Breaking Sports: Skylights lose double-overtime heartbreaker

Skylight Kylee Denham looks to score during Saturday night's double-overtime game at the Armory Gymnasium.

The Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team had a Frontier Conference home sweep in its sights Saturday night at the Armory Gymnasium. Instead, the Skylights watched lewis-Clark State slip out of Havre with a thrilling, double-overtime, 78-76 win.

The Skylights and Warriors went back and forth in the final 20 minutes of regulation, until LCSC seized control with a 3-pointer by Kelli Rice with :14 left. That gave LC a 60-58 lead, until Jordan Bruursema tied the game with just a few ticks left on a perfectly executed out-of-bounds play. In the first OT, the Warriors again went ahead by two when Rice knocked down another triple. This time, trailing 69-67, Laci Keller sent the game into a seocnd overtime with a layup inside with just a few seconds left. In the second OT, Taylor Cummings and Kassie Barta nailed big shots for the Skylights, but four missed free throws led saw MSU-N trail by two points with less than :8 left, and Kylee Denham's desperation heave to win the game was off the mark.

Tresch scored 20 points in the devestating loss for MSU-N, while Keller scored 16 and grabbed 13 boards. Jordan Bruursema added 13 points before fouling out, while Barta scored 11 off the bench. LCSC got 28 points from Ornela Bacchini, but it was Rice's two three's which really lifted the Warriors to the win in a game which saw Northern lead by as many 12 points in the first half.

The Skylights fell to 3-4 in the Frontier and 11-7 and 11-8 overall. MSU-N travels to UGF Thursday night, then visits LC State for a rematch Saturday.