Lights look to continue winning in weekend doubleheader

The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team has hit its stride the past two weekends with a four-game winning streak for an early 5-1 record this season. Now the Lights will look to keep their winning ways going when they play Northwest University and Our Lady of the Lake University this weekend. With two tough opponents this weekend, MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse hopes to see the Lights continue trending in the right direction.

"I'd like to see us continue to improve on our execution, decision making, and just continue to take strides in those areas," Huse said. "We just have to fine tune a lot of things and get a little more attentive to some details."

The Lights start the weekend with a match against Northwest University in Great Falls tonight. The Eagles only have a 1-0 record this year after defeating Linfield University, 77-73, in the season opener last Saturday. The starting lineup of Max Lommen, Aaron Baune, Carson Bonine, Dempsey Roggenbuck and Alex Jaczko all scored double digits in that game, so Huse knows he will have his hands full tonight.

"Their point guard does a nice job of creating a lot of opportunities for himself and others. Their forwards play very hard, take advantage of any opportunities they have," Huse said. "They've got some guards that can really push the ball down the floor and can really attack off the bounce. I feel like they've got all their spots filled and they've got a good basketball team."

The Lights will then return to Havre to play OLLU at Armory Gymnasium Saturday night. The Saints are off to a strong start this season with a 4-1 record. However, they are coming off of a 85-60 loss to Carroll College Wednesday night. However, Huse does not expect the Saints to let up on either side of the court this Saturday.

"They're very athletic. They can really push the ball, they can really pressure the ball, they can really disrupt you on your offense," Huse said. "My expectation for us is to take care of the ball and get a shot up every time we get down the floor and also be ready for all that pressing and trapping and pressure defense and denial defense. We're going to have to work to get the shots we want against all that."

Joseph Anderson leads the Saints averaging 13.6 points per game on 40.5 percent shooting. Ellis Jones is also an efficient scorer averaging 13 points a game on 50 percent shooting from the field and 45.2 percent from the 3-point line.

Huse expects to get a lot of resistance in the post. Jordan Embry leads the Saints averaging 7.2 rebounds and 2.8 offensive rebounds a game this season. Ruben Monzon also cleans up the boards with 5.6 rebounds a game. Huse expects the OLLU bigs to also make an impact in the post with their scoring.

"Their bigs do a good job around the basket scoring. They bring good size off the bench and we're going to have to be able to rebound the basketball against them," Huse said.

Through the week, Huse believes he and his players have gone through the film to get a strong idea of what the Eagles and Saints will bring to them this weekend. However, he knows he will need to be ready if they see something new this weekend.

"Got to expect the unexpected and deal with it on the fly and make adjustments on the fly and go out there and execute," Huse said. "We need to be very attentive to detail in our preparation these last few days this week and we also need to be very attentive to detail in our adjustments as the games are progressing this weekend."

The Lights will play Northwest University tonight at 7 p.m. in Great Falls. The Lights will then play OLLU at Armory Gymnasium Saturday at 7:30 p.m.