An Armory Weekend Special: Lights battle Western and Rocky in key clashes

The Montana State University-Northern Lights are putting together a very special season. And on one special weekend, the Lights are hoping to take things even further.

Northern (9-7, 20-8) comes home from a six-game road trip to close out the Frontier Conference season with games tonight against nationally ranked UM-Western, and Saturday night against Rocky Mountain College. Both games tip off at 8 p.m. in the Armory Gymnasium, and the Lights will honor seniors Badhasa Margarsa, Tyler Chandler, David Straughter and William Walker before Saturday’s game against the Battlin’ Bears.

But as special as senior weekend is and as special as the Lights’ home games always are, Northern really does have bigger things on its mind. Two wins would likely get the Lights into the NAIA national tournament, and MSU-N is also in a race with RMC for the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Frontier playoffs, and if the Lights finish there, it would mean Rocky would have to come back to Havre for a playoff game next week.

So for the Lights, who are leading the NAIA in scoring defense, while getting great offensive production of late from Straughter, Chandler, as well as Ryan Reeves, Dylan Tatarka and Cameron Epps, there’s a lot at stake in the last two games of the regular season.

“These games are very important on many levels, and we know that,” Northern head coach Shawn Huse said. “It has been a fun ride watching this team really come on as of late, and we are excited about how we are playing right now. Our guys were very energetic getting back to work after a tough loss at Carroll (in film, practice, and lifting). They’re fired up for this weekend.”

Northern should be fired up for a myriad of reasons, and one of them is, the Lights know they can play with tonight’s opponent, the 13th-ranked UM-Western Bulldogs (12-4, 22-6). Western is having a great year no doubt, and the Bulldogs have two of the best guards in the Frontier in Shyke Smalls (6-1), who averages 15 points and three steals per game, as well as Dom Robinson (5-8), who scores 15 per night. Add in Kooper Kidgell (6-3) and Marcus Payne (6-7), and a talented bench, and Western is as good as anybody out there. But, again, the Lights know they can play with the Bulldogs because they beat Western, in Dillon, less than a month ago.

Still, Huse knows just how good Western can be, and how tough tonight’s showdown will be. Western averages 87 points per game, and is one of the most explosive offensive teams in the NAIA.

“They have some guys that can really get hot shooting and scoring the ball,” Huse said of the Bulldogs. “We have to be sharp with our defensive execution if we expect to stop them enough, again.  Getting good looks ourselves is of course a huge key as well, but slowing them down is the first priority if we expect to have success.”

While the game against Western is huge, Northern will have to refocus right away because, depending on what happens tonight, both in Havre and Great Falls, could make Saturday’s battle with Rocky for a home game in the Frontier playoffs. Despite the fact that Northern has beaten Rocky twice this season, the Battlin’ Bears (8-8, 15-13) could pass the Lights in the Frontier standings if they sweep UGF and the Lights, and if Western can beat the Lights tonight.

Of course, Northern is focused and poised to not let any of that happen, and though the Bears are talented, led by center Zach Hinton (6-6), who has been on a tear of late, and guards Riley Bradhshaw (6-1) and Taylor Longo (6-1), MSU-N has played really well against RMC this season, and Huse hopes that continues Saturday night.

“Rocky has played some really good basketball as of late, and we’ll need to have the concentration and energy necessary to get them a third time,” Huse said. “We did a very nice job of execution down in Billings not too long ago, and we will need to do that again if we expect to come out on top. They can score in many ways, and we will certainly need to limit their offensive production.”

Rocky is another high-scoring squad, but the Bears also have the size to play inside. Still, the Lights will use their depth, with young talent like Justin Dunsmore, Devin Bray and Charles Porter giving MSU-N key bench minutes, as well as their home-court advantage to hopefully propel them to, not only the win over RMC Saturday night, but a big one over Western tonight.

“Being gone from our Havre families, friends, comforts, school, and gym 11 out of the past 18 days has made us very eager to be back playing at home,” Huse said. The excitement in our guys for these games this upcoming home weekend, is very evident.”

Tonight’s showdown between the Lights and Bulldogs starts at 8 inside the Armory Gymnasium. Saturday night’s senior night game against RMC also tips at 8 p.m. This marks the end of the regular season.