Breaking Sports: Lights shoot down Saints

Northern senior Joe Simpson (left) flies in for a shot during Saturday night's Frontier Conference men's basketball game between the Lights and Carroll at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse.

Last month, the MSU-Northern men's basketball team launched 43 3-pointers and only made nine in an overtime loss at Carroll College. On Saturday night at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse, the Lights again let 40-plus three's go, only this time, 18 of them went down and the end result was a spectacular 79-71 Lights' victory over the arch rival Saints at a raucous MSU-Northern Fieldhouse.

The Lights were closing out their 2012 home schedule, and the game started with an emotional Senior Night ceremony. But the real fireworks came in the second half as the Lights and Saints combined to make 14 three's in 20 minutes. The last triple of the night was MSU-N senior LaVon Myers' sixth bomb of the night and it gave the Lights the lead for good. Myers hit a shot with :26 left, and just seconds after Devin Jackson put the Lights up for with a slicing drive to the basket. Corbin Pearson then got the ball back for the Lights after taking a charge, and the result was Myers' three as the Lights staved off a valiant effort by Carroll, which got a herculean 32 points from senior Andy Garland.

Both teams were also redhot early on, with Jackson and Shaun Tatarka making trey's to close the first half and give the Lights a 32-30 lead. Carroll opened the second half on fire with Ben Cutler making four three's in the first six minutes of the final stanza. But time-and-time again, Jackson, Myers and David Maddock knocked down big shots as Northern wouldn't be denied.

Jackson led the way with 23 points and seven long-range bombs. Myers made six and scored 20, while Tatarka added 11. Maddock's six points came on two second-half three's. Garland and Northern's Joe Simpson each had nine rebounds.

The win pushed the Lights to 8-4 in the Frontier with their final games coming Thursday at Westminster and Saturday at Lewis-Clark State. Northern is 22-6 overall.

For full coverage, see Monday's Havre Daily News.