Skylights slow down talented Pronghorns

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

[email protected]

The Montana State University-Northern Skylights didn’t have much difficulty in their season-opening win over Mount Royal University Thursday night. But head coach Chris Mouat knew his team needed to play better on the second night of the young season.

That’s because the Skylights were going head-to-head with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, a CIS team from Canada that has a lot of potential this season.

And when it was all said and done, it was obvious the Skylights did play even better as they raced past the Pronghorns, 74-54 Friday night in the Armory Gymnasium. The win improved Northern to a quick 2-0.

“I was so impressed with Lethbridge,” Mouat said. “They’re an athletic, physical team. They run really good stuff and they’re very well coached. So for us to come out and play the way we did tonight, it’s very exciting. This was a big win for us.”

As expected, the Pronghorns gave the Skylights a battle early on. But just as Northern did Thursday night, the Skylights used a second-quarter surge to put some distance between them and their opponent. MSU-N scored 21 points in the second 10 minutes of the game, and led 42-30 at halftime.

Then, MSU-N’s stingy defense took control of the game by holding the Pronghorns to just 10 points in the third quarter, and eventually, just 40 percent shooting for the night.

“I thought we rebounded really well, against a much taller team,” Mouat said. “And we had a lot of different kids step up in big moments. I thought our depth really showed tonight. It was exciting to see how many different kids off our bench stepped up and made big plays on both ends of the floor tonight. It was just another great, all-around team effort.”

Of course, Northern’s All-American duo of Natalee Faupel and Jacy Thompson had a big hand in Friday night’s outcome. Faupel dropped a game-high 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field, while also pulling down four rebounds. Thompson added 17 points, including going 9-of-11 from the foul line. Freshman Shiloh McCormick also impressed with 10 points and three 3-pointers, while Sierra Richards scored eight points and grabbed four boards, as the Skylights won on the boards, 28-24.

Now, Northern will look forward to a rematch with the Pronghorns Saturday afternoon, as Lethbridge returns to the Armory Gymnasium, and Mouat said he expects another tough battle.

“I’m very proud of this team,” Mouat said. “On night two, to come out and play as well as we did, it’s exciting. I thought we cleaned up a lot of our mistakes from Thursday night and we had to, to win this game. So I’m really pround of this team for that. But we have to go back to practice and work hard because they (Pronghorns) are coming right back in here, and we know it will be a heck of a game again.”

Skylights 74, Lethbridge 54

Lethbridge 15 15 10 14 – 54

Northern 19 23 17 15 – 74

MSU-N – Sierra Richards 2-5 4-5 8, Jacy Thompson 4-7 9-11 17, Natalee Faupel 8-9 5-7 22, Peyton Filius 0-2 0-0 0, Molly Kreycik 0-3 2-2 2, Katie Fetterer 2-3 0-0 5, Brandy Lambourne 0-1 1-2 1, Makhayla Farmer 0-2 0-0 0, Kealani Sagapolu 2-3 2-6 6. Totals: 21-40 24-35 74.

3-pointers: 5-12 (Faupel 1, Fetterer 1, McCormick 3). Rebounds: 28 (Faupel 4, Richards 4). Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.