MSU-Northern men jump into NAIA Top 25 after sweep

The Montana State University- Northern men's basketball team is now ranked. The Lights finished last season ranked among the NAIA's Top 25, but it took until this week for the Lights to climb back into the coaches poll. Northern jumped all the way up to No. 19 this week after sweeping Montana Tech and UM-Western over the weekend in Havre. Western was ranked No. 17 last week but dropped to No. 25 after losing to the Lights 69-59 on Saturday night. Three Frontier Conference teams are in the men's Top 25. Westminster College, which is 5-1 in league play, is ranked No. 11 this week. The Griffins have a half game lead on Northern (4- 1) and Rocky Mountain College (4-1) in the Frontier Standings. The Lights are No. 19 and the Bulldogs are No. 25. On the women's side, the Frontier has two teams highly ranked. Lewis- Clark State is No. 11 in the country and the Westminster Griffins sit at No. 13. Westminster is undefeated in conference play and the Griffins haven't lost a Frontier regular season game in their last 20 games. The Lights are back on the road this week, taking on Carroll College Thursday night in Helena and RMC Saturday night in Billings. Frontier player of the week honors were also handed out on Monday night. Westminster's Blaire Prowse was tabbed as the men's player of the week, while Western's Kristin Luedtke was given the women's award. MSU-N's Brian Santiago and Samm Schermele were nominated.