By Rob Everingham
It was a thriller as the Lights fell by just one point to Rocky Mountain College 80-79 in overtime at Billings.
The Lights were led by Mel Stubblefield who had 22 points.
Northern head coach Tim Walker said the Lights had some opportunities to win the game in overtime.
Walker said all he can ask of his team is to put themselves in a position to win a game, and that is what they did.
"They didn't roll over," Walker said .
Rocky had a 37-35 lead at the break.
In the second half, the Bears were up by as much as 10 points, but the Lights battled their way back into the game.
Walker said they had a great game from Stubblefield.
He said when in the overtime period, Stubblefield did a great job of finding the open man and driving the lane and also shot very well from the free throw line.
The overtime period went back and forth, and, Walker said, things just didn't fall in favor of his team.
The Lights again lit up the 3-pointers, as they shot 50 percent from behind the arc, hitting 6-of-12.
Northern gets set to open its home conference season Thursday night as they host Lewis-Clark State, a Frontier Conference newcomer.
Walker said L-C is a very big and athletic team. He said they throw a lot of different looks at you, both on offense and defense.
With just three days of practice to prepare, Walker said, the Lights have got their work cut of for them.
Walker said his players need to be very coachable and pay attention to the details.
Walker said they just need to play hard and "see what happens."
MSU-Northern
79
Rocky Mountain
80
MSU-N -- Keller 3-5 3-5 9; Claxton 5-9 2-3 13; Stacy 1-2 0-0 3; Stubblefield 6-10 9-11 22; Endsley 3-8 1-2 7; Becker 3-10 3-4 9; Calverley 0-2 0-0 0; Carothers 1-2 0-0 3; Meyer 4-6 1-1 11; Serafimoski 0-1 2-2 2. Totals: 26-55 21-29.
Rocky Mountain -- Kevin McMann 3-9 8-8 15; Scott Malloy 9-13 6-9 25; Nate Greenig 3-6 2-2 8; Michael Tilzey 1-3 0-0 3; Bryan Severin 5-14 0-2 10; Kris Kesterke 0-1 0-0 0; Chris Clark 3-10 4-6 11; Eli Meccage 3-4 0-0 6; Matt Prinkki 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 28-62 20-27.
Halftime -- Rocky 37, MSU-N 35. Three-pointers: MSU-N 6-12 (Claxton 1-2, Stacy 1-2, Stubblefield 1-2, Carothers 1-2, Meyer 2-3); Rocky 4-11 (McMann 1-4, Malloy 1-1, Tilzey 1-1, Clark 1-2); Rebounds -- MSU-N 31 (Claxton, Stubblefield 5); Rocky 41 (Meccage 7, Clark 6); Assists -- MSU-N 5 (Stubblefield 2); Rocky 8 (McMann 5); Turnovers -- MSU-n 12, Rocky 13. Total fouls: MSU-N 23 (Fouled out: Carothers); Rocky 24 (Fouled out: None).
