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News you can use
The MSU-Northern women's basketball team takes a photo while on a private tour of Zoo Montana Monday afternoon in Billings. Northern is in its second day of preparing for the first round of the NAIA national tournament, which comes Thursday night. For a report on MSU-N's Tuesday, and much more Skylights' coverage, see Wednesday's Havre Daily News.
The Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team arrived in Billings Sunday for the 2017 NAIA Division I Women's National Tournament.
Monday, though, as the rest of the field arrived at Billings' Logan International Airport, the Skylights were already soaking up the fun of being at the NAIA's Big Dance.
While Northern doesn't play until Thursday night, the No. 11 Skylights certainly went to work, practicing at Rocky Mountain College Monday morning.
Of course, MSU-N is preparing to face a dangerous Loyola Louisiana team, ranked No. 22 in the NAIA and won that head coach Chris Mouat said will be extremely challenging.
“They (Wolfpack) are athletic, super athletic,” Mouat said. “They are really good on the board, especially the offensive boards. They have a D-1 transfer who is a double-double almost every night. I think they led the nation in offensive rebounds. They are strong, have length and are quick to the ball.”
And the primary goal is to beat the Wolfpack in a primetime game Thursday night inside the Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings.
However, the Skylights also have plenty of things to do while they wait for their first-round game, which comes late in the second day of the seven-day tourney.
And they did some of those things Monday.
Following their practice at RMC, Northern got a private tour of Zoo Montana. Each team at the national tournament is assigned a host, and NorthWestern Energy is MSU-N's host for the week. So the Skylights toured the zoo with manager Jeff Ewelt and a representative of NorthWestern Energy.
According to MSU-N assistant coach Kristie Pullin, the Skylights had an incredible time with their private tour and had a blast hanging out with animals from all over the world.
The Skylights wrapped up Monday's activities with a dinner hosted by the Northern Lights Athletic Scholarship Foundation.
Tuesday will be another busy day in Billings for the Skylights, who will do a community service event, as well as practice and attend the NAIA Champions of Character Banquet.
Once again, the Skylights are gearing up for theirt first-round game with Loyola, which tips at 8 p.m. Thursday night at the Rimrock Auto Arena.
HDN has all your Skylights coverage
The Havre Daily News sports section will have full coverage of the Skylights at the NAIA national tournament, from the time they leave Havre to the time the tournament ends. All week, look for feature stories, a daily diary from MSU-N's days in Billings, as well as complete pre-game and post-game coverage off the Skylights' games. The HDN will also have photos and full, live coverage of everything going on in Billings, online at http://www.havredailynews.com, as well as Twitter and Facebook.
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