Lights lose home battles to Bears, Dawgs

Winning in the Armory Gymnasium is something the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team is used to do doing over the years. But, Frontier Conference teams have made that difficult on the Lights as of late.

And Northern's home struggles continued over the weekend with two losses inside the Armory, including against the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears, who came into Havre and stole a 77-73 overtime win over the Lights.

Friday night's game was a rematch of the overtime win the Lights pulled off in Billings back on Dec. 3, and Rocky managed to turn the tables on Northern this time around.

"It was a tough loss for the guys," Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. "I really feel we are getting better and gaining experience with every conference game."

Friday night's latest salvo in the Northern/Rocky rivalry was one of huge momentum swings, and, for the first three minutes of overtime, it looked like the Lights had all the momentum they needed, as Warren Edmondson outscored Rocky 7-2 and the Lights had a 73-69 lead with just 2:04 to play. From there however, Northern would commit two costly turnovers, while neither team would make another field goal. And in the end, RMC out-scored the Lights 8-1 at the free-throw-line.

And that was the tale of the game for both teams as the Lights and Bears exchanged body blows throughout.

Rocky led 33-32 at halftime, thanks to a 6-0 run to finish the first stanza. But, Edmondson buried three 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half, and the Lights were in front 49-42 with 12:16 left to play. From there, a Rob Nyby three and a couple of hoops from Joe Stulc sent the Bears on a 9-0 run, but Northern answered with huge threes by Brett Thompson and Justin Dunsmore, and the Lights held a 60-55 lead with 5:40 to go.

But again, Rocky battled back, on the back of Nyby, the Frontier's leading scorer, and with 2:21 left, the Lights found themselves trailing 63-60. And that's when things got really interesting.

Trevail Lee knocked in a bomb to tie the game at 63-63, but Stulc came right back and buried a long trey from the top of the key to give the Bears a 66-63 lead with 1:25 to play. Lee, Northern's senior point guard, wasn't done with his heroics however, and he side-stepped an RMC defender and knocked in the game-tying three with :52 left. On the other end, Thompson took a charge, and the Lights had the ball with a chance to win on their final possession. But a layup didn't go all the way down, and the Lights and Bears went to overtime for the second time this season.

"Credit Rocky for staying the course and getting the win on our home floor," Huse said. "They never gave up but we, on the other hand, really need to learn how to put teams all the way away when we start to make our runs. I am disappointed in our shooting and crunch-time mistakes, but it's all part of the process, unfortunately."

The Lights did make 13 threes on the night, and only turned it over 11 times. But, as Huse eluded too, a couple of turnovers late in regulation, and in overtime, and some timely missed shots, allowed Rocky the chance to keep pushing forward.

Edmondson was sensational, scoring a game-high 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting, to go along with five trey's and eight rebounds. Fellow senior KJ Rech had a big first half and finished with 15 points, while Ryan Reeves scored seven. Like the whole second half, the first was a game of runs, as Rech hit two trey's early to give the Lights and 8-4 lead, while Rocky went on two different 6-0 runs. But Edmondson would score seven straight to help Northern go on an 8-0 run, before Nyby scored a bucket with :01 left to lift the Bears to a one-point edge at the break. Nyby and Stulc carried a short-handed Bears' squad, with Nyby pouring in 21 points and Stulc adding 20.

"Warren played a fantastic game," Huse said. "But we really need at least one more guy to step up, especially down the stretch in these tight conference battles."

Dawg Bite

The Lights certainly could have used a bounce-back win at home on Saturday night, after the disheartening loss to Rocky the night before. But, the 25th-ranked UM-Western Bulldogs had no sympathy for the Lights.

Instead, from the onset, it appeared Western was playing with a sense of urgency after losing on a last-second shot the night before at UGF, and in the end, the Bulldogs left Havre with a 73-65 win, meaning the Lights ended their six-game home stand with just one win in six tries.

"First and foremost, I'm extremely proud of our guys for their fight tonight," Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. "In a game like this, a lot of teams will just tuck their tails and lose badly, but we didn't do that tonight. Instead, no matter how tough things got, our guys kept fighting, they kept fighting back, and they gave themselves a real chance down the stretch, and for that, I'm really proud of them."

The fight back came after it looked early on like Western was going to blow the Lights right out of their own gym.

Western, which also beat MSU-N back on Dec. 5 in Dillon, went on an 8-0 run to lead 17-7 early, and when Shyke Smalls and Demetrius Balark combined for a 12-0 run, the Bulldogs were in front 27-16 with 7:40 still to play in the first half.

But, the Lights showed resiliency all night, and 3-pointers from Dylan Tatarka and Warren Edmondson, as well as late triples by Justin Dunsmore, kept the Lights within shouting distance at 38-29 at intermission.

Still, the Dawgs shot a blistering 58 percent in the first half, including 17 points from Balark, and the onslaught didn't slow down much in the second half.

Western scored nine unanswered at the start of the second stanza, and led 49-31 with 16 minutes to play. But, two buckets by Tatarka and another three from Dunsmore pulled the Lights back into the game again, and when Brett Thompson buried a trey at the 9:40 mark, the Lights were only down 56-47.

