Lights win twice to open the season

The season finally started for the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team this past weekend with a back-to-back against The King's University and the University of Lethbridge. The Lights had to play at Havre High Gymnasium Friday night before playing in their regular venue of Armory Gymnasium Saturday night.

But that did not matter as the Lights defeated The King's University, 108-59, at HHS Gymnasium Friday and then defeated University of Lethbridge, 85-54, at Armory Gymnasium Saturday. After months of hard work in the offseason, MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse liked how his team came out to start the season.

"I thought we had great energy, great bench energy, guys being ready to go, great hustle, great effort for the most part and I thought our defense was pretty good at the same time," Huse said. "This was a very good weekend and a great start and it also gives us some quality reps to look at on film and learn from."

The Lights started the weekend with their dominant victory over The King's University. They got the game started quickly with Zackry Martinez making a jump shot on their first possession of the game.

The Eagles responded with a pair of 3-pointers to take a 6-2 lead. After a layup from Immanuel Anderson, the Eagles scored again to make it 8-4. C.J. Nelson responded with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to one point. The Lights then took the lead with a pair of free throws from Anderson.

Over the next few minutes, the Lights' shooting began to find its stride. Nelson and Martinez made another pair of threes to stretch the lead. Anthony Braggs Jr. then made a layup to make it 17-10.

The Eagles responded with a pair of buckets to cut the deficit to three points. But the Lights got right back to work with a three from Tanner McCliment-Call and a layup from T.J. Reynolds. The Eagles continued to keep pace as the Lights had a 24-20 lead halfway through the first half.

"You just can't trade baskets and I think we did that a few times tonight," Huse said about this stretch of the game. "Credit to them for coming down and making us pay for not playing on-point defense. After we just scored, there's really no reason that teams should come back and just score real quick on our end."

The Lights put their foot down with a 9-0 run over the next few minutes. Anderson got the run started with a pair of buckets before a layup from Jesse Keltner. Micaiah Hauser then capped off the run with another three for the Lights. After an Eagles bucket, Hauser knocked down another three to give the Lights a 36-23 lead with about four minutes left in the half.

The Eagles tried to fight their way back as they cut the deficit to 10 points. But Hauser kept rolling for the Lights with a jumper and another three to make it 43-28. After the teams exchanged some free throws, Hauser knocked down another three and another jumper to give the Lights a 50-31 lead at halftime.

"We started to make quite a few shots in a row. Micaiah got hot and that was a big part of it," Huse said. "We finally started to get a little bit hot and we turned them over. We got some pretty active hands and they did a really nice job of creating a little chaos with their hustle."

Early in the second half, the Lights and Eagles exchanged scores. Instead of resting on their 18-point lead, Nelson made a layup and Dae'Kwon Watson knocked down another three to stretch the lead. Even after a free throw by the Eagles, Hauser and McCliment-Call scored another pair of buckets to make it 70-44.

Watson then got in on the action with a three and a layup to add onto the lead. After an Eagles bucket, Watson made another pair of buckets. Hauser then knocked in another three to give the Lights an 82-46 lead halfway through the second half.

With that lead, the Lights put in their backups and cruised to a victory. The Lights finished the night shooting 48.8 percent from the field and 72.7 percent from the free-throw line. They knocked down 16 3-pointers as they shot 34.8 percent from beyond the arc. They also forced 23 turnovers that they converted into 19 points.

Hauser led the Lights with 21 points off the bench as he went 8-for-12 from the field and 5-for-7 from deep. Watson also played well off the bench with 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting. As a unit, the Lights bench scored 71 points in the contest.

The Lights continued to shoot well against the Lethbridge Pronghorns Saturday night. The Lights started quickly with a 3-pointer from Martinez on their first possession of the lead. After the teams exchanged some empty possessions, Braggs Jr. knocked down a corner three to make it 6-0. Over the next few minutes, the Lights and the Pronghorns each scored four points. Keltner accounted for all four points for the Lights.

The Lights then went on an 11-6 run to stretch their lead to 21-10. Watson led the way with five points during this stretch. The Pronghorns tried to keep pace as the Lights led 24-15 just past the halfway point of the first half.

"It was our energy. Even when we did things incorrectly, we still found a way to make up for it," Huse said about the start to the game. "We put them in some tough spots, rim protected, rebounded and came up with some loose balls."

That's when Myles Dalton took control of the game with a personal 7-0 run. During this stretch, he made a pair of layups and a three to give the Lights a 31-15 lead. Even after the Pronghorns scored to put an end to the run, the Lights continued to score to make it 35-19.

