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Frontier Notebook: Westminster leaving the Frontier

Frontier Conference Notebook

It was a big-game weekend in the Frontier Conference. On both the men’s and women’s side, epic showdowns took place around the league.

Of course, two of those men’s showdowns happened in Havre, where the Montana State University-Northern Lights beat Montana Tech in a miracle finish, then came from 17 points down in the second half to beat Lewis-Clark State 24 hours later.

But for all the Lights’ hard work this past weekend, they didn’t move an inch in the Frontier standings. That’s because in the NAIA Game of the Week, the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears knocked off the UM-Western Bulldogs 93-81 last Friday night in Dillon. Joel Barndt scored 25 points and Tyree Anderson added 23 as RMC pulled off the huge road win.

High-scoring games were the order of the day across the league. Westminster kept pace in the standings as well, beating Carroll College 96-82 Saturday night, while the Bulldogs recovered, scoring 91 points in a 13-point win over Dickinson State Saturday night.

UGF, which suffered two losses to Northern in a week’s span, also bounced back nicely, beating both LC State and Montana Tech this past weekend.

The men’s standings are still a jumbled mess, as RMC and MSU-N are tied for first, while the Griffins are one game back. The Argos and Bulldogs sit two games out of first.

And things will get even more intense this coming weekend. Northern plays at Western Thursday night and at Westminster Saturday night. Those two games will have a lasting impact on who wins the Frontier regular season title. UGF has the same road trip, while Rocky has the best schedule of the leaders, playing both Montana Tech and LC State in Billings this weekend. Both the Orediggers and Warriors are struggling to keep pace, so RMC could very well find itself with some separation come Monday.

It was also a big weekend on the women’s side, especially for Lewis-Clark State. The Warriors are trying to stay with powerful Westminster in the league standings, but suffered a damaging loss in Great Falls Friday night. UGF’s 87-67 win over the nationally ranked Warriors was a stunner, but LCSC rebounded to beat then No. 19 MSU-Northern Saturday night in Havre.

The loss was tough for the Skylights, as they had a chance to catch up with LCSC in the Frontier standings. Still, Northern is hanging tough in the race. The Skylights are still in sole possession of third place will play the biggest Frontier game this coming week when they travel to fourth-place UM-Western.

The Bulldogs are the league’s hottest team, having won five straight, including a 69-67 win over Dickinson State last Saturday. And they have a chance to catch Northern this Thursday night in Dillon. Meanwhile, first-place Westminster drubbed both DSU and Carroll this past weekend, and the Griffins are well on their way to an unbeaten regular season.

Griffins flying away

Westminster College President Dr. Brian Levin-Stankevich announced this week that Westminster has accepted an invitation to join the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and has applied for NCAA Division II membership.

As a result of the RMAC's invitation, Westminster submitted its NCAA application prior to the February 1 deadline, and has begun what it hopes to be a three-year process toward full membership in NCAA Division II. Westminster will continue to hold membership in the NAIA and the Frontier Conference through the 2014-2015 academic year, but will play a full schedule against RMAC opponents beginning in 2015-2016 if accepted into the NCAA Division II membership process in July 2014.

Westminster has been a member of the NAIA since the 1950s and a member of the Frontier Conference since 1999.

Heating Up

With just two weeks left in the Frontier season, the Lights and the Bears appear to be peaking at the perfect time. Both teams have won five in a row since dropping out of the NAIA Top 25. Now, they’re the two highest-ranked teams in the league and are in a dead heat for the Frontier title.

And they’ve won in different ways. While Rocky has been out-scoring teams by an average margin of 13 points during its winning streak, the Lights have been grinding and fighting. The streak started with back-to-back 54-50 wins over UGF, and a hard-fought 78-71 win at LC State. Then came last weekend’s thrillers, two wars on the Armory Gymnasium floor in which the Lights came out on the better end of both.

“This league is so tough,” said MSU-N junior Corbin Pearson. “And for us, these games have been a grind.”

A grind indeed. The Lights are doing all the little things right though. Northern is first in the NAIA in scoring defense, and in their two wins this weekend, the Lights shot an average of 74 percent from the free-throw-line, including Pearson’s game-saving free throws at the end of regulation against Montana Tech. In the two wins, the Lights also took care of the ball, committing only a combined 25 turnovers, and despite being undersized, they out-rebounded LCSC by seven and were nearly even on the boards with Tech.

It’s those little things that add up to hard-fought wins and a win streak like the Lights are on right now.

The Finish Line

There are still two week’s worth of big games in the Frontier, but for some teams, time is ticking away. Only six men’s and six women’s teams make the Frontier playoffs now, and there are some squads which need wins in a big way.

On the women’s side, Carroll College is on the bubble at 6-6, but is in decent shape as the Saints have already played Westminster, LC State, Northern and Western twice, which means they’re in control of their own destiny. The last spot will come down to a three-team race between UGF, Montana Tech and Dickinson State. And, the Blue Hawks, Argos and Orediggers are done playing each other which means one of those teams will have to pull off a couple of big upsets against the upper level of the Frontier standings in the last two weeks in order to secure a spot in the playoffs.

The men’s side, while a mess at the top of the standings, is a little more clear on who’s getting in. LC State has the inside track, sitting in sixth place right now at 6-6. But, Tech (4-8) has a chance to catch the Warriors. The Orediggers will need help in order to do so, but being travel partners, the two teams play the same four teams to end the season, so it should be an interesting finish. On the flip side, it’s likely RMC, Northern, UGF, Westminster and Western will all lose another game before the playoffs, as has been the case all season. But it’s unlikely any of those teams will tumble all the way out of playoff contention.

New Polls

Both the MSU-Northern men’s and women’s basketball teams will go into the weekend nationally ranked yet again.

Last weekend, the MSU-N men earned two dramatic home wins, beating Montana Tech in overtime, then coming from 17 down to beat Lewis-Clark State the following night. As a result, Northern moved up three spots in the latest NAIA Coaches Poll. The Lights moved from No. 23 to No. 20 ahead of this weekend’s games at UM-Western and Westminster.

Rocky Mountain College also won twice this past weekend, and as a result, the Battlin’ Bears, who are tied with the Lights for first in the Frontier standings, moved up as well. The Bears rose to No. 11 in this week’s poll. Western dropped out of the Top 25 but is still receiving votes, as are the Griffins.

Meanwhile, the Skylights were not penalized for a tough loss to then No. 13 Lewis-Clark State Saturday night. Northern, which beat Montana Tech last Friday, remained at No. 19 in the new women’s poll. Three of MSU-N’s four conference losses have come against the nationally ranked Warriors and Westminster. The Griffins held steady in the poll at No. 3, while LCSC dropped to No. 16 after suffering a 20-point loss at Great Falls last Friday.

The Lights and Skylights will be in Dillon to face UM-Western Thursday night, then travel to Salt Lake City to take on Westminster Saturday night.

 
 

Reader Comments(1)

Willy writes:

Wow going to DII, DII is the Mr. Irrevelent in college athletics. How many people know that MSU-Billings is DII, bet a lot of people did not even know that MSU-b had athletics.

 
 
 
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