News you can use
News you can use
The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team proved that there's no such thing as a sure thing. Friday night at the Armory Gymnasium, Northern overcame a five-point deficit against Montana Tech in the final 11 seconds to force overtime, eventually leading to the No. 23 Lights beating the Orediggers 77-72 in OT.
Northern trailed Tech 67-62 with :11 left in regulation. Alfie Miller buried a 3-pointer with :9 to go to narrow the gap to 67-65, but out of timeouts, the Lights were forced to put Tech's Brian Bock on the foul line with :05 to go. Bock, who poured in a game-hight 27 points, missed the front end of a 1-and-1, giving the Lights a chance as Corbin Pearson threw the ball up court, than wound up getting it back in time to get fouled while shooting a desperation 3-pointer as time expired. Pearson would miss the first foul shot, but made the next two to force overtime.
From there, the Lights got huge 3-pointers by Miller and Roshawn West, and were able to hold Tech off in the extra frame. Friday night's game was the second time this season the Lights have beaten Tech in extra time. MSU-N beat the Diggers' 83-82 in double overtime last month in Butte.
Pearson finished the game with 16 points, while Miller added 15, Allan Brown scored 14 and West chipped in with 12. The Lights made 13 3-pointers and led Tech 36-31 at intermission. Northern is now 8-3 in the Frontier and will face Lewis-Clark State, which won in Great Falls Friday night, Saturday night at 8 p.m.
Things weren't as dramatic for the No. 19 Skylights Friday night in the Armory Gymnasium. Kacie McKeon came off the bench to hit three first-half 3-pointers as MSU-N ran away from Montana Tech 64-52. The Skylights shot 66 percent in the first half en route to a commanding 38-24 lead, and they never looked back as they earned the season sweep over Tech.
A'Jha Edwards scored 18 points to pace MSU-N, while Rachelle Bennett added 10 and four other Skylights scored six each. Northern is now 8-3 in the Frontier heading into Saturday night's huge showdown with No. 13 Lewis-Clark State. The Warriors, who were upset at UGF Friday night, will play the Skylights at 6 p.m.
For full MSU-N basketball coverage, see Monday's Havre Daily News.
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