Thunderbirds Looking to Continue Momentum From Last Year's Run

It's not often a team that finished the season 11 games under .500 can say that it had a year for the record books.

The United Tribes Technical College women's basketball team, however, can say just that.

In a season full of ups and downs, the Thunderbirds were at their best come playoff time and etched themself in NJCAA Division II history in the process. After claiming the Region XIII Championship over Dakota College-Bottineau and the Northwest Plains District title against Southeast Community College, UTTC became the first 16 seed to ever win a game in the NJCAA Division II national tournament, defeating Mid Michigan College in a consolation round game.

A new year brings a new roster and new expectations, but the Thunderbirds are hoping the momentum they generated from last year's postseason run carries over to the 2023-24 campaign.

"Some momentum is carried over from last season," UTTC coach Kelsey Peltier said. "A large part of that was experience. Our sophomores were able to get a taste at the national level how that felt and how the atmosphere was so I think a lot of that has carried over into this season."

This year's roster features eight sophomores and seven freshmen. Four players from last season's team return this year, including guard Myona Dauphinais, who led the Thunderbirds in scoring last year as a freshman. Dauphinais — a second-team All-American — started 26 games and played more than 30 minutes a game, averaging 16.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.

"She's going to be front and center for us leading the way," Peltier said. "Another thing too is when she got that experience and publicity out in Michigan, what's really nice for us is she brings that to the other guards and so she pushes all of the guards and post players to be better. That's the nice thing about having players like Moana. You don't get them every year, but when you do get them it makes such a difference because she makes everyone else around her better."

Dauphinais will be looking for help on the offensive end of the court as UTTC graduated its next five leading scorers, including Tiara Flying Horse, who was the only other player to average double figures with 12.1 points per game. She also pulled down more than five rebounds per game.

The departure of last year's sophomore class not only impacts the numbers on the court, but also leaves a void in leadership positions that Peltier is hoping to fill as the season progresses.

"We'll be focusing a lot on who can fill in on some of those roles we're losing out on," Peltier said. "We lose out on a couple of leadership roles with Amaya Ramsey. We're losing out on Tiara Flying Horse. Those are two girls that they didn't put up a lot of numbers on the board and may not have filled the stat sheet, but leadership wise and doing the little things right and even finding the open player, those are the things we're going to look at early on and who can fit into those roles. The small intangibles that people don't see are the things we have to worry about."

Peltier is in her eighth season with the Thunderbirds and is fresh off leading her team to their third NJCAA Division II National tournament under her leadership. Despite her success, she's always had an undersized team. This season, she was finally able to bring in some size to help diversify the offense.

Melina Shangreaux gives the Thunderbirds some much needed help underneath the basket on a team loaded with 11 guards. The 6-foot-1 freshman from Pine Ridge, S.D., should help a UTTC squad that was outrebounded by 6.1 rebounds per game last year and allowed 75.5 points per game, which ranked last in the Mon-Dak.

"We finally have some height," Peltier said. "We never have anyone that is over 5-10, so being able to spread the floor a lot because we have a lot of good shooters. With Melena Shangreaux coming in at 6-1 that's really going to help us. Alionna Lawrence definitely is a true inside presence. With those two girls, it's going to be able to open up our shooters a lot more."

Lawrence is one of four freshmen from North Dakota. Lawrence played high school basketball at Four Winds along with Dauphinais. The forward is making the adjustment from high school basketball to college basketball like the rest of her freshmen colleagues, but said they've made great strides since the beginning of practice.

"We're growing pretty good right now," Lawrence said. "We have potential in the future as we work more and we build more as a team. Our chemistry will be there. Everyone is very determined. They take everything serious so we mesh together."

Lawrence joins Sunni Belgarde (New Town), Kaitleigh Brady (New Town) and Selma Ruiz (Parshall) as local recruits. Peltier also added sophomores Amara Martinson (Standing Rock), Tyleigh Brady (New Town) and Jaxsyn Delorme (Turtle Mountain).

"It's always nice when they're home grown," Peltier said. "When you're playing against some other nationally-ranked opponents when we went out to nationals, it's nice to kind of give them a preview of what North Dakota kids are all about. The nice thing about some of these North Dakota kids is they're really tough."

The added height on this year's roster will help diversify the offense. Last season, the Thunderbirds did most of their damage from the outside, leading the Mon-Dak in both 3-pointers made per game (7.9) and 3-point attempts (28.2). UTTC shot 27.9 percent from beyond the arc. The Thunderbirds will continue shooting from the outside, but will also be looking to work it inside and put pressure on opposing defenses.

"It definitely switches our offense from last year because last year we mostly had just all guards on the floor, so to have a post in there is pretty nice," Dauphinais said. "It might be a mix of both outside shooting and inside shooting because our posts can't shoot from the outside."

The Thunderbirds got their first look at their new team during the ICCAC JUCO Jam in early October, playing against Ellsworth (Iowa) and Southeast (Neb.). Now they begin the regular season against Williston State on Friday at 7 p.m. in New Town for the Mon-Dak Tip Off. UTTC is hoping to get off to a faster start than last season, but knows it wants to be playing its best basketball come playoff time.

"We just have a lot of hard-working kids, so it's hard to put a number on whether we're going to get a lot of wins early on, but it always comes around to the end where we play the best basketball when we need to play the best basketball and that's in March," Peltier said.