not the Jimmies first trip to Great Falls this season, as they previously played there on Nov. 8-9, splitting the two games.
"We played some great basketball in Montana early in the first semester. That's a big part of what got us to the national tournament was our first semester and even right after Christmas, going to Billings and playing great basketball on the road," Sankey said. "I think for sure for our team it's a comfort zone ... can we draw a little confidence from that, sure we can, but it really just matters how well we play on Friday."
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