AmericInn Classic starts today at MSU-Northern

There will only be two games in this year's AmericInn Classic, but they'll be good ones.

Today, the three-team men's basketball tournament at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse gets underway with Frontier Conference powerhouse UM-Western taking on the University of Alberta. The Lights will then take the floor against Alberta on Friday at 6 p.m.

This weekend's tournament, which is the final week before Frontier Conference play begins was supposed to feature the Lights and Bulldogs playing twice. But the fourth team, Concordia of Alberta elected not to make the trip, so Western and Northern will each play just once.

Western comes into today's game against Alberta with an 11-4 record. And while the Bulldogs are one of Northern's biggest rivals, fan's might want to get to the gym today to see Western in action. Senior Brandon Brown is leading the Frontier in scoring at 22 points per game this season, and the Bulldogs have a host of talented players around the dynamic Brown, including a huge front line of Tyler Hurley, Jake Perry and Jake Owsley.

And the Golden Bears of Alberta won't be a pushover for the Bulldogs or Lights. Alberta is a CIS level team, which is the highest level of college basketball in Canada, and Northern head coach Shawn Huse said they will be a challenging foe this weekend.

"They (Bears) are off to a good start this season," Huse said. "And they play with teams like Saskatchewan and Regina, two teams that played us very tough, so say no more. They are a very good team and they will be a great opponent this weekend."

Today's game between Western and Alberta will get underway at 4 p.m. at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse. The Lights get their shot at the Golden Bears at 6 p.m. on Friday. For more on the MSU-N men, see Friday's Havre Daily News.