Rebound: Lights sink Argos

For the last two weeks, the Montana State University-Northern Lights have had to begin a weekend coming off a tough loss. And in each of those last two games, the Lights responded the right way.

Thursday night, the Lights made it three-for-three.

Northern not only bounced back from last Saturday's loss to Lewis-Clark State Thursday in the Armory Gymnasium, the Lights also exacted a little revenge on their opponent as MSU-N handed the UGF Argos a 73-62 defeat.

"I'm extremely proud of our guys for coming back from a tough Saturday loss, with a great week of preparation," Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. "They had a great week of practice, a free week of prep, and they did a great job of bringing energy and focus into tonight's game after another tough loss at home."

The Lights also brought something else that had been in missing in last Saturday's loss to Lewis-Clark State and was absent from Northern's setback at UGF earlier this month in Great Falls — a barrage of 3-pointers and a good shooting night overall.

In Thursday night's game, MSU-N went 10-of-20 from beyond the arc, and also shot a scorching 52 percent, and the Argos could do little to stop it, especially in the second half, where the Lights made seven threes in a six-minute stretch.

"I thought we were really unselfish tonight," Huse said. "We did a great job of moving the ball around and finding the good shots. Credit our guys for executing tonight. UGF plays good defense, so to shoot it as well as we did, that's a testament to our guys' focus and attention to detail."

The Argos did play good defense early on, but not as good as the Lights. Northern was a little cold to start the game, but, the Lights held UGF to a mere seven points in the first 13 minutes of the game. The Lights also starters to heat up a little offensively, as David Straughter, Dylan Tatarka and Badhasa Margarsa made threes in the final five minutes of the half, as the Lights led 25-22.

The triples then really started to fall early in the second frame. Tyler Chandler opened things up with back-to-back bombs, and he and Tatarka went back-to-back minutes later to cap a 14-2 run.

Not to be outdone, Kevin Oberwesier and Justin Dunsmore went back-to-back at the 11-minute mark and an ally-oop dunk by Ryan reeves on the next possession capped off another 10-0 spurt, which left the Lights leading 49-26 with 10:51 to play.

The Argos made a run at the Lights in the final five minutes, trimming the lead to as close as eight points at one point, but Northern's hot streak in the first 10 minutes of the period was too much for UGF to overcome.

"The 3-pointer was good to us tonight," Huse said. "And it has been in almost all of our wins this season. But again, a big part of that is the way we shared the rock tonight. Guys were just really unselfish out there."

And that unselfishness showed in how balanced Northern was. Tatarka and Dunsmore led the way with 12 points each, while Straughter finished with 10. Margarsa and Chandler each scored nine and Reeves finished with seven points and six rebounds as the Lights pushed their Frontier Conference record to 5-4.

"Dylan (Tatarka) gave us a big spark tonight," Huse said. "In a lot of different ways, too. The energy and passion he brings, it's contagious, and I think we're a different and better team when he's making things happen like he did tonight.

"And I thought our guys fed off that energy, too," he continued. "It was a good win. We know first-hand how tough UGF is. So this was a good win for us, and now we need to carry that over into the second game of the weekend. That's something we haven't done yet, and hopefully we can do that tomorrow (Friday) night."

That second game comes tonight when the Lights host No. 13 Carroll College at 8 inside the Armory Gymnasium. Tonight's game is the end of a six-game conference home stand for the Lights.

Lights are 5-4 in Frontier, 16-5 overall; Next Up: vs No. 13 Carroll tonight

Lights 73, UGF 62

UGF - Kevin Schilling Jr. 0-0 0-0 0, Tymarieh Dixon 6-11 2-3 14, Jacob Wetzel 1-2 0-0 3, Treyvon Bashir 3-8 2-4 8, Jarred Burr 0-1 0-0 0, Isaac Howard 1-2 0-0 2, Sergio Berkley 0-3 2-4 2, John Makkar 2-4 2-2 6, Quesly-Marie Noresias 2-2 1-2 5, Matthew Brooks-McGregor 6-10 3-4 16, Jared Schultz 1-7 2-2 4, Iain Carr 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 23-52 14-21 62.

MSU-N - Cameron Epps 1-4 0-0 2, Adam Huse 0-0 4-4 4, Badhasa Margarsa 3-4 2-4 9, Kevin Oberweiser 1-2 0-0 3, Devin Bray 0-1 2-2 2, David Straughter 3-7 2-4 10, Dylan Tatarka 4-5 2-2 12, Justin Dunsmore 5-7 1-2 12, Charles Porter 0-1 1-2 1, Tyler Chandler 3-7 0-0 9, Seth Christiaens 0-0 0-0 0, Ryan Reeves 3-4 1-4 7, William Walker 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-44 15-24 73.

Halftime: Northern 25-22. 3-pt FG: UGF 2-10 (Dixon 0-1, Wetzel 1-2, Howard 0-1, Berkley 0-1, Brooks-McGregor 1-3, Schultz 0-2), MSU-N 10-20 (Epps 0-2, Margarsa 1-2, Oberweiser 1-2, Straughter 2-2, Tatarka 2-3, Dunsmore 1-3, Chandler 3-6). Rebounds: UGF 31 (Bashir 8), MSU-N 28 (Reeves 6). Fouls: UGF 19, MSU-N 19. Fouled out: none.