By Rob Everingham
It's the longest road trip of the conference season as the MSU-Northern Lights men's basketball team heads to Salt Lake City, Utah.
The Lights will take on Frontier Conference newcomer Westminster College.
The Lights are coming off a win over Western last Saturday night.
Northern head coach Tim Walker said his team will have to do a great job of defending the basketball this weekend and hit the open shots.
Westminster has good size in their guards, they can shoot the 3-pointer well, and are good off the dribble. The post players are also very effective and can post up and turn and hit the 15-footer, Walker said.
Walker said his guards will have to a great job of not giving up any open shots. The Lights will also have to keep between the ball handler and the basket and rebound the ball well.
The Northern motion offense worked well last weekend against Western, and, Walker said, they will continue to get the ball into everyone's hands and have the open person take a shot.
Walker said the team still needs to get better at deciding when to take the shots and who should take certain shots.
Walker said he is very pleased with how hard his team has worked since the Christmas break.
"They don't take a back seat to anyone," Walker said.
Even though the Lights have not won all their games, Walker said, they have almost always put themselves in a position to win. He said as the team grows and matures together it will find the ways to win the close games in the future.
This will be the Lights' only game of the weekend, and they will return to action at home Feb. 10 against Rocky Mountain College.
Walker said he would like to thank Jack Trethewey and Noon's for their home game sponsor, as well as the continued support of North Star Dodge and Cellular One.
