Skylights advance in opening round at NAIA National Tournament

In the opening round of the NAIA Women's Basketball Championship, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights got off to a slow start -- that is, until Molly Kreycik gave her team a jolt of electricity.

With Northern down 18-10 to Loyola of New Orleans in the final seconds of the opening stanza, Kreycik heaved a prayer from before the half-court line and it was answered. The 3-pointer got MSU-N within five points, but its impact overall, was much larger.

"It's something that we talk about all the time," Kreycik said. "When there is time on the clock, we want to get a shot up and thankfully, it went in."

"It definitely gave us a boost," Added MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat. "I could feel it in our huddle, I could feel it with our crowd. It was huge."

Following the long three, MSU-N quickly tied the score in the second quarter and used the momentum to go on an 18-9 run to end the half, to go up 27-26. Another 8-2 spurt at the end of the third, allowed the Skylights to grab control of the game and they never let go in a 60-52 win Thursday night at the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra.

While Kreycik gave the Skylights the spark they needed, much of the dirty work was done in the second half by All-American Natalee Faupel. The senior, who was just 1-of-9 from the field in the first half, took over in the second, making her first six shots and scoring 18 points over the final 16 minutes, to finish with a game-high 27.

Kreycik's buzzer-beating triple was key, but another make from deep in the fourth quarter with MSU-N up one, was just as big. That trey put the Skylights up 50-46, then Faupel made a floater to push the lead to six. From that point, Northern salted away its 25th win of the season and a berth in the second round of the tournament Friday. Tip-off time is set for 9:45 p.m.