ARCATA, Calif. – The Humboldt State women's basketball team will look to build on a very positive exhibition season as it travels to Fresno this weekend for the West Region Crossover Classic. The Lumberjacks will take on perennial West Region leader Seattle Pacific Friday and face Western Washington Saturday. Both games tip off at 5:30 p.m.

HSU, in its two exhibition games, was able to dispatch Simpson, 89-56, on Oct. 25, and took care of Southern Oregon, 99-72, on Saturday. Kindall Murie led the Lumberjacks with 18 points in their tilt with Southern Oregon, followed closely by Tyra Turner, Madeline Hatch, and Tyla Turner with 14 apiece.

"With opening night this weekend, we're excited about that," said Lumberjack Head Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson. "We feel like both of our exhibitions were beneficial to us as far as learning where we're at, utilizing many kinds of lineups, and really kind of experimenting with some things in these exhibition games. We have opening night this Friday night, and we go against two very strong ballclubs [this weekend], so we certainly have our challenges in front of us."

"We've been experimenting with different things, primarily on the defensive end," said Bento-Jackson. "We actually didn't show much full-court defense in the two exhibition games, but it is something that we have implemented and we will be utilizing this season."

"One thing I've said this year is that there's not a lot of drop-off from our top five to our bottom," said Bento-Jackson. "We have 13 players on our roster and one thing we really are going to be using this year to our advantage is our quality depth, which is a huge strength of ours."

The coach acknowledged that there isn't a lot of difference between the roster from last year to this one, with 11 returners, but says there has been a lot of improvement among her players coming back. Tyla Turner and Isamar Conde are the new Lumberjacks this year.  

"I've always been one that loves to play tough competition in the preseason and in non-conference games," said Bento-Jackson. "And obviously we'll learn a lot about ourselves. Last year when we faced Seattle Pacific and Western Washington around the same time of year it was so new to all of us. We didn't give a good showing at all. I'm sure all us coaches and  players remember that and want to do better this year."

She refers to Seattle Pacific as a veteran squad that only lost one of its top eight scorers and is starting five seniors. She made special mention of the two teams being two very strong squads in their region and said they should do a good job of preparing the Jacks for the very tough California Collegiate Athletic Conference.

Regarding the Turner sisters, Bento-Jackson said, "It was nice having one of them, and now it's nice having two of them, for sure," referring to how the squad was utilizing them in different ways, sometimes just giving each other a breather and sometimes looking at playing them both simultaneously. One thing she was certain of was that they both play "with a motor, not only on the defensive end but on the offensive end as well."

The addition of her sister also means, according to Bento-Jackson, that Tyra Turner would not necessarily be expected to contribute the 37 minutes per game that she did last season as a freshman in addition to often taking the other team's most challenging defensive assignment.

"I feel like the two exhibition games have really shown that we've grown, and we've showed a lot of confidence as a team," said Turner. "Having 11 returners come back, I think we're using that as an advantage for us, and we're more prepared this season than last season."

"Having my sister here is very nice," said Turner. "I think we just feed off each other. We're both guards, and like coach said, we bring a motor and confidence to this team."

Bento-Jackson saw this weekend's Crossover games as big tests for her squad as it prepares for the start of conference play in front of a national audience on Saturday, Nov. 18 against Chico State on ESPN3.