Lights land standout Broadview big man

The future in the paint for the Montana State University-Northern men’s basketball team just got big. As in, 6-10 big.

On Wednesday night, Northern head coach Shawn Huse announced the signing of 6-10 power forward Seth Christiaens of Broadview-Lavina High School. Christiaens has been a dominant force in Class C basketball the last few years and is a three-time All-Conference and two-time Class C All-State performer.

“When Seth was healthy this year, he was as dominant of a paint presence as there was on any level in our state,” Huse said. “I really look forward to this opportunity to work with and develop him and his game further. He has a tremendous amount of potential, and if he works hard at it I really feel he could make an enormous impact for us. Seth could provide great balance to the group we have, and provide a tough rim-to-rim force once he grasps all of our concepts and gains experience at this level. We are extremely excited he chose to be a Light.

“Seth made great contributions on offense and on defense,” added Pirate head coach Dan Bymaster, who has strong ties to the Havre community. “He played a key role in the team success over the past few seasons.”

Christiaens indeed played a key role for the Pirates this past winter. He averaged 18.7 points, 10 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game while shooting an overwhelming 69 percent from the floor. He helped lead the pirates to their first state tournament appearance since 2009, with a 22-4 Overall record, a 14-1 district record. With Christiaens in the middle, the Pirates captured the district title, and finished second at the Southern C divisional tournament. He also had a 40-point outburst against Plenty Coups in a pivotal season game on Jan. 31 in Broadview.

And now, Huse is hoping to help the big man from Class C basketball develop into a dominant post player in the Frontier Conference.

“He is a great kid who has been raised extremely well, takes care of his business, and is interested in doing all the right things both on and off the court,” Huse said of Christiaens, who plans on majoring in Criminal Justice and Biology at MSU-N. “At the end of the day, we are excited to be getting a young man that has displayed great basketball characteristics, and has done so with that unique size ... as well as someone that is a great person outside of the game and a great fit in our community and in our school. He is very interested in moving towards a career in wildlife management/game warden work, and the areas of study that we have to offer fit that path extremely well.”

For more on Northern’s 2015 recruiting class, see next Tuesday’s Havre Daily News sports section.