Breaking Sports: Lights to play California's Biola University

The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team, fresh off a Frontier Conference championship on Tuesday night in Helena, found out its opponent in the first round of the 2011 NAIA national tournament next week in Kansas City. The Lights (24-8) will face Biola University of the Golden State Athletic Conference. The field of 32 was announced Wednesday evening, and the Lights and Biola will play next Thursday. Game times will be announced later tonight.

Biola (26-5) was an at-large team to the NAIA tournament from the always tough GSAC. Biola is ranked No. 13 in the final NAIA Poll released earlier today. The Lights are No. 19 in the country. Biola is seeded No. 13 in the tournament, while Northern comes in un-seeded.

Wednesday night's announcement also saw the Frontier get three teams into the field. The UM-Western Bulldogs were the last at-large team in and will face No. 1 seed Robert Morris in the first round. Carroll College also got an at-large bid as expected and will be un-seeded, facing 11-th seed Union of Tennessee.

For much more on the Lights, Biola and the NAIA national tournament, see Thursday and Friday's Havre Daily News.