Bears sweep Lights, Skylights

Sometimes, winning streaks must come to an end. And the three-game road winning streak the Montana State University-Northern Skylights were on came to an abrupt end Saturday night in Billings.

The No. 17 Skylights lost at Rocky Mountain College’s Fortin Center for the second time this season, as the Battlin’ Bears led wire-to-wire in a 62-52 victory, dropping MSU-N to 8-6 in the Frontier Conference, but also bringing to an end a brutal six-game road trip.

“We just didn’t shoot the ball well enough,” Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. “Rocky played really well. They had a great game plan for us, and they executed it. Give them and coach Keller a ton of credit for that. But, the bottom line is, we just didn’t make enough shots, or really execute well enough for much of the game.”

Indeed, Northern shot just 34 percent from the field and made five 3-pointers. Junior Natalee Faupel did give the Skylights a huge 30-point effort, but it wasn’t enough to come all the way back against the Bears, who led 30-20 at halftime, while shooting 54 percent in the first 20 minutes.

Northern did get the game within reach a couple of times in the second half, but the Skylights never got closer than six points, and RMC made enough plays down the stretch, and also out-rebounded Northern 37-23, and that was enough to steal a win in what was the Bears’ final home game of the season.

Faupel finished a spectacular night 12-of-19 from the floor, 3-of-3 from three and grabbing six boards, while Jacy Thompson added 12. Rocky was balanced on offense, but Northern had no answer for Tenika Capouch, who scored 21 points and yanked down 12 boards.

“We just didn’t do a lot of things well tonight,” Mouat said. “We got beat on the boards, we committed some bad turnovers and I thought we were really stagnant offensively. We not only missed a lot of shots, but we took some poor shots I thought.

“So we’ve got some things to clean up,” he added. “Because even though we’re coming home for our last four games, they are very big games against four very tough teams.”

Northern (19-6) will start its final home stretch with a third game against UGF Thursday night, followed by a showdown with Carroll College Friday night.

Bears bite again

Twice, the Montana State University-Northern Lights and Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears have gone to overtime this season. And in both games, the Lights got off to hot starts.

Northern got off to another great start Saturday night in Billings, but, because of a torrid second half by the Battlin’ Bears, Rocky didn’t need overtime to beat the Lights 84-60 and win the season series 2-1.

Northern, which has lost three straight Frontier Conference road games, came out firing, as Trevail Lee and Tyler Chandler were hot from the 3-point-line. And, the Lights were able to build a seven-point lead halfway through the first half. Rocky responded with a 9-0 run, and eventually, the Bears led by as much as 10 points, before the Lights closed the half on a 7-2 run and trailed just 33-32 at intermission.

And while MSU-N made seven first-half 3-pointers, and wound up shooting a red-hot 50 percent from beyond the arc, the second half was all Rocky.

The Battlin’ Bears opened up a 10-point lead in the first five minutes of the second half, and though shots by David Straughter, and more treys by the Lights kept falling, the Bears finished the game shooting a whopping 55 percent from the field, while making 12 triples of their own.

"Rocky shot lights out tonight, we made some crucial errors and missed crucial shots, and you just can't do that if you want to have success, especially on the road,” Northern head Coach Shawn Huse said.

Chad Kananan was the spark for the Bears as he scored 26 points and was a scorching 7-of-9 from three. Taylor Longo also poured in 21 points for the Bears, who secured at worst, a fourth-place finish in the Frontier standings.

Meanwhile, Northern shot a solid 45 percent from the field, and got 18 points and five rebounds from Straughter, while Chandler made five bombs and scored 15. Lee added 10 points, but the Lights could do little to stop RMC’s hot shooting in the final 20 minutes.

Now, the Lights (15-11) will look to finish the season strong with four straight homes games. Northern enters the home stand at 4-10 in the Frontier, with a one-game lead on UGF and a two-game lead on last-place Montana Tech.

Now we just have to get to work for this last home stand,” Huse said. “We know we are capable and actually still feel our best, most complete basketball can be ahead if we just hang in there and keep fighting. There are adjustments left to make. We know if we make those and keep concentrating on improvement, we can still make noise in the league this year."

The Lights begin the home stand Thursday night with a critical game against the Argos, before hosting nationally ranked Carroll College Friday night.

Rocky Mountain 62, Skylights 52

Northern 8 12 13 19 – 52

Rocky 14 16 16 16 – 52

MSU-N – Jacy Thompson 3-16 4-6 12, Kate Fetterer 1-1 0-0 2, Brandy Lambourne 0-1 0-0 0, Natalee Faupel 12-19 3-3 30, Peyton Filius 0-0 0-0 0, Molly Kreycik 0-7 1-2 1, Tina Doughty 0-0 0-0 0, Makhayla Farmer 1-1 0-0 2, Cydney Auzenne 2-8 1-2 4, Sierra Richards 0-3 1-2 1. Totals: 19-56 9-13 52.

3-pointers: MSU-N 5-14 (Thompson 2, Faupel 3: Rebounds: MSU-N 23 (Faupel 6, Richards 6); Fouls: MSU-N 16; Fouled out: None.

Rocky Mountain 80, Lights 64

MSU-N – Trevail Lee 5-10 0-2 12, Badhasa Margarsa 2-4 0-0 5, David Straughter 7-12 1-3 18, Kevin Oberweiser 1-2 0-0 3, Warren Edmondson 0-5 0-0 0, Dylan Tatarka 0-2 0-0 0, Justin Dunsmore 0-2 2-2 2, Brett Thompson 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Chandler 5-9 0-0 15, William Walker 1-3 0-0 2, KJ Rech 1-6 2-2 5, Ryan Reeves 1-1 0-2 2. Totals: 23-57 5-11 64.

Halftime: Rocky 33-32. 3-pointers: MSU-N 13-26 (Lee 2, Margarsa 1, Straughter 3, Oberweiser 1, Chandler 5, Rech 1); Rebounds: MSU-N 30 (Straughter 5); Fouls: MSU-N 19. Fouled out: None.