Skylights topple Warriors, get toppled by Orediggers

After suffering back-to-back losses at UGF and Carroll College at the end of last month, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights got hot. And coming into the final weekend of the regular season, and playing at home, the Skylights needed two wins to secure a second-place finish in the Frontier Conference, and a home game in the Frontier semifinals.

Getting there required a home sweep on the last weekend of the regular season, including a must-have win over regular season champion Lewis-Clark State Friday night - a team that no one else in the Frontier had beaten twice this season.

And that's exactly what the No. 16 Skylights did. In front of a loud Armory Gymnasium crowd Friday night, the Skylights beat the No. 12 Warriors for the second time in three weeks, as they won 65-56. However, a third win over Montana Tech was also needed to finish the job, and the Orediggers refused to comply, as they came into Havre and beat the Skylights in the Frontier finale.

Northern nearly led wire-to-wire against the Warriors, who will still have home court advantage in the Frontier playoffs. But, the Skylights are the only team to beat LCSC twice this season, and they also are the only team to beat the Warriors on their floor.

"It's big," junior point guard Molly Kreycik said. "We wanted to come out tonight and show that the game down there wasn't a fluke. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we can beat really good teams consistently. And this game was the one needed to get the bye (in the playoffs). So, we wanted this one bad."

It showed just how bad the Skylights, who have now beaten three nationally ranked teams in the last eight days, wanted to win Friday night.

Natalee Faupel hit an early 3-pointer, while once again, junior Cydney Auzenne got off to a torrid start. Auzenne drilled a trey to put the Skylight sup 13-12 in a fast-paced first period, and she added two more buckets down the stretch to help MSU-N to a 10-2 run, and a 20-17 first-quarter advantage.

"We came out and shot it really well again," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "I thought our defensive effort was good again for all 40 minutes, but we were able to get off to another good start offensively, and that was big for us."

Peyton Filius opened the second stanza with a three, and eventually, Northern's run ballooned to 14-2. But, for much of the second stanza, the Skylights and Warriors played to a stalemate, and that's not surprising considering they are two of the best defensive teams in the NAIA.

However, leading just 29-27 at intermission, and actually falling behind 36-34 early in the third quarter, Northern found its offensive rhythm again, and this time, LCSC wasn't going to stop it.

Rachelle Bennett, back form her devastating knee injury in time for her senior weekend, tied the game at 36-36, and that sparked the Skylights. Northern finished the third period on a 9-2 run to lead 43-38 with 10 minutes left.

"I thought we have just gotten a lot more confident lately," Kreycik said. "I feel like we've really found our identity now. This is a different team than last year, and it's taken us a while to really figure it all out. But we're playing so well together now. And it really helped tonight having our senior leader back in Rachelle."

Big shots in the fourth quarter would also help, and, with LCSC trailing by just two, the Skylights got one in the form of a deep Jacy Thompson 3-pointer with 5:25 left. Then, with the game still very much in doubt, it was Sierra Richards' turn.

The junior forward hit two key free throws to keep Northern in front, then she forced a jump ball on the other end, and seconds later, she hit a 10-footer to put the Skylights 54-47. Caelyn Orlandi responded with a three to get the Warriors back within four, but Faupel answered that one with a bucket of her own, and the Skylights would go on to 11-of-12 free throws in the final three minutes to put the Warriors away yet again.

"LC is such a quality team," Mouat said. "They have good players across the board, and coach Orr always has them really good, every single year. They are so hard to beat, so for us to play as well as we did tonight, and to be able to find a way to beat them twice in one season, that says a lot about our kids. It's remarkable, and they were really good tonight."

Indeed, the Skylights were good, including winning the rebounding edge 36-28, while holding LC to just 39 percent shooting, while also shooting 39 percent themselves. MSU-N was also incredibly balanced offensively, and that made the Skylights very tough for LCSC to guard.

Auzenne had another big night with 16 points, while Faupel added 15, Thompson had 11, Kreycik chipped in with 10 and Richards tallied seven points and 11 boards. On the other end, Northern's tenacious half-court defense limited LC to just a combined 20 points by Brittaney Tackett and Megan Risinger, while MSU-N held Orlandi to just seven points.

"They made a run at as," Mouat said. "We knew they would. But I thought, it was big for us to win on the boards and give up only six offensive rebounds. LC will really hurt you there, and we did that tonight, and really limited them to one shot for long periods of the game. Those things were big for us, and again, we executed offensively, especially in the third quarter.

"I'm very proud of the way we played tonight," he continued. "It was a great atmosphere, a great crowd, and it was a big win for us, against a high quality team."

Stunned

As great as the win over LCSC was, Saturday night's game against Montana Tech proved to be even bigger, and right from the start, the Skylights had problems against the upstart Orediggers in what turned out to be a 90-67 Tech victory.

Northern came out sluggish, despite a 7-6 lead, which included a bucket from Rachelle Bennett, who was celebrating senior night, along with Tina Doughty. However, Northern's lead didn't last thanks to big shot after big shot from Hattie Thatcher and Martha Dembek, and when Kourtney Coverdell drilled a three at the first-quarter buzzer, the Skylights had gone over five minutes without a field goal, while Tech was on a 21-3 run and led 28-14.

From there, it was an uphill fight all night for the Skylights. Thatcher kept hitting big shots in the second, while threes from Jacy Thompson and Molly Kreycik, and the strong inside play of Sierra Richards kept things at least within striking distance. Tech led 43-31 at the break, and while Northern cut that lead to seven early in the third, the Skylights found themselves still trailing 53-41 with 10 minutes left.

