The Comeback: Skylights storm back to beat Bulldogs in a thriller

Beating a team four times is never easy, especially when that team is as good as the UM-Western Bulldogs is.

But the Montana State University-Northern Skylights are a good team, too. And despite trailing by as many as 10 points in the second half against the Bulldogs in the Frontier Conference semifinals Friday inside the Armory Gymnasium, they won, 44-42 thanks to late-game heroics from Jacy Thompson.

"I am really proud of this team," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "This team never gets rattled, if it did, we wouldn't have come back to win tonight.”

The No. 12 Skylights struggled shooting the ball all night. MSU-N finished at 30.6 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from 3-point range. Yet, thanks to a stellar defensive effort, Northern stayed in the game.

Northern was tied with No. 20 Western at the end of the first quarter, after Natalee Faupel hit a two at the buzzer to tie the score at 12-12. But in the second quarter, the Skylights went cold, failing to notch a field goal in the stanza and going 0-for-9 total. That left the Bulldogs up 23-14 at the half.

“I didn’t have one bad thing to say about our kids defensively at halftime,” Mouat said. “To shoot the ball that bad, I think we were 3-of-17 and look up and only be down nine, we knew we had a chance to win the game. We knew it was going to be an uphill climb, but we knew we had a chance.”

In the third, Northern finally got something going offensively as Sierra Richards scored nine points in a quick stretch that included a 3-point play, while Faupel knocked down a pair of treys to get the Skylights within three at 35-32 with one quarter to play.

“We had to have something on the block,” Mouat said. “We had missed some easy opportunities in the first half and Sierra getting going gave us that inside presence and actually opened some things out on the perimeter, but she got going and I think everyone kind of fed of that. She stepped up.”

The Skylights were still down by three points in the fourth quarter, when Thompson got hot. She started by knocking down a jumper to trim the Western lead to 37-36 with 4:29 left in the game. Then, with 2:46 left on the clock, she buried a 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down, to cut a 40-36 Bulldogs lead down to 40-39.

After the two teams exchanged buckets, Northern got the ball with just under a minute left, trailing 42-41.

“We just wanted to get a good look,” Mouat said. “Make it or miss it, we just wanted to get a good look.”

A foul by Western, allowed Norther to tick off most of the game clock and with 13.1 seconds left, Thompson drained a three to put the Lights up 44-42.

"When I caught the ball, I didn't think about it, I just let it fly," Thompson said.

“I said guys, I have a feeling that we are going to hit a three,” Mouat said. “Luckily we did. It was a great shot by Jacy. A lot of her shots were late in the shot clock. So we are going to have to get better at that, but our kids don’t lose their composure. If they did, we lose this game.”

After Northern scored, Western had a chance to tie or win the game, but a desperation shot as time expired was no good.

“We had a foul to give so we used it,” Mouat said. “We made them burn quite a bit of time and then we just wanted to make them shoot it from about 30 feet, which they did and missed it.”

Thompson led all scorers with 14 points, eight of which came in the fourth quarter. Faupel, who was 4-of-9 from the field had 12 points and eight rebounds. Richards contributed with 11 points and nine rebounds. Western got 13 points from Aniese Palmore. Britt Cooper ended up with 12.

“I have to give credit to Western,” Mouat said. “They did a really good job on Natalee. But she has faced that all year and I think she persisted through that. She even had some shots she missed that she normally makes, but she got freed up a couple of times at the 3-point line and knocked them down and that was big for us.”

The Skylights also stepped up defensively down the stretch, holding Western to just seven points in the fourth quarter and just 27.2 percent shooting.

“We really fed off the crowd tonight — the energy was great — the kids talked about that after the game,” Mouat said. “That definitely made a difference for us. It’s been so great to have everyone come out and support us the way that they have all year long.”

When it was all said and done it took defense, crowd support and some clutch shooting to get Northern the win and a ticket to the Frontier title game for the second time in three years.

“It’s awesome,” Thompson said. “You couldn’t ask for anything better than that.”

The Skylights will play Lewis- Clark State (see related story above) tonight at 8 in the Frontier Women’s Championship game.

Skylights are 23-7; Next Up: at LC State Tonight, See Page B4.

Skylights 44, Western 42

Western 12 11 12 7 – 42

Northern 12 2 18 12 – 44

UM-W - Jill Jacobs 1-3 0-0 2, Aniese Palmore 3-15 6-6 13, Sierra Bignell 0-1 0-0 0, Taylor Howlett 1-5 0-0 2, Britt Cooper 6-8 0-2 12, Frankie Bignell 0-0 0-0 0, Cierra Lamey 1-4 1-2 3, Alexa Welch 4-5 0-0 8, Kaye Bignell 1-4 0-0 2, Darby Schye 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 17-47 7-10 42.

MSU-N – Jacy Thompson 4-11 4-5 14, Katie Fertterer 0-0 0-0 0, Natalee Faupel 4-9 2-2 12, Peyton Filius 0-1 0-0 0, Molly Kreycik 0-11 0-0 0, Shiloh McCormick 1-1 0-0 2, Cydney Auzenne 2-8 0-2 5, Sierra Richards 4-8 3-5 11. Totals 15-49 9-14 44.

3-pt FG:Montana Western 1-13 (Palmore 1-10, Howlett 0-1, Lamey 0-1, Welch 0-1), Montana State University- 5-18 (Thompson 2-4, Faupel 2-2, Kreycik 0-7, Auzenne 1-5). Rebounds: Montana Western 28 (Palmore 9), Montana State University- 37 (Richards 9). Fouls Montana Western 15, Montana State University- 10. Fouled out: Howlett.