From there, however, Northern went on a nearly 5-minute drought without a field goal, and with 5:07 left, the Lights were again down by 15 points. Still, they wouldn't go away. Trevail Lee drilled two triples, and when Tyler Chandler hit one with :40 left, the Lights were only down 68-60. Smalls then missed two foul shots and, on the other end, Dunsmore canned a trey from the top of the key, and it was 68-63 with :23 left. Northern was still only down two possessions and had the ball again with :20 to go, but that's when the valiant comeback attempt ended as Edmondson got his pocket picked by Smalls, and the Bulldogs put the game away at the charity stripe.

And that was again the story of the night for the Lights, timely turnovers, missed open looks and missed free throws, much as it was Friday night, and much as it was two weeks ago when the Lights suffered a rare home sweep. While Northern did make 11 3-pointers and got 14 points from Dunsmore and 11 each by Tatarka and Edmondson, the Lights shot just 34 percent from the floor, committed 14 turnovers and watched as Western, which got a game-high 24 points by Balark, shot a blazing 55 percent from the field for the night.

"Credit Western," Huse said. "They got off to a great start, and they just continued shooting the ball really well. It's very hard to win on the road in this league, and it's very hard to win in this gym, so when someone does, you have to just tip your hat to them, and Western did that tonight.

"Right now, we have guys really struggling to knock down shots," he continued. "It feels like a flu that's getting passed around our team, and my hope, and all we can do is have faith that we will cure this eventually. We are getting great looks, open looks, we're executing our offense really well, but the ball is just not going in. Even tonight, we have a chance to cut the lead to five with two to play, and we get a wide open look at the top of the key, and the darn thing just wouldn't go down."

Because the ball won't go down, the Lights have certainly fallen into a rut, no matter how much heart and grit they show. And life won't get any easier as they head out on a six-game road trip, starting Thursday night at UGF, with a 2-6 mark in conference play. Northern also has to road trip to Helena for a rematch with Carroll Saturday night.

But as tough as things will get, and as tough as things have been, Huse is still proud of his team, and he believes they'll make progress and fight through the slump they're in right now.

"We're going through a tough stretch right now," he said. "But I still really like these guys. I love our team. All you can do at times like this is keep fighting and keep working, and our guys are doing that and will continue to do that."

Lights are 2-6 in Frontier, 13-7 overall; Next Up: at UGF Thursday

Rocky Mountain 77, Lights 73, OT

RMC - Chad Kananen 1-6 0-0 3, Derek Graves 1-4 3-4 6, Danny Betcher 2-4 0-0 4, Taylor Longo 3-12 3-3 11, Rob Nyby 6-13 6-6 21, Joe Stulc 8-14 3-3 20, Ben Moerkerke 3-5 2-5 8, Brayden Wacker 0-0 0-0 0, Tiegan Johnson 1-3 2-3 4, Tray Larson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-61 19-24 77.

MSU-N - Trevail Lee 2-8 0-0 6, Badhasa Margarsa 1-2 0-0 2, David Straughter 2-4 0-0 4, Kevin Oberweiser 0-0 0-0 0, Warren Edmondson 10-17 0-0 25, Dylan Tatarka 0-0 0-0 0, Justin Dunsmore 2-7 0-0 5, Brett Thompson 2-2 0-0 6, Tyler Chandler 1-5 0-0 3, Nikola Ivanovic 0-1 0-0 0, William Walker 0-2 0-1 0, KJ Rech 5-10 3-4 15, Ryan Reeves 3-7 1-2 7. Totals 28-65 4-7 73.

Halftime: Rocky 33-32. OT: Rocky 11-7. 3-pointers: RMC 8-20 (Kananen 1-2, Graves 1-2, Betcher 0-1, Longo 2-3, Nyby 3-5, Stulc 1-6, Johnson 0-1), MSU-N 13-27 (Lee 2-3, Edmondson 5-9, Dunsmore 1-5, Thompson 2-2, Chandler 1-4, Rech 2-4). Rebounds: RMC 41 (TEAM 10), MSU-N 36 (TEAM 8, Edmondson 8). Fouls: RMC 14, MSU-N 22. Fouled out: none.

Western 73, Lights 65

UM-W - Shyke Smalls 4-7 5-11 13, Demitrius Balark 6-8 12-14 24, Dexter Williams Jr. 3-7 0-2 6, Connor Woodill 2-6 2-2 7, Ryan Sullivan 1-2 0-4 2, Quinn Smith 7-8 0-4 14, Ryan McCarty 0-2 0-0 0, Troy Scott 3-6 0-0 7. Totals 26-46 19-37 73.

MSU-N - Trevail Lee 3-13 1-2 9, Badhasa Margarsa 1-5 0-0 2, David Straughter 4-6 2-2 10, Warren Edmondson 4-10 1-2 11, Dylan Tatarka 4-10 2-4 11, Justin Dunsmore 5-10 0-0 14, Brett Thompson 1-3 0-0 3, Tyler Chandler 1-4 0-0 3, Nikola Ivanovic 0-0 0-0 0, William Walker 0-1 0-0 0, KJ Rech 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan Reeves 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 24-68 6-10 65.

Halftime: Western 38-29. 3-pointers: UM-W 2-7 (Smalls 0-1, Balark 0-1, Woodill 1-3, McCarty 0-1, Scott 1-1), MSU-N 11-32 (Lee 2-8, Margarsa 0-2, Edmondson 2-5, Tatarka 1-3, Dunsmore 4-8, Thompson 1-2, Chandler 1-4). Rebounds: UM-W 35 (TEAM 7), MSU-N 40 (Reeves 10). Fouls; UM-W 14, MSU-N 24. Fouled out: Dunsmore.