Pronghorns stun Skylights in overtime

When you graduate what the Montana State University-Northern Skylights did last spring, and when you assemble a very new team, there's bound to be some bumps in the road along the way.

And the Skylights hit their first bump, in their first game of the season.

On Saturday night, Northern opened the 2017-18 season with a tough loss, to a tough University of Lethbridge Pronghorn squad, 54-53 in overtime. Northern had a good look at a game-winning shot as time expired in the extra frame, but Jessica Curl's turnaround jumper was off the mark, and the Pronghorns, a team from the top level of college basketball in Canada, escaped with a come-from-behind win.

"There's a lot to learn from tonight," veteran head coach Chris Mouat said. "You don't like to lose an opening game like this, but, we're going to look in the mirror and learn a lot from it.

"Full credit to Lethbridge, too," Mouat added. "They came in here after playing in Great Falls on Friday night and they were hungry. They played really well, they are a talented team and they came in here and wanted it more than we did, and they took it from us."

Lethbridge gave the Skylights all they could handle throughout Saturday night's battle in the Armory Gymnasium, but late in the fourth quarter, it looked as though Northern had finally gotten the upper-hand for good. After Jacy Thompson scored five straight points, Northern led 42-37 with 5:31 to play, and while the Pronghorns didn't go away, a Shiloh McCormick put back with 1:24 left kept the Skylights ahead 46-43.

From there, however, the Horns picked up steam, and when Zoe Dahl put back an offensive board for a deuce, the game was knotted at 46-46 with just :58 left. Both teams missed opportunities in the final seconds, including two missed free throws by Lethbridge, and two missed shots by the Skylights inside of five seconds.

Then, in overtime, free throws would play a key role. After the Horns went ahead 50-47, Thompson made an old-fashioned 3-point play to tie the game back up. But Daniella Fritzke answered for the Horns, before Thompson made two foul shots to tie the game at 52-52. Lethbridge then had the ball going for the winning shot, and Dahl was fouled with 1.7 seconds left. She calmly sank both free throws, and on the other end, Curl's shot wasn't to be.

"It was across the board for us," Mouat said. "Too many turnovers, we gave up too many offensive rebounds that led to points for them, we missed a ton of free throws and we shot it really poorly throughout the game. We missed a ton of good looks, and those have to go in in a close game like that.

"It wasn't for a lack of effort," he added. "We played really hard. We out-rebounded them and we're pretty undersized. So I'm proud of how hard our girls played, especially on the defensive end. I thought we held them (Horns) to a really poor shooting night. So I'm not disappointed in our effort at all."

It was a gritty game from start to finish.

McCormick hit a shot late in the first quarter to lift Northern to a 10-9 lead after 10 minutes. Peyton Filius then drilled Northern's only 3-pointer of the night early in the second stanza, and the Skylights were able to take a 23-18 edge into halftime. Curl then started to take control in the third period, helping Northern stay in front 36-33, and Thompson got rolling in the fourth period.

But in the end, the Skylights went just 1-for-10 from beyond the arc, and an uncharacteristic 14-of-24 from the foul line, while shooting just 29 percent from the field for the game.

"They (Horns) had 16 offensive rebounds, and on the other end, we didn't take care of the basketball," Mouat said. "Eventually, those two things caught up to us. Down the stretch, Lethbridge made us pay for those mistakes. So we've got to do a much better job with that moving forward."

Thompson finished with a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 boards, while Curl added 14 points and nine rebounds. McCormick finished with six points, while Lethbridge got 11 each from Dahl, Amy Mazutinec and Jessica Zarowny.

"Just a lot we have to work on," Mouat said. "And we will. We'll go back to work and be better from this moving forward. We'll learn a lot about ourselves from this game."

It will be a short turnaround, too. The Skylights (0-1) are right back in the Armory Friday night, to face an old foe when the Dickinson State Blue Hawks come calling.

Lethbridge 54, Skylights 53 OT

Lethbridge 9 9 15 13 8 – 54

MSU-Northern 10 13 13 10 7 – 53

MSU-N – Kealani Sagapolu 2-2 1-3 6, Jacy Thompson 5-16 5-7 15, Brandy Lambourne 0-3 2-2 2, Peyton Filius 1-10 2-4 5, Shiloh McCormick 3-15 0-2 6, Naomi Terry 1-1 0-0 2, Jessica Curl 5-13 4-6 14, Peyton Kehr 0-1 0-0 0, Lily Hilderbrand 2-3 0-0 4. Totals: 19-64 14-24 53.

3-pointers: 1-10 (Filius); Rebounds: 59 (McCormick 12, Thompson 10); Fouls: 13; Fouled out: None.