We were relegated to the Bob Uecker seats when No. 1-ranked Tennessee came to town to play the University of Montana in a women’s basketball game on Dec. 19, 1994.

Part of that was that we made a rookie mistake and did not get to the game 2 hours before tipoff like the students who did get to sit in the student section. Part of it was the fact that our school cut the number of student seats in more than half so they could sell them to the public with the best team in the nation coming to town.

That was the night I first took notice of No. 12 on the Lady Griz. Even from those seats way up high, I knew I was watching greatness.

She was a spunky, little redshirt-freshman guard from Malta named Skyla Sisco. In high school, I did not pay a whole lot of attention to girls’ high school basketball, so I did not know her name before that season.

I did not know Skyla came from the basketball factory that was Malta High School, winner of six Class B State titles from 1991 through 2000. I did not know the 5-foot-7 Skyla was a sophomore on the team that won the first those titles in 1991.

I did not even know where Malta was. I just knew that I liked Skyla’s style from the second she first stepped on the court. Even though she came off the bench because she had been nursing an ankle injury, Skyla was, in my mind, the best point guard on the court that night.

That is a claim I would make for every game I watched her player over the next four years.

She scored 11 points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out four assists. She also turned the ball over six times, thanks to her bravado that made her think she could do anything with a basketball.

Skyla played against coach Pat Summitt’s Volunteers the same way should would have played in a pickup game in her driveway. The fans knew Tennessee was a powerhouse, but Skyla apparently did not know, or she did not care.

If she was intimidated by the great coach and the team that was in the middle of a run of six national championships in 11 years, she certainly did not show it in the slightest.

The Volunteers escaped Missoula with a 66-61 win that night, but you better believe they knew they were in a fight. You better believe Summitt knew the name of No. 12 for the Lady Griz.

I was hardly the only fan impressed by Skyla’s play that night. A large group of students lucky enough to sit in the abbreviated student section kept giving Skyla the Waynes World “we’re not worthy” as they bowed up and down whenever she scored a basket, set up a teammate to score a basket, grabbed a rebound or stole the ball.

In just her fourth or fifth home game as a member of the Lady Griz, Skyla already had a fan club.

That club had to be worn out by the end of the game because Skyla gave us all a whole bunch of “wow” moments that night. She gave us thousands of those in her four-year career with the Lady Griz.

There was just something about Skyla that made her easy to root for. It wasn’t just that Skyla was really good at basketball. Coach Robin Selvig’s Lady Griz roster was full of really good basketball players.

It was the way she was good at basketball that drew so much attention to that feisty blonde. Skyla was fearless and electrifying with or without the basketball. She was the very definition of spunk.

When she had the ball, watch out. Something good was about to happen. When she was guarding the player with the ball, watch out. That ball was about to be a part of a Lady Griz fastbreak.

It did not matter if the Lady Griz were playing the No. 1 ranked Volunteers from the Southeastern Conference or the last place team from the Big Sky Conference, Skyla played the same way every game.

She wanted to win every game, and she nearly did. During her four years with the team, the Lady Griz went 99-22 overall and 56-4 in the Big Sky Conference play.

In her years with the Lady Griz, Montana won four Big Sky titles and qualified for four NCAA Tournaments. They advanced to the second round with an upset win over No. 5 San Diego in 1995.

Skyla was voted MVP of the Big Sky in 1998, and she was an honorable mention All-American selection. She was one of just a handful of players to ever be selected All-Big Sky four times. She scored 1,248 career points, and she tied for second in Lady Griz history with 587 assists. She ranked fourth with 235 steals.

Skyla went to training camp with the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA before playing professionally overseas.

Two years after the Volunteers came to town, I started covering the Lady Griz for The Montana Kaimin, the University of Montana school newspaper. It did not take me long to realize that as fun as Skyla was to watch, she was twice as fun to interview.

Skyla oozed confidence, but she was classy. She tried really hard to not come across as being cocky. Of course, that only made her sound cocky. Then she would try to correct herself, and sometimes that made her sound even more cocky.

As a young, ambitious reporter, I went to the Lady Griz practice at least a couple of times each week. I would talk with Selvig and his players so I could have information for preview stories, notebooks and features.

One time, I was working on a preview story about a game against St. Mary’s, which beat the Lady Griz 57-50 the year before. Selvig scoffed when I asked about the “revenge factor” heading into the game. He assured me that his team was not thinking about the previous year’s game at all. In fact, he said most probably do not even remember that game.

A minute or two later, Skyla came walking over.

“Hey Skyla,” I said. “Big game coming up.”

Within earshot of her head coach, Skyla said, “Yeah. There’s a little revenge in the air.”

Of course, that was the quote that I led the story with, much to the chagrin of Selvig.

That was the difference between “coach speak” and “real speak.” Skyla was nothing if not real. She was the genuine article at all times. She could not be phony even if she wanted to. She was as awesome off the court, as she was on it.

On Nov. 13, Skyla passed away following a six-year battle with breast cancer. She was only 50.

Of course, the memory of the great Skyla Sisco will live on forever in the hearts of those lucky enough to know her or watch her play. She will be remembered as one of the greatest players to ever wear a Lady Griz uniform.

She will be remembered for her incredible desire to win. She will be remembered by her friends as an amazingly kind person, and she will be remembered by media members for the honesty in her quotes.

Skyla will be remembered by the UM students for making them feel as if they were unworthy to watch her electrifying play.

She will be remembered for making even those sitting in the Uecker section feel like they had the best seats in the house.

 — Bill Foley can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.