By Jason Shoot
The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team forced Western Montana into missed shot after missed shot Saturday, however, that ironically played right into the Bulldogs' hands.
Western Montana collected 20 offensive rebounds for a 52-37 edge overall, and Josh Frunz and Neil Christiaens provided a one-two punch Northern had no answer for in a 93-85 Frontier Conference loss at Northern Gym.
"That's the ball game right there," Northern coach Tim Walker said of the rebounding discrepancy. "When we give them 20 extra possessions in a six- or eight-point game, that just killed us. We did a poor job putting bodies on bodies."
In fact, Western Montana had 13 second-chance points, compared to five for the Lights the exact difference in the two teams' point totals.
Frunz and Christiaens were more than a handful for the Lights, scoring 31 and 27 points, respectively.
The Bulldogs led 48-36 at halftime and increased that lead to 57-46 on two free throws by Christiaens.
But Northern staged a 13-1 run to erase that deficit and take a 59-58 lead on David Sawyer's 17-foot jumper with just over 14 minutes remaining.
The two teams traded leads eight times until West Hernandez's 3-pointer gave the Bulldogs the lead for good at 77-76 with over three minutes to play.
Hernandez added another 3-pointer with two minutes left to give Western Montana an 84-79 lead.
The Lights got no closer than three points the rest of the way as Western Montana made 9 of 10 free throws in the final minute.
Keith Carothers had 19 points, and K.C. Moultrie added 18 points and six assists for Northern.
Lights forward David Sawyer totaled 15 points, 10 rebounds, four blocked shots and four assists. Teammate Da'Vion Famber added 11 points and five rebounds.
Western Montana 93, MSU-Northern 85
WESTERN MONTANA (93) Walker 0-4 0-0 0, Hernandez 2-6 4-4 10, Keller 0-1 0-0 0, Barrett 2-8 2-2 7, Ranalli 2-7 3-4 9, Holmquist 1-2 0-0 2, Melton 2-2 0-0 4, Frunz 11-12 7-11 31, Marbury 1-5 1-3 3, Christiaens 11-15 5-8 27. Totals 32-73 22-32 93.
MSU-NORTHERN (85) Famber 4-6 2-3 11, Stacy 2-8 0-1 4, Stubblefield 2-6 2-5 7, Renee 1-2 2-2 5, Moultrie 8-11 2-3 18, Sawyer 6-10 3-7 15, Carothers 7-16 2-2 19, Hays 3-10 0-0 6. Totals 33-69 13-23 37.
Western Montana
48
45
93
MSU-Northern
36
49
85
