Lights thump Eagles at home

For thirteen minutes, Northwest Indian College hung in with the heavily favored Montana-State University-Northern men's basketball team. But after that, any doubt about who would emerge victorious was wiped away by the Lights' stifling defense.

Northern, playing in its second game of the 2014-15 season, used a 23-4 run in the latter stages of the first half to roll to an easy 91-64 victory. With the win, the Lights improve to 2-0 on the young season.

In the early going, the Eagles traded basket for basket with Northern and took an early 8-7 lead on an old fashioned three-point play by Lawrence Kaleak. Yet, the Lights would quickly regain the advantage thanks to a trey by Corbin Pearson to make the score 12-10 with 15:13 left in the first half.

Northern attempted to pull away but a slow start from the field and a 1-of-8 beginning at the free throw helped the Eagles stay close and a basket by Robert Sensemier of Northwest Indian College with 9:07 left in the half, tied the score at 20-20.

The Lights answered with a basket by Pearson and a layup by Trevail Lee to go ahead 24-20. The Eagles would get a bucket to pull within two but then MSU-N held the Eagles without a basket for nearly five minutes, which allowed Northern to extend its lead to 35-22 with 3:19 to go in the half.

The Eagles finally broke their drought with 3:03 to go in the opening stanza when Kacy Green finally found the net. But, on the ensuring Lights possession, Lee buried a three-pointer, which sparked a 12-4 run to close the half, giving Northern a commanding 47-28 halftime advantage.

"I think just our energy, we kept rotating guys in and eventually I think we kind of wore them down," Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. "They would be hard to guard if they could play fresh for 40 minutes and they were hard to guard but I think we just wore them down and that's what helped us break it open a little bit."

If the Eagles had any hope of making a comeback, it was put to rest early by the Lights, who got back-to-back three-pointers from Nicholas Blount and Lee to push the MSU-N lead to 53-28 with 17:52 to go in the game.

NIC did manage to get within 19 points after a quick 9-0 early in the second half that included a treys by Mike Schang Jr. and Dupress Kness as well as a three-point play by Hollis.

However, the Lights made sure that hope was short lived, going on an 8-2 that was highlighted by two three-pointers by Warren Edmonson to put Northern ahead 68-43 with 12:07 remaining.

A few minutes later with the Lights leading 75-51, came the final nail in the coffin. Brett Thompson buried a deep three that put the MSU-N up 78-51 with 7:03 to go and from there, MSU-N never looked back on its way to a 27-point win.

"I think that you need these kind of tune ups," Huse said. "We play each other a lot in practice and it's good to play another team. So far I would give us a B-minus. That's because our attitude and our effort have been great but we know that there are still a lot of things both offensively and defensively that we need to work on."

Leading the way for the Lights in the win was Blount, who connected on three treys in the win on his way to scoring a game-high 16 points. Damian Robinson also had a big game for Northern with 13 points and a game-high six rebounds. Pearson added 11 points and five rebounds, while Edmondson also contributed with 10 points.

Hollis was the leading scorer on the night for the Eagles with 13 points. Dupress Kness also managed to reach double figures with 10 points in the loss.

The non-conference win was the second consecutive for the Lights, who will look to win their third straight game to open the season today when they host Lethbridge University at 3 inside the Armory Gymnasium.

Lights are 2-0; Next Up: Vs Lethbridge Today

Lights 91, Northwest Indian College 64

NWIC – Kacy Green 4-7 0-2 8, Mike Schang Jr. 3-8 1-2 8, Lawrence Kaleak 2-3 0-1 4, Treat Hollins 3-8 7-7 13, Dupress Kness 3-4 2-2 10, Isaiah Savok 2-5 0-0 4, Jake McCoy 1-2 0-0 3, Austin Miller 3-3 3-4 9, Drake Wynne 0-3 0-0 0, Sheridan Nodestine 0-2 0-0 0, Robert Sensmeier 2-2 0-0 4.

MSU-N – Corbin Pearson 4-5 2-4 11, Jesse Vaughn 3-5 1-1 7, Travail Lee 3-10 0-1 8, Nicholas Blount 6-9 1-3 16, Jermaine Graves 3-7 2-2 9, Warren Edmondson 3-6 2-2 10, Dylan Tatarka 0-1 8-8 8, Brett Thompson 1-7 0-0 3, Damian Robinson 6-6 1-3 13, Pat Jensen 2-2 0-0 4, KJ Rech 0-1 0-0 0, Nikola Ivanovic 1-1 0-0 2.

Halftime: Lights 47, Northwest Indian College 28. Total FG: Lights 32-60, Northwest Indian College 23-47. Total FT: Lights 17-26, Northwest Indian College 13-18. Three-pointers: Lights 10-19 (Blount 3, Lee 2, Edmondson 2, Pearson 1, Thompson 1, Graves 1), Northwest Indian College 4-9 (Kness 2, Schjang 1, McCoy 1). Rebounds: Lights 33 (Robinson 6), Northwest Indian College 18 (Hollins 6). Total Fouls: Lights 19, Northwest Indian College 24. Fouled out – none.