Skylights cruise past Boxers in the Armory

This week was supposed to be a two-game home stand for the Montana State University-Northern Skylights. But Thursday night’s game with Nueta Hidatsa was canceled, and heading into their game with NCAA Division III Pacific University, Northern head coach Chris Mouat wasn’t sure how his team would respond.

But the Skylights answered that question in resounding fashion, with a 72-40 thrashing of the Boxers Saturday night in the Armory Gymnasium.

“We came out ready,” Mouat said. “I liked the way our kids responded to not getting to play on Thursday night. They were really disappointed, they really wanted to play that game. So, I wasn’t sure how they would respond tonight. Those things can go either way. But they came out focused and prepared and they were ready. I was proud of them for that.”

The Skylights were especially ready defensively. Northern held Pacific to just 30 percent shooting and two 3-pointers. The Skylights also out-rebounded the Boxers 46-29, even without the services of injured reserve forward Kaelani Sagapolu.

“I thought we played very well defensively, and we came up big on the boards,” Mouat said. “Jacy Thompson did a really nice job guarding Karli McHone, who is a real nice player. Sarah Kurl, she’s their all-time leading scorer and a relentless player, and she got some points on us tonight. But for the most part, I thought we did a great job defensively.”

The Skylights played pretty well offensively too. A Thompson triple capped a 10-0 start to the game, and what ended up being a dominant, 19-5 first quarter for the No. 11 Skylights.

Kurl did start to heat up in the second stanza, but MSU-N ripped off a 9-0 run before halftime, including a pair of big buckets from Cydney Auzenne, and the Skylights took a 37-19 lead into the break. Thompson would add two more threes early in the third period to extend the lead, and MSU-N added a 10-0 run, started by a Brandy Lambourne three, for good measure in the fourth, as the Skylights rolled to their seventh 20-point win of the season.

“At times, I don’t think we shot the ball well enough, and we’ll have to keep working at that,” Mouat said. “But I also thought everybody that stepped on the floor tonight did something big offensively, and with the way we were playing defensively, we did put together a pretty complete game.”

That complete game included four Skylights in double figures, led by Thompson’s 15 points and three treys. Sierra Richards was also clutch with a double-double, notching 12 points and 11 boards, while Auzenne scored 13 and Natalee Faupel chipped in with 11. Kurl was the high scorer for the night with 17 points for the Boxers.

The win pushed the Skylights to 9-2 on the season and was the Skylights’ final home game before Frontier Conference play resumes in January. However, it wasn’t Northern’s final game, as the Skylights will take on a tough Willamette University team on a neutral floor tonight in Helena.

“It will be a tough game, they’ve lost once all year,” Mouat said. “And we need it. We need to show we’re up to that type of challenge. It’s good that we played well tonight (Saturday), but we need to clean some things up and we need to do it quick, because Willamette will be a very tough game.”

Skylights 72, Pacific 40

Pacific 5 14 11 10 – 40

Northern 19 18 14 21 – 72

PU - Liana Tanaka 0-0 0-0 0, Jillian Ross 0-1 0-0 0, Sarah Curl 8-15 1-1 17, Karli McHone 1-8 0-0 3, Delaney Emerson 0-2 2-2 2, Lauren Lykins 0-3 0-0 0, Leah Bassik 0-1 0-0 0, Kaela Collins 0-0 0-0 0, Nikki Gilbert 0-2 0-0 0, Erica Pagan 1-4 1-1 3, Megan Wesel 1-2 0-0 2, Jazmina Lafitaga 2-6 3-4 8, Sarah Alanis 0-2 1-2 1, Merrily Jones 2-4 0-1 4. Totals 15-50 8-11 40.

MSU-N - Jacy Thompson 5-8 2-2 15, Katie Fertterer 1-3 2-3 4, Brandy Lambourne 1-3 2-2 5, Natalee Faupel 4-12 3-3 11, Peyton Filius 1-4 0-0 2, Molly Kreycik 0-4 0-0 0, Shiloh McCormick 2-8 2-2 6, Makhayla Farmer 2-6 0-1 4, Cydney Auzenne 4-5 5-6 13, Sierra Richards 4-9 4-8 12. Totals 24-62 20-27 72.

3-pt FG: PU 2-16 (Ross 0-1, McHone 1-5, Lykins 0-2, Gilbert 0-2, Pagan 0-2, Lafitaga 1-4), MSU-N 4-14 (Thompson 3-5, Fertterer 0-1, Lambourne 1-2, Faupel 0-4, Filius 0-1, Kreycik 0-1). Rebounds: PU 29 (Curl 7), MSU-N 46 (Richards 11). Fouls: PU 27, MSU-N 12. Fouled out: Jones.