Carroll sweeps Northern in Helena

Saturday was a treacherous day across Montana, and that included the stop in Helena the Montana State University-Northern men’s and women’s basketball teams had to make for a pair of Frontier Conference games.

The Northern women ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the No. 13 Fighting Saints, who downed the Skylights 67-46 in the Carroll P.E. Center.

The Saints got off to a hot shooting start and never looked back in the win. Carroll made four first-half 3-pointers and led 36-26 at intermission. From there, the Skylights just couldn’t recover.

Carroll shot 46 percent from the field, and got a game-high 18 points from Jaidyn Lyman, while also avenging a loss to the Skylights back in December in Havre. On the other end, Northern shot a solid 43 percent and out-rebounded the Saints 31-24, but Carroll’s shooting was too much and a painful 28 turnovers was too much for the Skylights to overcome. Peyton Filius hit two threes and led the Skylights with 12 points, while Tiara Gilham added 11.

The loss was the 10th straight for Northern in Frontier play, as the Skylights dipped to 1-11 in the league and 9-14 overall.

“We turned the ball over way too many times to win,” Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. “Credit Carroll for some that. Their pressure defense is very, very good. But many of our turnovers were also unforced and led to points for them. That was a big difference in the game.

“We’re going through a rough stretch right now,” Mouat added. “But we just have to continue to focus on getting better. We’re playing hard, we’re fighting, I’m proud of our effort, but we also have to get better and play better basketball moving forward.”

Saints dim Lights

Shooting was also a big issue for the Lights Saturday night in Helena. In particular, the nationally ranked Saints shot lights out, and Northern didn’t as Carroll blew the Lights out 78-43.

From the start of Saturday night’s game, Carroll was on fire. The Saints made four early 3-pointers and raced out to a 35-23 halftime lead. But they were far from done. Carroll shot a scorching 61 percent in the second half, going 16-for-26 from the field, with star Ryan Imhoff scoring 25 points and grabbing seven boards.

Conversely, the Lights made a season-low six threes and shot 34 percent from the floor Saturday night, while committing 14 turnovers. Carroll also won the battle of the boards 28-20, while only senior Ryan Reeves reached double-digits for the Lights with 12 points.

“The Saints found their groove and made their shots,” MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said, “while we could not find our groove and did not make our shots. It was pretty much that simple. Execution was OK on both ends and our defense was pretty good. It just seemed like we had mostly empty possessions near or at the end of the shot clock ... while they mostly converted at the termination point of their actions. No time to hang our head though and drag our feet as Thursday in Dillon will come quick.”

The Lights (6-6, 16-9) and Skylights do have to go right back on the road, facing UM-Western for the third time in less than a month Thursday night. Northern also visits Lewis-Clark State on Saturday, before finishing conference play with three of its last five at home.

Carroll 67, Skylights 46

MSU-Northern 9 17 9 11 – 46

Carroll College 18 18 12 19 – 67

MSU-N - Brandy Lambourne 1-4 2-2 4, Naomi Terry 1-2 0-0 3, Jessica Curl 1-1 0-0 2, Peyton Filius 3-10 4-4 12, Peyton Kehr 0-0 0-0 0, Shiloh McCormick 3-5 0-0 7, Lily Hilderbrand 0-0 0-0 0, Kealani Sagapolu 3-8 1-2 7, Tiara Gilham 3-5 5-6 11. Totals 15-35 12-14 46.

CC - Bailey PASTA 3-7 0-0 7, Jaidyn LYMAN 7-13 4-4 18, Danielle WAGNER 1-1 0-0 2, Michaela DOWDY 0-3 2-2 2, Christine DENNY 0-2 0-0 0, Taylor SALONEN 5-6 0-0 12, Mikaela OLSON 3-4 0-0 6, Hannah DEAN 5-15 2-2 12, Brittney JOHNSON 2-4 0-0 6, Oona HARRINGTON 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 27-59 8-8 67.

3-pt FG:Montana State-Northern 4-13 (Lambourne 0-2, Terry 1-2, Filius 2-6, McCormick 1-3), Carroll College 5-13 (PASTA 1-4, LYMAN 0-1, DENNY 0-1, SALONEN 2-2, JOHNSON 2-4, HARRINGTON 0-1). Rebounds: Montana State-Northern 31 (Sagapolu 7), Carroll College 24 (SALONEN 6). Fouls Montana State-Northern 10, Carroll College 18. Fouled out: none.

Carroll 78, Lights 43

MSU-N - Gabe Porter 3-9 0-0 9, Adam Huse 1-5 0-0 2, Caulin Bakalarski 1-6 1-2 4, Anthony Harper 0-1 0-0 0, Devin Bray 1-3 0-0 3, James Fry 0-0 2-2 2, Justin Dunsmore 2-5 0-0 4, Charles Porter 2-5 0-2 4, Cayeveoon Jones 1-4 0-0 3, Ryan Reeves 5-9 2-2 12. Totals 16-47 5-8 43.

CC - Dane WARP 1-2 2-2 5, Emilio MANCOL 0-0 0-0 0, Match BURNHAM 3-8 0-0 7, Kyle NICKOL 1-2 0-0 2, Patrick COLBERG 1-1 0-0 3, Brad KING 0-1 0-0 0, Lorel JOHNSON 5-8 0-0 13, Ryan IMHOFF 10-20 4-5 25, Matt WYMAN 1-1 2-3 4, Ife KALEJAIYE 3-6 4-4 10, A SANTOS PIQUERAS 4-5 0-0 9, Oliver CARR 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 29-54 12-14 78.

Halftime: Carroll 35-23. 3-pt FG:Montana State-Northern 6-24 (Porter 3-9, Huse 0-3, Bakalarski 1-3, Harper 0-1, Bray 1-3, Dunsmore 0-1, Porter 0-1, Jones 1-3), Carroll College 8-15 (WARP 1-1, BURNHAM 1-4, NICKOL 0-1, COLBERG 1-1, JOHNSON 3-4, IMHOFF 1-1, KALEJAIYE 0-1, SANTOS PIQUERAS 1-2). Rebounds: Montana State-Northern 23 (Dunsmore 5), Carroll College 35 (IMHOFF 7). Fouls Montana State-Northern 11, Carroll College 13. Fouled out: none.