UGF steals a rare win over Northern in the Armory

Two things are pretty rare. The Montana State University-Northern Lights don’t go 7-from-32 from the 3-point-line very often. And the UGF Argos don’t win inside the Armory Gymnasium very often either.

But Thursday night, both of those things happened as the No. 23 Lights were shocked by the Argos, 68-67 in Havre. The Lights, who saw Tyler Chandler miss a game-winning three-point attempt at the buzzer, fell to 1-2 in Frontier Conference play, while the Argos won in Havre for just the third time in 10 seasons.

“All the credit to Great Falls,” Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. “They hung in there, they hit big shots, and they battled back and gained an edge, and we didn’t answer it. It’s not easy to win in here, so you have to just tip your hat to your opponent tonight.”

UGF did indeed battle back, as the Argos trailed by as many 14 points in the first half. But, thanks to a huge second half from Darren Lockett, the Argos found themselves in front 66-63 with three minutes. That’s when Chandler drilled a huge 3-pointer to tie the game back up for the Lights, but Lockett would answer right back, and put UGF up 68-66 with 1:53 remaining.

And that’s when free throws would snake bite the Lights. Northern missed one to tie with 1:28 to go, and, after two big defensive stops and a steal, the Lights missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with :08 left in the game, and had to foul the Argos on the rebound. But, UGF would have to sweat out its own missed free throw, as Sigman Farmer III missed his attempt, and K.J. Rech’s rebound gave the Lights one last gasp. Trevail Lee raced up the floor and found Chandler for a good look at a game-winning shot, but it didn’t fall, and the Argos celebrated their first conference win of the season.

“I thought we did enough defensively tonight,” Huse said. “I thought we got big stops, we didn’t let them (Argos) hurt us on the offensive glance, and, as talented as they are, I thought we defended them really well.

“On the flip side, I’m really disappointed with the way we played offensively for much of the game,” he continued. “We maybe took a few ill-advised shots, but for most of the game, we got the looks we wanted. We executed offensively. We just missed a lot of good, wide-open shots. And uncharacteristically, we missed some really important free throws down the stretch. And those are things we can’t afford to do in games like this.”

Early on, the Lights didn’t miss much. Trey’s by Brett Thompson and Justin Dunsmore helped spark a 12-0 run, and inside hoops by David Straughter and Ryan Reeves made it a 16-2 run, and a double-digit first half lead.

The Argos went on a 7-0 run to counter, but five points late by Rech gave the Lights a 30-26 lead heading into intermission.

The second half however, the momentum shifted as UGF answered nearly every Norther make. But when Lee and Rech combined for 10 points in a two-minute stretch, the Lights were leading 52-47. But that’s when Lockett took control. He scored 13 of his game-high 27 points in the final eight minutes of the contest, helping UGF rally, and put all the pressure on the Lights down the stretch.

“We had the ball in the hands of our shooters and the shots didn’t fall,” Huse said. “There’s not much more you can do except tip your hat to UGF for making the big shots when they needed them.”

Northern came into the game shooting nearly 40 percent from three as a team, but on Thursday night, the Lights shot just 22 percent. And that, combined with the critical missed free throws, turned out to be the Lights undoing. Rech would finish with a season-high 17 points, as well as five boards, while Lee added 10, and Chandler finished with nine. Chandler was also part of a strong night for Northern’s bench, as they combined for 27 points, including nine from Brett Thompson and seven from William Walker.

But, at the end of the night, it wasn’t enough, and the loss puts a lot of pressure on the Lights to quickly bounce back. However, that won’t be easy as they take on 16th-ranked Carroll College tonight at 8 inside the Armory. The Saints come in with a 3-0 record in league play, and, they beat Northern twice a season ago and have almost everybody back from that team.

“We have to put this one behind us, and go right back to work,” Huse said. “Because we have a very good Carroll team coming in here, and we need to respond. So, we’ll find out what this team is made tomorrow night (Friday) for sure.”

Tonight’s game between the Lights (12-3) and Fighting Saints will tip off at 8 in the Armory Gymnasium. Northern is back home next weekend for games against Lewis-Clark State and Montana Tech.

No. 23 Lights are 12-3 overall, 1-2 in Frontier; Next Up: vs No. 16 Carroll tonight at 8

UGF 68, Lights 67

UGF - Daniel Arcau 1-4 0-0 2, John Makker 1-4 3-4 5, Sigman Farmer III 1-3 0-1 2, Darren Lockett 10-20 6-9 27, Sergio Berkley 6-11 0-0 13, Issac Howard 6-11 1-1 14, Michael Harris 2-2 0-0 5, Jarred Burr 0-0 0-0 0, Ian Carr 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-55 10-15 68.

MSU-N - Trevail Lee 4-11 1-2 10, Badhasa Margarsa 0-0 0-0 0, David Straughter 3-5 2-3 8, Kevin Oberweiser 0-1 0-0 0, Warren Edmondson 0-3 3-3 3, Dylan Tatarka 1-7 0-0 2, Justin Dunsmore 1-5 0-0 3, Brett Thompson 4-7 0-0 9, Tyler Chandler 2-10 0-0 6, William Walker 3-5 1-3 7, KJ Rech 7-9 1-1 17, Ryan Reeves 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 26-64 8-12 67.

Halftime: Northern 30-26. 3-pointers: UGF 4-8 (Farmer III 0-1, Lockett 1-1, Berkley 1-1, Howard 1-4, Harris 1-1), MSU-N 7-32 (Lee 1-6, Oberweiser 0-1, Edmondson 0-3, Tatarka 0-4, Dunsmore 1-3, Thompson 1-3, Chandler 2-9, Rech 2-3). Rebounds: UGF 36 (Farmer III 12), MSU-N 36 (TEAM 9). Fouls: UGF 16, MSU-N 19. Fouled out: none.