MSU-N women back home

The Montana State University-Northern Skylights are off to a terrific start this basketball season. But things are starting to get more and more difficult with October now turning to November.

The No. 16 Skylights (3-0) have three wins against Canadian CIS schools and put a scare in the Montana Lady Griz Tuesday night. Now however, Northern is ready to embark on a November that will see it play a plethora of NAIA opponents.

And that starts with today’s game against the Central Baptist Mustangs in the Armory Gymnasium. The Mustangs, who hail from Arkansas, are on a Montana tour that also has them playing the Carroll College Fighting Saints and the Rocky Mountain College Battlin’ Bears. Their game with Northern will tip today at 4.

“They (Mustangs) will be a good opponent for us,” Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. “They have a strong tradition, and they will be an athletic team, a team that will present plenty of challenges.”

Of course, nothing should phase the Skylights after their 64-56 performance in an exhibition game against the Lady Griz Tuesday night in Missoula. That game showed just how lethal the Skylights can be.

And lethal is the perfect word to describe senior Natalee Faupel, who is off to an incredible start, including winning the Frontier Conference Player of the Week award two weeks in a row. Through four games, Faupel is averaging 18 points per game and is shooting an incredible 75 percent from the field. The 2016 NAIA All-American has missed just four shots on the season, while also averaging six rebounds and three assists per game.

Faupel, along with Jacy Thompson, Molly Kreycik, Sierra Richards, and great bench play, including the emergence of junior point guard Brandy Lambourne, will be a handful for the Mustangs today, but they’ll also give the Skylights plenty to handle, including in the post where 6-3 junior Morgan Fimpel is a standout. The Mustangs also have a host of athletic guards who can shoot 3-pointers, so Northern’s stingy defense will no doubt be tested.

But, a test is exactly what Mouat continues to look for. His Skylights have been good thus far, but they are a month away from opening Frontier Conference play, and with NAIA games against the Mustangs at home, and road trips to Evergreen State and Northwest College, as well as two games against nationally ranked opponents in Jackson, Tennessee, at the end of the month, Northern will certainly get the tests the Skylights are looking for.

“Our schedule will certainly make us better,” Mouat said earlier this fall. “We’ll have some very challenging games against good NAIA teams. Those games will let us know where we’re at and where we need to go.”

Today’s game between Northern and Central Baptist tips at 4 inside the Armory Gymnasium. The Skylights won’t play at home again until Dec. 15.