Lights, Skylights fall at Rocky Mountain College

With the Frontier Conference regular season now just one week away from coming to a close, one thing the Montana State University-Northern men’s and women’s basketball teams will be looking forward to is, not having to go back to Helena or Billings until next year.

For the second time this season, the Lights and Skylights were swept on the Carroll College/Rocky Mountain College road trip, as both Northern squads fell at Rocky Saturday night.

For the Skylights, it was their third loss to the Battlin’ Bears this season. In a low-scoring affair Saturday night, the Bears beat the Skylights 51-36, dropping Northern to 4-12 in Frontier play ahead of this weekend’s final two home games.

Going into the game, Northern head coach Chris Mouat raved about how good Rocky’s defense was this season, and the Bears lived up to the billing. RMC held the Skylights to just five points in the first 10 minutes, and overall, MSU-N shot just 30 percent from the field, 18 percent from the 3-point-line, and committed 18 turnovers, while the Bears badly out-rebounded the Skylights, 41-28.

Still, Northern’s defense kept the game tight as the Skylights trailed just 28-15 at intermission. Northern also picked up the pace offensively in the second half, and, the MSU-N defense held Rocky to just 31 percent shooting, and also forced the Bears into 18 turnovers of their own. Still, the deficit was too big for the Skylights to make up in the end, especially with the offensive struggles. Sydney Hovde was the only Skylight in double figures, with 10 points and nine rebounds, while Peyton Kehr and Sabin Keo combined for 18 more. Markaela Francis led the No. 25 Bears with 14 points and nine boards.

Meanwhile, the Northern men came to Billings after their own offensive struggle at Carroll College Thursday night. And while the Lights broke out of that offensive slump, they couldn’t hold off the Bears in a 75-70 loss.

And once again, the loss was a tough pill to swallow for the Lights, as they scored a sizzling 40 points in the first half, and led for much of the second half, before the Bears overtook them at the end. MSU-N was in a similar situation in Billings back in November, and it was the Lights’ third loss to Rocky this season.

The Lights did shoot a much better 49 percent from the field after shooting just 26 percent at Carroll. Northern also went a solid 9-of-21 from beyond the arc, but Rocky shot 54 percent in the second half and made a pair of clutch 3-pointers to aid its comeback. Jared Samuelson led three Bears in double figures with 16 points, while Brandon The Boy added 13.

Northern, which dropped to 8-8 in Frontier play, got 16 points by Justin Dunsmore, while Devin Bray and Caulin Bakalarski each scored 12 and Kavon Bey added 10.

The Lights (16-12) and Skylights (12-16) will now come home to close out the regular season. Northern takes on Lewis-Clark State Friday night in the Armory Gymnasium, followed by a home bout with Montana Western on Saturday night.

Rocky Mountain 51, Skylights 36

MSU-Northern 5 10 11 10 - 36

Rocky Mountain College 13 15 10 13 - 51

MSU-N - Lily Hilderbrand 0-2 0-0 0, Peyton Kehr 4-9 0-1 9, Jessica Curl 1-3 0-0 2, Tiara Gilham 0-6 0-0 0, Sydney Hovde 5-9 0-0 10, Hailey Nicholson 1-4 0-0 3, Allix Goldhahn 1-7 2-2 4, Petra Sellin 0-1 0-0 0, Sabin Keo 3-7 2-4 8, Gokce Aslan 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 15-49 4-7 36.

RMC - Alexi Smith 0-3 0-0 0, Kloie Thatcher 2-7 1-1 5, Marissa Van Atta 2-8 1-1 5, Antuanisha Wright 0-1 0-0 0, Alecia Chamberlin 2-7 3-4 8, Brooke Jones 2-4 3-3 8, Justyn Juhl 3-8 2-2 11, Markaela Francis 3-8 8-10 14. Totals 14-46 18-21 51.

3-pt FG:Montana State-Northern 2-16 (Hilderbrand 0-1, Kehr 1-4, Gilham 0-2, Nicholson 1-2, Goldhahn 0-3, Keo 0-3, Aslan 0-1), Rocky Mountain College 5-21 (Smith 0-2, Thatcher 0-4, Van Atta 0-1, Chamberlin 1-4, Jones 1-3, Juhl 3-7). Rebounds: Montana State-Northern 28 (Hovde 9), Rocky Mountain College 41 (Chamberlin 13). Fouls Montana State-Northern 17, Rocky Mountain College 12. Fouled out: none.

Rocky Mountain 75, Lights 70

MSU-N - Justin Dunsmore 6-9 0-0 16, Devin Bray 5-9 0-0 12, Adam Huse 3-7 0-0 7, Caulin Bakalarski 5-10 1-2 12, Cedric Crutchfield 1-2 1-2 3, Kavon Bey 5-9 0-0 10, Joe Fons 1-2 0-0 2, Mascio McCadney 2-10 3-5 8, Kamari Burnside 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-58 5-9 70.

RMC - Clayton Ladine 2-6 2-2 7, Brandon The Boy 5-7 0-0 13, Isaac Martel 1-1 0-0 2, Grant Wallace 5-7 1-1 12, Satchel McDonald 4-7 0-1 8, Danny Betcher 1-3 0-0 2, Austin Payne 1-2 0-0 2, Craig Wilmore 4-10 0-1 9, Jared Samuelson 6-12 3-3 16, Lukas Vining 2-5 0-0 4. Totals 31-60 6-8 75.

Halftime: Northern 40-37. 3-pt FG:Montana State-Northern 9-21 (Dunsmore 4-4, Bray 2-5, Huse 1-4, Bakalarski 1-3, McCadney 1-5), Rocky Mountain College 7-17 (Ladine 1-3, The Boy 3-4, Wallace 1-2, McDonald 0-2, Betcher 0-1, Payne 0-1, Wilmore 1-3, Samuelson 1-1). Rebounds: Montana State-Northern 30 (Crutchfield 5), Rocky Mountain College 33 (Samuelson 6). Fouls Montana State-Northern 15, Rocky Mountain College 14. Fouled out: none.