MSU-N men move to No. 12 in NAIA Poll

Things didn't go the way the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team was hoping they would last Saturday night in Salt Lake City. But a difficult loss at Westminster College did little to damage the Lights' ranking among the NAIA's best.

Northern fell just two spots in the new NAIA Coaches Poll, released Tuesday afternoon, as the Lights moved down from No. 10 to No. 12. A road split last weekend left the Lights with a 16-3 overall record and tied for first in the Frontier Conference at 4-1.

Montana State University-Northern's Allan Brown, right, and the Lights only dropped two spots in the NAIA Men's Coaches Poll released Tuesday afternoon. The No. 12 Lights host Montana Tech Friday and No. 3 Lewis-Clark State Saturday.

The team Northern is tied with, Lewis-Clark State also didn't suffer in the polls, even with a loss last Saturday to Rocky Mountain College. At 18-1 overall, the Warriors remained the No. 3 team in the NAIA this week. That means Saturday night in Havre will pit two NAIA and Frontier Conference powers head-to-head when the Lights host the Warriors.

The Frontier is getting plenty of respect this season in the polls. Westminster lost to UGF last Thursday night, but with a win over Northern, the Griffins slipped just one spot in the polls, down from No. 17 to No. 18 this week.

On the women's side, only Westminster remains ranked. The Griffins are No. 5 in this week's women's poll. Carroll College is just outside the Top 25.

In other Frontier news, former Havre Blue Pony Myles Mazurkiewicz was named the Frontier Conference Wrestler of the Week for the second time this season. Mazurkiewicz, a senior at UGF who's ranked No. 1 in the NAIA at 141 pounds, was undefeated at last weekend's NAIA National Duals and along the way, he became the all-time wins leader in UGF wrestling history.

UGF's Marcel Towns was named Frontier Men's Basketball Player of the Week. Towns scored a UGF single-game record 43 points in last Thursday's win at Westminster. For the weekend, Towns averaged 29 points per game and was also named NAIA Player of the Week. On the women's side, Sammi Bignell of UM-Western was named player of the week. Bignell averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds in wins over Northern and UGF last weekend, and she scored a career-high 34 in last Saturday's win over the Argos.

Northern's Devin Jackson and Nikki Tresch were nominated for player of the week honors.

NAIA Men's Coaches Poll

Rnk. Prv. Rec. Pts.

1 2 Columbia (Mo.) (11) 17-0 281

2 5 Pikeville (Ky.) 17-1 271

3 3 Lewis-Clark State 18-1 256

4 6 William Carey (Miss.) 15-2 254

5 4 Oklahoma Baptist 15-3 252

6 7 Lee (Tenn.) 15-1 232

7 8 Westmont (Calif.) 14-3 222

T8 10 Cal State San Marcos 15-4 209

T8 14 Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) 16-2 209

10 25 John Brown (Ark.) 15-3 188

11 13 Evangel (Mo.) 13-4 187

12 10 MSU-Northern 16-3 181

13 16 Xavier (La.) 15-3 173

14 1 Cumberlands (Ky.) 15-3 168

15 17 Bethel (Tenn.) 17-2 166

16 RV Hope International 17-1 145

17 21 SAGU (Texas) 14-3 142

18 20 Emmanuel (Ga.) 16-2 121

19 18 Westminster (Utah) 14-4 120

20 19 Rogers State (Okla.) 13-5 119

21 23 Faulkner (Ala.) 16-3 82

22 RV Philander Smith (Ark.) 12-4 78

23 9 Science & Arts (Okla.) 8-4 77

24 10 Texas College 13-4 76

25 RV MidAmerica Nazarene 14-5 74

Others receiving votes: Arizona Christian 60; Concordia (Calif.) 34; Texas Wesleyan 31; Southern-New Orleans (La.) 28; Oklahoma City 18; Culver-Stockton (Mo.) 13; Shawnee State (Ohio) 9; LSU Shreveport (La.) 7; Mid-Continent (Ky.) 3.

NAIA Women's Coaches Poll

Rnk. Prv. Rec. Pts.

1 2 Vanguard (Calif.) (11) 11-0 281

2 1 Lubbock Christian 17-1 271

3 3 Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) 17-1 261

4 6 Oklahoma City 12-2 250

5 4 Westminster (Utah) 16-2 249

6 5 Lee (Tenn.) 15-1 237

7 7 Cumberland (Tenn.) 16-1 224

8 8 The Master's (Calif.) 15-0 221

9 10 Campbellsville (Ky.) 14-3 208

10 11 MidAmerica Nazarene 16-2 197

11 12 Westmont (Calif.) 11-3 192

12 9 Xavier (La.) 12-3 184

T13 14 Bethel (Tenn.) 14-4 169

T13 15 Rogers State (Okla.) 14-4 169

15 19 Lyon (Ark.) 14-2 150

16 23 Georgetown (Ky.) 11-6 140

17 21 Benedictine (Kan.) 15-3 120

18 20 Wiley (Texas) 15-1 118

19 16 William Woods (Mo.) 12-2 117

20 13 Shawnee State (Ohio) 14-5 116

21 18 Auburn Montgomery 13-4 100

22 17 Central Methodist (Mo.) 16-2 94

23 24 Our Lady of the Lake 16-1 86

24 22 Faulkner (Ala.) 16-4 82

25 RV St. Catharine (Ky.) 11-4 69

Others receiving votes: Carroll (Mont.) 52; LSU Shreveport (La.) 46; Columbia (Mo.) 32; Cumberlands (Ky.) 25; Coastal Georgia 11; Robert Morris (Ill.) 6; Biola (Calif.) 5; Southern-New Orleans (La.) 3.