Lights battle a pair of Idaho foes on the road

The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team started November with what turned out to be a rough trip to Portland, Oregon. But with a week of rest and practice, the Lights will use their re-charged batteries to hopefully overcome another difficult road trip.

Northern is back on the court for a pair of tough games in Idaho this weekend. The Lights (6-2) are in Caldwell, Idaho, for games against Northwest Nazarene College tonight, and North Idaho College Saturday night.

"We know this will be a challenge but are excited to get back to action after having last weekend off," Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. "As we've talked about before, this is as tough of a non-conference schedule as anyone at our level has this year. This weekend marks the sixth and seventh games of our ten-game-straight road swing."

The challenges will be tall, but MSU-N has shown that it can stand up to good opponents on the road. In fact, the Lights have no choice. They haven't played a home game since Oct. 17, and they won't be back in the Armory Gymnasium until Jan. 2. So life on the road, against good teams, is an inevitability for the Lights right now.

And while Northern's last trip, with back-to-back losses to Cascade Conference powers Warner-Pacific and Concordia University, didn't go as planned, the Lights are still a team that can be a force to be reckoned with.

MSU-N is led by senior Corbin Pearson, who's coming off a 30-point outburst against Concordia. Pearson averages 14 points and eight rebounds per game for an MSU-N bunch averaging nearly 90 points per contest. Junior point guard Trevail Lee also averages 14 points per outing, while Warren Edmonson averages 13 and Nick Blount chips in with 11.

The Lights also rely heavily on the 3-point-line, but where they will have to make hay on the road this weekend is on the defensive end, and a big coup is getting senior forward Jesse Vaughan back in the lineup. Vaughan was unable to make the trip to Oregon two weeks ago, due to the birth of his first child. But he'll be back in the Lights' lineup this weekend, and his presence, especially on the defensive end, will be a welcome addition, especially against two very good offensive teams.

And make no mistake, the Lights are up against two good ones this weekend. Northwest Nazarene is an NCAA Division II stalwart from the GNAC, the same conference that Montana State University-Billings plays in. The Crusaders are 1-1 on the young season, but they're already averaging around 80 points per game, and with stars like Jalen Young and 6-9 center Parris Massey, they'll be a handful for the Lights, and for the Westminster Griffins, who are also in Caldwell with Northern this weekend.

And while playing up is a challenge, the real litmus test for the Lights will come Saturday night when they battle the host College of Idaho Yotes. C of I is ranked No. 7 in the NAIA DII Preseason Coaches Poll, and is was the pick to win the Cascade Conference. The Yotes are off to an impressive 7-0 start, including impressive wins over Northwest Nazarene, as well as Frontier Conference powers Lewis-Clark State and Montana Tech. The Yotes are winning by an average margin of 11 points per game and have five players who average between 10 and 15 points per game.

"We play an NCAA DII and the number 7 team in NAIA II team that won 28 games a year ago, on their home floor ... so we definitely know we have our work cut out for us," Huse said. "We just need to focus on improvement right now as we meld together the new guys with our returners. We had a very good week and a half of practice. I do believe we can find success on this trip if we correct a few minor things from our last two games."

And this weekend's tough road trip is just a continuation of a brutal non-conference schedule the Lights are trying to navigate. Northern's next trip is in mid-December when they travel to Phoenix to take on a pair of NAIA powerhouses in Concordia-Irvine and Cal-State San Marcos.

Tonight's game between the Lights and NCAA DII Northwest Nazarene tips off at 5 in Caldwell, Idaho. Saturday's game between the Lights and College of Idaho will tip at 7 p.m.