Frontier Notebook: MSU-N's Faupel honored again

Like most teams in the Frontier Conference, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights went through a long stretch without being able to win a game at Lewis-Clark State in Lewiston, Idaho. And the way the Warriors have dominated the Frontier, that's not all that unusual.

But, in recent times, MSU-N, under head coach Chris Mouat, has started to buck the trend of not being able to win in Lewiston. And the Skylights did it again last Saturday night when they upended the Warriors 62-54.

That win did a lot for the Skylights, and a lot for the Frontier standings. Northern snapped an 11-game LCSC winning streak, stopped LC's unbeaten home streak this season, and moved the Skylights a game closer to being able to catch LCSC and Carroll College in the Frontier standings.

"This was a huge win for our program," Mouat said. "LC is very, very good and had won 11 in a row, so we knew it was going to be a tough task. Our kids really brought a great effort at both ends."

As exciting as the win was, recent Northern teams aren't strangers to winning at LCSC. The Skylights also beat the Warriors in Lewiston last season, and they managed the feat in the 2013 season as well. That gives MSU-N three wins in its last five trips to Lewiston, something no other team in the Frontier has been able to do during that same stretch.

Last Showdown

On the both the men's and women's sides of the Frontier standings, LC State and Carroll are sitting on top. And that makes Friday night's doubleheader in Helena between the Warriors and Fighting Saints some of the biggest games to happen in the Frontier in quite some time.

The women's game pits No. 13 Carroll against No. 12 LC for the third time this season. The Warriors won both the previous meetings, including a game in Helena back in December, and with a two-game lead on Carroll in the standings, the Warriors could really make it tough for anybody, let alone the Fighting Saints, to claim the regular season crown with a win in Helena Saturday night.

And the men's game which will follow at the Carroll P.E. Center could be even more intriguing.

Both Carroll and LC sit tied atop the Frontier standings with identical 10-2 records and both teams are playing absolutely great basketball right now. No. 13 Carroll has the reigning NAIA Player of the Week in freshman Match Burnham, while No. 3 LCSC has won 12 of its last 13 games and, the Warriors have been so good, the received a first-place vote in this week's NAIA Men's Coaches Poll.

And with both the Warriors and Saints already having a three-game lead on third-place UM-Western, Friday night's showdown in Helena could all but seal the Frontier regular season title for the winner, as well as home-court advantage throughout the upcoming Frontier playoffs.

Faupel honored

For the fourth time this season, Northern junior standout Natalee Faupel has been named the Frontier Conference Women's Player of the Week.

The 5-10 junior standout from Butte High averaged 19 points, six rebounds and two assists per game in last weekend's sweep of Montana Tech and LC State. She also shot 90 percent from the free-throw line and dropped a game-high 22 points in Saturday night's win at LCSC.

In addition to his national player of the week honors, Carroll's Match Burnham was also named the Frontier Men's Player of the Week. Burnham is a 6-8 freshman from Spangle, Washington.

Burnham scored 39 points with three rebounds and two assists in Carroll's win at Rocky Mountain College. From the field he was 8-of-16 including 4-of-7 on 3-point field goals. He was 19-of-19 from the free-throw-line which is a Carroll school record and is the fifth-best in NAIA history. His 39 points were the most scored by a Carroll player in over a decade.