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Playoff time: Lights battle Bears

Talk about your all-time rematches. Just this past Saturday, the Montana State University-Northern Lights endured a rough, senior-night loss to the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears. Just three days have passed and they’re at it again.

Tonight, the Lights (20-10) and Bears (16-14) meet inside the Armory Gymnasium in the opening round of the 2017 Frontier Conference Playoffs. At stake: The entire season. The winner of tonight’s game, which tips at 7, will move on to the Frontier semifinals Saturday, the loser’s season is over.

And, MSU-N doesn't want that to happen in its own gym. So, with the everything on the line, and the 75-58 loss to the Bears still fresh in their minds, the Lights will try to reverse their fortunes.

“Rocky provides a big challenge as they proved on Saturday night,” Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. “We will have to play much better basketball and hit our shots if we expect to extend this season beyond Wednesday.”

Hitting shots will no doubt be the key. In two wins over the Bears this season, the Lights shot better than 40 percent from the field and 40 percent from the 3-point-line. MSU-N hit neither of those marks last Saturday night.

So for guards Tyler Chandler, Badhasa Margarsa, Cameron Epps, Devin Bray, Dylan Tatarka and even forward David Straughter, the percentages are going to have to be much better this time around. And Northern has proved it can do that. The Lights still shot better than 42 percent from three in conference play this season. Northern will also try and loosen Rocky’s zone defense up by getting the ball inside to big Ryan Reeves, as well as Straughter and Justin Dunsmore, who has been giving the Lights quality minutes.

On the other end of the floor, Northern will call on its Frontier-leading defense to slow the suddenly hot Bears down. Rocky has tremendous guard-play with Riley Bradshaw and Taylor Longo, as well as Chad Kananan, all three of which hit big shots in the Armory last Saturday night.

But perhaps no player is as dangerous as 6-6 center Zach Hinton, who has had a huge season. If Hinton is healthy, as he suffered an ankle injury in the last game, Rocky’s offense is as dynamic is any team in the Frontier playoffs.

And no one knows that better than the Lights, having just seen it a mere three nights ago. However, Northern has one big advantage, and while it may not have seemed like it last Saturday, the Lights will lean on it tonight — it’s home court.

No place is more difficult to play a playoff game than the Armory, and Northern will use that to its full advantage tonight, with everything at stake. The Lights earned tonight’s home game by going 2-1 against the Bears during the regular season, as Rocky and MSU-N tied in the final regular season standings at 9-9.

"We're excited about hosting a playoff game and the opportunity to keep this season rolling,” Huse said.

Tonight’s Frontier playoff game between MSU-N and RMC tips at 7 inside the Armory. The winner of tonight’s game will travel to either UM-Western or Carroll College depending on who wins the other first-round game between Lewis-Clark State and UGF tonight in Lewiston, Idaho. That semifinal game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday night. The Frontier title game is scheduled for Tuesday at the site of the highest remaining seed in the field.

Lights vs Rocky Mountain College

tonight at 7 in Frontier Quarterfinal

In Armory Gymnasium

Radio: 92.5 KPQX

Streaming: msun.edu/athletics

Twitter: HavreDaily

Lights Projected Starters

G Badhasa Margarsa, 6-1, Sr., 6 ppg

G Tyler Chandler, 6-2, Sr., 9 ppg

G Cameron Epps, 5-9, Jr., 9 ppg

F David Straughter, 6-5, Sr., 11 ppg

F Ryan Reeves, 6-10, Jr., 10 ppg

 

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