MSU-N basketball teams tumble on the road

It was a difficult weekend of near misses and tough losses for both the Montana State University-Northern men's and women's basketball teams.

The Lights took to the road for the second time in 2010, traveling to Las Vegas for the prestigious Vegas NAIA Shootout.

Once in Las Vegas, Northern squared off against a pair of NAIA powerhouses in No. 4 Robert Morris, which beat the No. 25 Lights 78-77 on Friday night, and Vanguard University, which took down Northern 73-69 on Saturday afternoon.

The game against Robert Morris was a rematch of Northern's 2008 NAIA national tournament first-round game. And just like the Eagles broke the hearts of the Lights in Kansas City, they did it to them again in Las Vegas.

Northern led the entire game, but fell behind by one point after MSU-N was whistled for a foul on an attempted Robert Morris 3-pointer with just six second left in the game. The Lights led by two at the time of the foul, then trailed by one after the free throws. Northern had one last chance to win the game, but the Lights were whistled for an offensive foul on their final possession.

In the loss to the Eagles, LaVon Myers paced the Lights with 20 points and three assists, while sophomore Devin Jackson nailed three trey's and scored 15 points. Chris Brown added 13 points and five rebounds.

Saturday didn't get any easier for Northern either.

Against Vanguard, the Lights shot a season-low percentage and trailed most of the game. Northern rallied late, but came up four points short. Despite some cold shooting, the Lights played hard against the Lions, who are in the Golden State Athletic Conference, one of the best leagues in the NAIA. Northern reeled off a 13-2 run late in the first half to only trail 39-31 at intermission, and trailing by 12 points late, the Lights cut the Lion lead to four with :32 left in the game.

While shooting only 37 percent for the game, the Lights did drill eight three's against the Lions. Shaun Tatarka scored a team-high 16 points and hit three long-range bombs, while Jackson poured in another 15 points and three trey's.

The Lights (4-3) are off until Dec. 2-3 when they travel to Augustana College of Albert for a pair of nonconference games.

Skylights fall to DAC foes

In a pair of rematches from last weekend's home split, the MSU-Northern women found the second time around against DAC rivals Dickinson State and Minot State to be tough sledding.

On Friday night, the Skylights were hammered by DSU 89-50. The loss came just one week after the Skylights beat the Blue Hawks 59-50 in Havre.

Northern fell behind DSU quickly and the Blue Hawks never looked back, leading 54-23 at halftime. For the game, the Blue Hawks shot a whopping 50 percent from the floor, making 13 3-pointers. In the loss, the Skylights got 15 points from Taylor Keller and another 11 by Jordan Bruursema.

MSU-N tried to turn its fortunes around Saturday night in Minot, N.D., but the Skylights came up short in their bid to salvage a road split as the Beavers edged Northern 75-69.

The Skylights played better on Saturday night against the taller and more powerful Beavers. MSU-N trailed by just three points at intermission, but could never quite overcome the Beavers in the second half.

Samm Schermele poured in a game-high 21 points, including four three's for the Skylights to go along with three rebounds and four assists. Sophomore Monica Hollowell added 13 points and two of MSU-N's nine trey's in the loss.

With the two road losses over the weekend, the Skylights fell to 3-4 overall.

MSU-N is back on the road this weekend to take on another DAC power. On Friday night, the Skylights will play Black Hills State in Great Falls. The Skylights don't play at home again until Dec. 16.