Skylights lose tough one at LC State

Just one week after beating the Lewis-Clark State Warriors in Havre, and less than a month after beating the Warriors on their home floor in Lewiston, Idaho, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights needed to do it all over again in order to have a second straight chance at a Frontier Conference championship.

And while the No. 16 Skylights gave the No. 14 Warriors all they could handle in Saturday night’s Frontier Conference semifinal in Lewiston, it wasn’t quite enough. In the end, the Warriors escaped Northern’s effort with a 72-64 win. The loss ended Northern’s Frontier season at 23-8, but, head coach Chris Mouat was more than proud of his team. And, the Skylights are a sure bet to receive an at-large bid to the NAIA national tournament for the third straight season.

“I’m proud of this team, we played extremely hard,” Mouat said. “They wanted this one really bad. We battled throughout the night, and it was a tough one to lose. Regardless, I’m very proud of this team.”

The Skylights did battle, offensively, on the shoulders of junior Natalee Faupel, who poured in a game-high 28 points including two 3-pointers. Northern played tough right from the start, with the game tied at 17-17, but had to watch as the Warriors went on a late, second-quarter charge to take a 39-31 lead into intermission.

Then, the two teams locked up in a defensive battle for much of the rest of the game, and while big shots kept the Skylights close, trailing only by four points in the first portion of the fourth quarter, the Warriors had enough in the tank, on both ends of the floor, to hold Northern off for the second time in the semifinals in the last three years. MSU-N also lost a 2014 nail biter at LCSC.

“LC shot the lights out in the first half,” Mouat said. “We did well to come back and cut it to one point, but then we went through a tough stretch where we missed too many free throws. We battled hard, but they have so may weapons and quite a few different kids hurt us tonight.”

Even against MSU-N’s staunch defense, the Warriors managed to can six threes and shoot 49 percent from the floor. LCSC also held a slight rebounding edge, while the Warriors got 16 points from Caelyn Orlandi and 15 by Brittany Tackett, as they advanced to Tuesday night’s championship game against second-seeded UGF, which beat Carroll Saturday night in Great Falls.

Meanwhile, the Skylights, who got 13 points from Molly Kreycik and 12 by Jacy Thompson, as well as 10 rebounds from Sierra Richards, will await their national tournament fate. But, with the season MSU-N has had, it’s only a formality. Northern will certainly be one of the at-large teams when the national tourney is announced Wednesday night.

“I’m proud of this team,” Mouat said. “They gave LC their only home loss of the entire season. They’ve had a great year.”

LC State 72, Skylights 64, sf

Northern 17 14 17 16 - 64

LCSC 17 22 16 17 – 72

MSU-N - Rachelle Bennett 0-0 1-2 1, Cydney Auzenne 2-5 0-0 5, Molly Kreycik 4-5 3-4 13, Natalee Faupel 10-16 6-7 28, Makhayla Farmer 0-1 0-0 0, Peyton Filius 0-0 0-0 0, Jacy Thompson 3-14 4-8 12, Sierra Richards 2-3 1-2 5, Tina Doughty 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-45 15-23 64.

LCSC - Laurenna Plourd 1-1 0-0 2, Hannah Byerly 3-7 5-6 11, Brooke Litalien 3-10 2-2 10, Caelyn Orlandi 5-9 4-4 16, Megan Risinger 2-3 0-0 5, Natahnee Spencer 1-2 0-0 2, Brittany Tackett 6-11 3-3 15, Jossilyn Blackman 2-5 2-2 6, Hailey Turner 1-1 0-0 2, Kaylea Knox 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 25-51 16-17 72.

3-pointers: MSU-N 7-16 (Auzenne 1-3, Kreycik 2-2, Faupel 2-3, Thompson 2-7, Doughty 0-1),LCSC 6-14 (Litalien 2-8, Orlandi 2-3, Risinger 1-2, Knox 1-1). Rebounds: MSU-N 26 (Richards 10), LCSC 30 (Risinger 7). Fouls: MSU-N12, LCSC 18. Fouled out: none. Technical: none.