George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
A wise man once said that a split on the road in the Frontier Conference is like a sweep at home. If that is true, then the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team is way ahead of the game.
The Lights opened conference play this weekend with impressive wins at UM-Western on Friday night and at Montana Tech on Saturday.
“We are very happy to get two road wins this weekend,” MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. “But what I am more happy about is the way we played. These guys seemed to understand how important the conference season is.
“They were very businesslike this weekend,” he added. “And they were very focused on getting the job done.”
The Lights had to come back from an early 14-6 deficit at UM-Western in Dillon on Friday night. Despite playing relatively well, the Lights trailed at halftime, 37-35.
But Northern turned up its level of play on both ends of the floor in the second half and shot the ball well from the free-throw line down the stretch en route to a 78-66 victory. The opportunistic Lights also capitalized on 19 Western turnovers.
“Even though we fell behind in the first half, the guys didn't panic,” Huse said. “I thought we played very good defense the whole game and we made some critical free throws down the stretch.
“Those are two things you have to do in order to win in this league,” he added. “Because more often than not, games in this conference are going to go right down to the wire.”
The Lights got a very balanced offensive attack, led by Reid Stovall's 14 points off the bench. Marcus Wilson and Jordan Matthews scored 12 points apiece, and Brian Erickson chipped in with 10 points. The Bulldogs got a game-high 17 points from Tyler Palmer, including three treys.
As Huse said, most nights in the Frontier are going to be a dogfight, and that is exactly what the Lights found themselves in on Saturday night against Montana Tech in Butte.
Tied at 69-69 with just over four minutes left in the game, Cory Brothers dunked a Jordan Matthews pass to give the Lights the lead. After a Tech free throw, Ronnie Simpson followed the dunk with a driving basket, with the shot clock about to expire, to give MSU-N a 73-71 lead. The Lights went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final 30 seconds to ice the game, 77-75.
“Leo Bullchild made some really big free throws down the stretch against Tech,” Huse said. “I think the difference in the game was how composed we were.
“We had the lead several times and Tech just kept making runs at us,” he added. “But every time they did, we had an answer for it, and we just kept answering them until time ran out.”
Once again, the Lights were very balanced offensively, as five players reached double figures in scoring. Simpson poured in 18 points to lead the way. Brothers added 13 points, and Yanif Ducreay added 12 points.
“I thought Yanif had a very good night,” Huse said. “This was the first time he was going up against another true center (6-11 TJ Scarbrough) and I thought he did a tremendous job of winning that matchup.”
The Lights also got 10 points from Matthews and another 10 from Wilson. Tech was paced by Scarbrough's 17 points and Davin Blixt's 15 points.
The victories improved Northern's overall record to 13-5 and got them off to a very important 2-0 start in conference play. Despite the Lights' good play, Huse isn't celebrating anything yet.
“We know our league is going to be very tough this season,” he said. “So we were only able to enjoy this for about two minutes. Now we have to go back to work and get ready for two more good teams next weekend.”
The Lights will host Rocky Mountain College on Friday night and Carroll College on Saturday night.
Lights 78, Bulldogs 66
MSU-N - Marcus Wilson 6-11 0-0 12, Yanif Ducreay 3-4 2-2 8, Jordan Matthews 2-10 7-8 12, Cory Brothers 4-6 0-2 8, Brian Erickson 4-7 2-2 10, Leo Bullchild 0-0 4-6 4, Reid Stovall 7-12 0-1 14, Cody Gillespie 1-3 0-0 2, Ronnie Simpson 2-3 3-4 8. Totals: 29-57 18-25 78.
UMW - Jeff Feenstra 2-5 4-4 8, Charlie Cox 6-14 0-2 13, Ty Palmer 5-12 4-4 17, Jeff Graham 2-4 0-0 4, Wes Morales 6-15 1-3 14, Justin Hartman 1-4 0-2 2. Totals: 25-57 10-16 66.
3-point goals - MSU-N 2-11 (Simpson 1, Matthews 1), UMW 6-15 (Palmer 3, Cox 1, Morales 2); Rebounds - MSU-N 34, UMW 31; Total fouls - MSU-N 15, UMW 18; Fouled out - None.
Lights 77, Orediggers 75
MSU-N (2-0, 13-5) - Jordan Matthews 4-11 0-0 10, Cory Brothers 4-8 5-8 13, Brian Erickson 0-3 1-2 1, Marcus Wilson 5-7 0-2 10, Yanif Ducreay 6-10 0-0 12, Nick Hittner 0-0 0-0 0, Leo Bullchild 1-2 2-2 4, Reid Stovall 3-5 0-0 6, Cody Gillespie 1-2 1-2 3, Ronnie Simpson 5-8 8-10 18, Adrian Nelson 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 29-58 17-26 77.
MT (1-1, 9-7) - Luke Harman 1-5 4-4 6, TJ Scarbrough 6-10 5-9 17, Davin Blixt 5-17 0-0 15, Sam Conley 4-10 5-6 14, Maurice Williams 3-5 3-5 9, Billy Williams 0-0 2-2 2, Matt Nottingham 0-0 0-0 0, Jake Williams 3-6 2-4 8, DC Egge 1-2 0-0 2, Casey Briggs 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 24-56 21-30 75.
3-point goals - MSUN 2-8 (Matthews 2-5), MT 6-17 (Blixt 5-11, Conley 1-4). Rebounds - MSUN 34 MT 38; Total fouls - MSUN 20, MT 20;Fouled out - none. Technicals - MSUN 1 (bench, player not in book).
