Lights fall at DII Chadron State

The Montana State University-Northern Lights' game with the Chadron State Eagles was a late addition to the MSU-N schedule. But, the long bus ride to Nebraska showed just how capable the Lights are of playing with anybody.

Northern lost its game at NCAA Division II Chadron State, 69-61 Monday night, but the Lights hung tough against a team expected to be very good in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference this season.

In a back-and-forth first half, the Lights stayed close, thanks to an outstanding performance from senior Warren Edmonson, and strong inside play by junior David Straughter. And, a late, first-half 3-pointer by Edmonson sent the Lights into halftime tied with the Eagles at 33-33.

However, midway through the second half, the Eagles' strong inside play began to wear the Lights down. Chadron chipped away at the lead, going up by as many as 11 points with under 10 minutes to play. And though the Lights tried to claw their way back into the game, they couldn't catch the Eagles down the stretch.

At the end of the day, in what was the Lights' first loss of the season, head coach Shawn Huse said the long trip may have taken its toll on his team defensively. But that he was proud of the way his Lights hung in the game right to the end.

"Unfortunately, I felt we looked like a team that just got off an 11-hour bus ride to play, we never had that same fire we've seen from this team in the pre-season, particularly on defense," Huse said. "Credit Chadron for outworking us to some key rebounds and making good on their second chance opportunities. They played hungry.

"We need to regroup, learn from it, put it behind us and get ready for our first round of conference play next week now," Huse added. "Those games will be here before we know it and the challenge for us to respond to a loss is now on the table, and for the first time this year. We'll find out what we are truly made of now. I suspect we will see a focused group of angry guys in our preparations, based on what we know about this team."

Still, it was an impressive performance by the Lights, led by Edmonson's game-high 22 points. He nailed five of Northern's eight 3-pointers and also had three steals on the defensive end. Straughter chipped in with 13 points and six rebounds, while K.J. Rech and Tyler Chandler each added 11 points.

Northern is now off until the Lights open Frontier Conference play Dec. 3 at Rocky Mountain College and Dec. 5 at UM-Western.

Chadron State 69, Lights 61

MSU-N – Warren Edmonson 7-13 3-3 22, David Straughter 5-8 3-6 13, KJ Rech 2-8 2-2 7, Trevail Lee 1-5 0-0 3, Dylan Tatarka 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Chandler 2-5 2-2 7, William Walker 2-5 1-2 5, Badhasa Margarsa 0-3 4-4 4, Justin Dunsmore 0-2 0-0 0, Brett Thompson 0-0 0-0 0, Kevin Oberweiser 0-2 0-0 0, Ryan Reeves 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-52 15-19 61.

Halftime: Tied at 33-33. 3-pointers MSU-N 8-22 (Edmonson 5, Rech 1, Lee 1, Chandler 1), CS 3-14; Rebounds: MSU-N 26 (Straughter 6), CS 49; Foulds: MSU-N 15, CS 18; Fouled out: None.