"One hundred percent credit to Tech," MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat said. "They took it to us, in every way possible. And they just kept coming at us. Even when we did make a run, they had an answer every time. They had a great game plan and they executed it phenomenally well."

And Northern did make a couple of last gasp runs in the fourth quarter. Down by 15 points, they cut it to 10 with a Cydney Auzenne 3-pointer with six minutes left. Then, minutes later, Natalee Faupel, who missed much of the first half, and a chunk of the third with foul trouble, sparked a 9-0 Northern run, that cut Tech's lead all the way down to 66-60 with 3:24 to play.

The Skylights then had a great look to get even closer when Auzenne took a wide-open three from the corner, but it didn't fall, and on the other end, Dembek completed an and-one to put the Diggers back 69-60, and the Skylights never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.

"Tech was just better than us tonight," Mouat said. "Hattie Thatcher and Martha Dembek were phenomenal. I felt we were a step slow. We just weren't there defensively. And that's disappointing, but credit Tech for that. They just out-played pretty much in every way."

Tech did shoot a scorching 49 percent for the game, and put up the most amount of points the Skylights have given up in conference play all season. Dembek poured in a game-high 31 for the Diggers, while Thatcher added 25. Northern got 17 points and five boards from Richards, while Faupel and Thompson combined for 28, as the Skylights finished 11-7 in the Frontier.

And while the win over LCSC just 24 hours earlier was huge, the loss to the Orediggers put a dent in Northern's postseason plans. The Skylights fell from a chance to secure second place in the league, to a tie for third with Carroll, and because the Saints beat the Skylights twice, Northern dropped to the No. 4 seed in the upcoming league playoffs. The Skylights will still host a first-round game against Rocky Mountain College Wednesday night, but the chance to play a home game in the semifinals is gone.

"It's disappointing because we had played so well to put ourselves in a position to have some really good things," Mouat said. "And we just didn't get it done. But, we're just going to have to learn from it and regroup quickly because we've got a very good Rocky team coming in here on Wednesday night, and we're going to have to turn it around and play a lot better than we did tonight. All of our goals are still in front of us, but we've got to regroup and I believe we will do that."

Skylights finish 11-7 in Frontier, 21-7 overall; Next Up: vs RMC Wednesday

Skylights 65, LC State 56

Lewis-Clark State 17 10 11 18 - 56

Northern 20 9 14 22 - 65

LCSC - Laurenna Plourd 1-2 0-0 2, Hannah Byerly 4-8 0-0 8, Brooke Litalien 2-6 0-0 6, Caelyn Orlandi 3-15 0-0 7, Megan Risinger 3-8 2-3 10, Natahnee Spencer 2-5 1-2 6, Jossilyn Blackman 0-1 0-0 0, Hailey Turner 2-3 0-0 4, Kaylea Knox 1-3 0-0 3, B Tackett 5-7 0-0 10. Totals 23-58 3-5 56.

MSU-N - Jacy Thompson 2-10 6-6 11, Natalee Faupel 6-13 2-2 15, Rachelle Bennett 1-3 0-0 2, Peyton Filius 1-2 0-0 3, Molly Kreycik 3-5 4-5 10, Makhayla Farmer 0-0 1-2 1, Cydney Auzenne 4-13 7-8 16, Sierra Richards 1-3 5-6 7. Totals 18-49 25-29 65.

3-pointers: LCSC 7-21 (Byerly 0-1, Litalien 2-5, Orlandi 1-5, Risinger 2-5, Spencer 1-2, Knox 1-3), MSU-N 4-18 (Thompson 1-7, Faupel 1-1, Bennett 0-1, Filius 1-1, Kreycik 0-1, Auzenne 1-7). Rebounds: LCSC 28 (Plourd 5, Blackman 5), MSU-N 36 (Richards 11). Fouls: LCSC 21, MSU-N 10. Fouled out: Byerly.

Tech 80, Skylights 67

Montana Tech 28 15 10 27 - 80

Northern 14 17 10 26 – 67

MT - Callee Remsen 1-2 0-0 2, Kimi Heng 1-3 1-2 3, Martha Dembek 10-14 9-13 31, Rachel Farris 3-4 2-2 8, Hattie Thatcher 10-22 4-7 27, Kaylynn Coverdell 2-6 0-0 4, Kourtney Coverdell 2-8 0-0 5, Bailey Armbruster 0-0 0-0 0, Winter Kemppainen 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 29-61 16-24 80.

MSU-N - Jacy Thompson 4-15 5-6 14, Katie Fertterer 1-2 0-0 2, Brandy Lambourne 0-2 0-0 0, Natalee Faupel 6-9 2-2 14, Rachelle Bennett 2-3 0-0 4, Peyton Filius 0-1 0-0 0, Molly Kreycik 2-4 2-2 7, Tina Doughty 0-1 0-0 0, Makhayla Farmer 0-0 0-0 0, Cydney Auzenne 2-8 4-8 9, Sierra Richards 4-6 9-13 17. Totals 21-51 22-31 67.

3-pointers: MT 6-18 (Heng 0-2, Dembek 2-5, Thatcher 3-6, Coverdell 1-5), MSU-N 3-9 (Thompson 1-2, Kreycik 1-2, Auzenne 1-5). Rebounds: MT 29 (Coverdell 8), MSU-N 34 (Bennett 6, Kreycik 6). Fouls: MT 23, MSU-N 23. Fouled out: Coverdell, Faupel.