Northern slams Grant MacEwan

It would have been easy for the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team to lose its focus.

When you know you're playing an undermanned opponent and you know you're going to win, it's easy to relax a little on defense, maybe not crash the boards quite as hard or take a couple questionable shots on offense.

But to their credit, the Lights did none of those in a 114-57 pasting of the Grant MacEwan College Griffins Monday night in the final game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at the MSU-Northern gymnasium.

Northern forced Grant MacEwan into 26 turnovers and forced the Griffins into a 34 percent shooting performance en route to the easy non-conference win.

"I was really proud of our guys," said Lights head coach Shawn Huse. "There is some truth in the saying that it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. We played and won with class. Grant MacEwan was definitely outmanned and tired from the night before, but we didn't play sloppy or out of control despite that."

Indeed, even as the score was getting out of hand, Northern players continually passed up decent shots to get teammates even better ones. Consequently, the Lights shot a solid 54 percent from the field with all 12 players on the roster scoring in the game.

"We really played together and played unselfishly," Huse said. "It's easy to not play that way in these type of games. They can get very ugly. But to our kids credit they worked on getting better at things we needed to. They know we have some very important games coming up."

Northern dominated the game in all facets, racking up a 62 to 23 rebounding edge and 27 assists in the game.

Dustin Sawejka led all scorers, coming off the bench to score 24 points on 12 of 15 shooting. He also added eight rebounds. Larry Morinia dropped in 23 points including three three-pointers, while brother, Lamar, scored 22 points. The duo also combined for 10 assists and 11 rebounds.

Center Trenton Harbaugh was dominant up front, scoring 19 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, while Reid Stovall grabbed 12 rebounds.

Grant MacEwan was led by Nathan Coughlin's 16 points.

As pleased as he was with the win, Huse admitted that wins were hardly the biggest accomplishment of the tournament.

"The most important part of this tournament is helping raise money for cancer research," Huse said. "Thanks to Super 8 and the fans that came, we helped to do that. It's something that we are going to do every year."

Northern will head to Calgary this weekend for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday.

GRANT MACEWAN COLLEGE (57)

Jordan Fownes 2-5 0-0 4, Daniel Duke 2-6 0-0 4, Nathan Coughlin 6-13 3-6 16, Jeffrey Stork 2-8 1-1 5, Michael Gardiner 2-8 0-0 4, Anthony Lange 2-3 0-0 4, Andrew Simpson 1-8 1-4 3, Brendan Bjarnsan 3-7 1-1 7, Steele, Steel 2-7 0-0 4, David Brimacombe 2-3 1-1 6, Jesse Lipscombe 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 24-69 7-13 57.

MSU-NORTHERN (114)

Larry Morinia 8-14 4-4 23, Reid Stovall 2-6 2-2 6, Lamar Morinia 7-13 6-9 22, Landen Grant 1-3 0-0 3, Trenton Harbaugh 8-12 3-9 19, Zach McLean 1-7 0-0 2, Leo Bullchild 1-3 0-0 2, Travis Moran 2-4 0-2 4, Steve Ahrens 1-2 7-8 9, Dustin Sawejka 12-15 0-0 24. Totals: 43-79 22-34 114.

Halftime: MSUN 55, GMC 35. Three-point goals: GMC 2-8 (Duke 0-1, Coughlin 1-5, Brimacombe 1-1, Lipscombe 0-1), MSUN 6-18 (Larry Morinia 3-4, Lamar Morinia 2-5, Grant 1-3, McLean 0-4, Bullchild 0-1, Sawejka 0-1). Rebounds: GMC 23 (Simpson 5); MSUN 62 (Harbaugh 14, Stovall 12) Assists: GMC 13 (Fownes 3); MSUN 27 (Larry Morinia 6, McLean 5). Total fouls: GMC 26, MSUN 15. Fouled out - Fownes, Stork, Simpson; Technicals - none.

JAMESTOWN 108, RED DEER 62

The top-ranked Jamestown College Jimmies wasted little time showing which was the better team. The Jimmies rolled to a 56-38 halftime lead on 67 percent shooting en route to a 108-62 win over the Red Deer College Kings.

Jamestown forced Red Deer into a whopping 34 turnovers, leading to several easy scores in transition.

Brandon Wilkens led all scorers with 27 points and five rebounds. Also in double figures for Jamestown was Charles Jones with 16 points, Jamil Moore with 12 and Eric Holmstadt with 10.

Red Deer was led by Lee Sprunger's 18 points, while Mark Salked chipped in with 12.

RED DEER COLLEGE (62)

Josh Bibbs 1-2 0-0 2, Franjo Crnkovic 0-4 0-0 0, Joel Bancroft 4-7 2-2 11, Lee Sprunger 4-9 7-7 18, Kalem Edlund 2-5 1-2 5, Brock McMillian 0-1 0-0 0, Jordan Brown 1-4 0-0 2, Chris Girvan 4-7 0-0 8, Nathan Tratechaud 1-1 2-2 4, Mark Salked 6-14 0-1 12. Totals: 23-54 12-14 62.

JAMESTOWN COLLEGE (108)

Imran Sufi 1-4 0-0 2, Benny Fragela 2-4 2-2 8, Charles Jones 7-10 2-2 16, Brandon Wilkens 11-13 4-4 27, Eric Holmstadt 3-6 4-4 10, Randy Randle 3-4 0-0 7, Boe Meredith 1-2 0-0 3, Bill Schaffan 2-5 2-2 8, Robbie Redekopp 2-4 1-3 5, Jamil Moore 4-6 4-4 12, Jonathan Castillo 3-4 1-2 9, Jeremy Wieseler 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 39-62 23-28 108.

Halftime: JC 56, RDC 38. Three-point goals: RDC 4-11 (Bancroft 1-2, Sprunger 3-6, Brown 0-1, Girvan 0-2), JC 7-13 (Sufi 0-1, Fragela 2-3, Wilkens 1-2, Randle 1-1, Meredith 1-2, Schaffan 2-4). Rebounds: RDC 18 (Salked 4); JC 28 (Wilkens 5, Holmstadt 5) Assists: RDC 9 (Salked 3); JC 28 (Fragela 6, Randle 5). Total fouls: RDC 18, JC 17. Fouled out - none; Technicals - Jamestown coach.