Over the last few minutes of the half, the Lights and Pronghorns exchanged 3-pointers. Reynolds led the way with a pair of threes to help the Lights maintain their double-digit lead. After both teams made some free throws, Shae Gibb made a layup for the Pronghorns as the Lights led, 45-31, heading to the half.

The Lights opened the second half with a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 54-31. The Pronghorns broke up the run with a bucket, but they were never able to make a significant dent in the Lights' lead from that point on.

The Lights finished the game with another stellar shooting night as they shot 45.8 percent from the field and 43.8 percent from deep. Dalton went 6-for-15 from the field and 3-for-9 from deep with 15 points. McCliment-Call went 4-for-7 from deep for 13 points and Watson shot 4-for-5 from the field for ten points.

The Lights also played well on defense as the Pronghorns shot 36.4 percent from the field and 24 percent from deep. Kymani Pollard and Shae Gibb each had 14 points in the game for the Pronghorns.

The Lights are now 2-0 to start the season. Frontier Conference competition will not begin until Dec. 1 but the Lights have several games before then. While the Lights are off to a strong start, Huse looks to use the next month of competition to improve and get ready for conference play later this year.

"We're nowhere near the point where we can read each other's minds and know exactly what each other is going to do on the floor and what each other's tendencies are on the floor but we're getting closer," Huse said. "I've always said the greatest teams coach themselves and this team is doing a pretty darn good job of that right now, so I'm excited about where we're at and I also know we've still got a long way to go."

The MSU-N men's basketball team will next play against Northwest Indian College at Armory Gymnasium Thursday at 7 p.m.

MSU-Northern 108, TKU 59

TKU - 33 26 - 59

MSU-N - 50 58 - 108

TKU - Cornelius Mingo Jr. 7-17 0-0 16, Nicholas Gregersen 5-9 1-1 13, Joshua Hamilton 4-7 2-2 11, Logan Den Oudsten 2-6 5-5 10, Jonathan Barwegen 1-4 0-0 3, Tryton Auburn-Nyang 1-2 0-0 2, Josh Povhe 1-3 0-0 2, Peter Kugba-Nyande 0-2 1-4 1, Luke Brodeur 0-1 1-2 1, Cameron Gates 0-1 0-0 0, Cameron Knisely 0-4 0-0 0. Totals: 21-56 10-14.

MSU-N - Micaiah Hauser 8-12 0-0 21, Dae'Kwon Watson 6-11 2-3 17, Immanual Anderson 4-8 5-5 13, Rogan Barnwell 4-7 1-1 11, CJ Nelson 4-7 0-1 10, Tanner McCliment-Call 3-9 0-0 7, Myles Dalton 2-8 0-1 5, Zackry Martinez 2-6 0-0 5, RJ Ramone 2-4 0-0 5, Jesse Keltner 2-2 0-0 4, Terry Holmes Jr. 2-2 0-0 4, Anthony Braggs Jr. 1-4 0-0 2, TJ Reynolds 1-4 0-0 2, Jacob Randall 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 42-86 8-11.

Halftime: MSU-N 50-33. TKU 3-pointers 7-18 (Nicholas Gregersen 2, Cornelius Mingo Jr. 2, Logan Den Oudsten 1), MSU-N 16-46 (Micaiah Hauser 5, Dae'Kwon Watson 3, CJ Nelson 2). Rebounds: TKU 29 (Cornelius Mingo Jr. 6), MSU-N 44 (Dae'Kwon Watson 6). Fouls: TKU 12, MSU-N 14. Fouled Out: None.

MSU-Northern 85, Lethbridge 54

LET - 31 23 - 54

MSU-N - 45 40 - 85

LET - Kymani Pollard 5-8 4-6 14, Shae Gibb 5-13 2-2 14, Tag Layton 3-5 0-0 8, Paul Asebiode 3-9 0-0 6, Jack-Henry Fox-Grey 2-7 0-0 5, Jett Rodehutskors 1-3 1-4 3, Kevin Ibula 1-5 0-1 3, Alec Hillman 0-4 1-2 1, Sebastian Perez 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 20-55 8-15

MSU-N - Myles Dalton 6-15 0-0 15, Tanner McCliment-Call 4-7 1-1 13, Dae'Kwon Watson 4-5 0-1 10, TJ Reynolds 3-4 0-0 8, Zackry Martinez 3-11 0-0 7, Immanual Anderson 3-6 0-0 6, CJ Nelson 3-7 0-0 6, Jesse Keltner 3-7 0-0 6, Jacob Randall 2-4 2-2 6, Anthony Braggs Jr. 1-2 2-4 5, Micaiah Hauser 1-3 0-0 3, Terry Holmes Jr. 0-1 0-1 0. Totals: 33-72 5-9.