Breaking Sports: Skylights trump Mount Royal

Northern's Kylee Denham (middle) drives to the basket during Saturday's women's basketball game between the Skylights and Mounht Royal University in Havre.

There was a little rust at the beginning, but eventually, that wouldn't matter to the MSU-Northern women's basketball team. The Skylights closed out an impressive 2011 portion of their schedule with a 63-47 New Year's Eve day win over Mount Royal University of Alberta Saturday at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse.

The Skylights were sluggish after almost three weeks off and Mount Royal hung tough early on. But an 11-2 run to close the first half gave the Skylights a 27-21 lead at intermission. Northern shot the ball at a 50 percent clip in the second half and pulled away late. The Skylights biggest lead was 21 when when Laramie Schwenke drilled a 3-pointer with 5:22 to play.

Schwenke showe dlittel effect from an injured ankle back on Dec. 17, scoring a game-high 19 points and four made three's. Four Skylights reached double figures with Kylee Denham scoring 11 and Nikki Tresch and Jordan Bruursema each scoring 10.

With the win, MSU-N ended nonconference play with a splendid 13-1 record. The Skylights will begin Frontier Conference play at home against UGF next Friday night.

For full coverage, see Tuesday's Havre Daily News.