Skylights edged out by highly-ranked Saints, Bears

The Montana State University-Northern Skylights played great defense against the No. 11 team in the NAIA Friday night. Unfortunately Carroll College's defense was even better.

The Fighting Saints, who are alone in first place in the Frontier Conference, held the Skylights to just 30 percent shooting and 17 percent from the 3-point-line in a 47-40 win inside the Armory Gymnasium.

Northern was nearly as good defensively. Carroll shot just 37 percent from the floor and made only one 3-pointer, but the Saints took advantage of their size inside as Michaela Dowdy and Hannah Dean each scored 17 points, and Carroll scored 40 points in the paint.

"Offensively, Carroll did a great job on the block," MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat said. "On the other end, they just play such great post defense. And they're physical and they made it really tough on us at times. But, we also have to shoot better. Across the board, we just didn't shoot it well enough. I was really proud of our kids for the way they played. They battled on the boards, they grinded defensively, and they took care of the ball. We played really well tonight. But we have to score more points, that's the bottom line."

Despite being outmanned inside, the Skylights battled to the end, in what was their second loss to the Saints in a month.

Jessica Curl capped a low-scoring first quarter with a bucket that left the Skylights trailing just 8-6 at the end of the first. Northern then went on a 7-0 run in the second stanza, sparked by a Peyton Filius trey, and briefly grabbed the lead before Dowdy, who stands 6-1, went to work. She scored the last seven points of the first half, and Carroll led 19-15 at the break, as Northern shot just 23 percent in the first 20 minutes.

"I thought we did a much better job tonight of generating shots, and not turning it over, than we did in Helena," Mouat said. "But we just didn't make enough shots."

Despite their shooting woes, the Skylights were never out of the game. Tiara Gilham scored four points early in the third quarter, but Carroll got a three from Taylor Salonen, and when former Havre Blue pony Dani Wagner made a reverse layup, Carroll had gone on a 12-2 run, and led 32-22 with 10 minutes left.

Then, in the fourth quarter, both teams started to break out offensively. Carroll got three straight buckets from Dean to lead by 10. But Brandy Lambourne, who scored seven points in the final stanza, drilled a triple to bring the Skylights back to within six. Filius also hit another bomb late, keeping the game close, but, the Skylights couldn't get any closer, and Carroll was able to close out the game at the free-throw-line.

"Our kids battled, they fought their tails off," Mouat said. "Carroll is really good. They're playing really well right now. But our kids played really well tonight too. Much better than the last time we played them. They battled and they gave themselves a chance tonight. I'm proud of them for that."

Northern out-rebounded the bigger Saints 35-31, but Dowdy and Dean were too much for the smaller Skylights to contend with. Dean had a double-double with 12 rebounds, while Dean added seven boards of her own.

The offensive struggles, in large part because Carroll is so tough defensively, led to the Skylights having just one double-digit scorer in Gilham, who finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Filius and Lambourne each scored nine.

Bears battle to a win

Many times this season, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights were just a possession or two away from a big win, only to come up short at the end. That's how the Skylight's last weekend in the Armory Gymnasium played out.

On Saturday night, Northern had a shot to tie the Rocky Mountain Battlin' Bears as time expired, but it didn't go down, and Northern fell to No. 12 RMC 58-55. With a loss to Carroll on Friday night, the Skylights fell to 2-14 with two Frontier games left in the regular season.

"We fought all night to give ourselves a chance at then," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "And I'm really proud of our kids for that because Rocky is very, very good. But down the stretch, we hurt ourselves. I thought we did at other points of the game too. Our goal is to play a complete 40 minutes and we just fell short of that tonight. It wasn't for lack of heart and effort though. Our kids continue to battle every night."

It was indeed a tough loss for the Skylights, because, for their third straight game, they played well enough to win. On the strength of great inside play from Tiara Gilham, and stellar outsider play from Brandy Lambourne, the Skylights led 16-13 after one, and trailed 27-26 at the half. Justyn Juhl hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter to put Rocky up 11, but Gilham scored eight straight points to close the half.

Gilham added a 3-point play to start the third, and Lambourne drilled a trey, putting the Skylights ahead 34-29, but Rocky responded with a Mikaela Jones three that sent the Bears into the fourth stanza with a 43-41 edge. Kealani Sagapolu scored to start the fourth, and Peyton Filius scored a runner to tie the game at 45-45 minutes later. But, Rocky had answers again. Juhl and Jones scored in between buckets by Shiloh McCormick and Gilham, and Rocky led by three with 1:05 to go. Northern did buckle down and get two straight stops on defense to keep it a one-possession game, but two costly turnovers on the offensive end. And their final chance at a game-tying shot didn't go down either, as Rocky beat Northern for the third time this season.

"I was really proud of the way our kids dug their heels in defensively tonight," Mouat said. "We were down nine in the first half, and we fought back to one, because we did such a great job defensively. I thought our kids played really hard against a really athletic and talented Rocky team."

Gilham did have a huge night, scoring a career-high 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting, while also grabbing eight rebounds. Lambourne added 12 points and Sagapolu scored 11 and pulled down eight boards. The Skylights also shot 50 percent from the floor, and held Rocky to just 37 percent shooting, and yet they were left with another heartbreaking loss, with one more night in the Armory upcoming. Northern (10-17) will take on Providence for senior night on Wednesday night.

"Tiara Gilham had a breakout game tonight," Mouat said. "She was really good on the block, and she was very savvy with getting her shot off. I thought our guards did a great job of getting her the ball too, and really, all our post players played really well tonight.

"We just have to go back to work and get ready for the next one," he continued. "It's a tough loss, but I really love the fight in our kids, and they'll keep moving forward. I'm very proud of them."

Skylights are 2-14 in Frontier, 10-17 overall; Next Up: vs Argos Wednesday

Carroll 47, Skylights 40

Carroll 8 11 13 15 – 47

Northern 6 9 7 18 – 40

CC - Michaela DOWDY 8-12 1-2 17, Bailey PASTA 1-7 2-4 4, Danielle WAGNER 1-1 0-0 2, Christine DENNY 0-1 0-0 0, Taylor SALONEN 2-4 1-2 5, Mikaela OLSON 0-1 0-0 0, Hannah DEAN 6-13 5-6 17, Brittney JOHNSON 0-2 2-2 2, Jaidyn LYMAN 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 18-46 11-16 47.

MSU-N - Peyton Filius 3-10 1-2 9, Brandy Lambourne 3-14 2-2 9, Kealani Sagapolu 2-2 3-8 7, Shiloh McCormick 1-10 0-0 2, Lily Hilderbrand 0-1 0-0 0, Jessica Curl 1-1 0-0 2, Naomi Terry 0-1 0-0 0, Tiara Gilham 5-11 1-2 11. Totals 15-50 7-14 40.

3-pt FG:Carroll (Mont.) 0-4 (PASTA 0-2, SALONEN 0-1, LYMAN 0-1), Montana State University- 3-17 (Filius 2-6, Lambourne 1-7, McCormick 0-3, Terry 0-1). Rebounds: Carroll (Mont.) 31 (DEAN 12), Montana State University- 35 (Gilham 11). Fouls Carroll (Mont.) 14, Montana State University- 16. Fouled out: none.

Rocky Mountain 58, Skylights 55

Rocky Mountain 13 14 16 15 – 58

MSU-Northern 16 10 15 14 – 55

RMC - Hailee Farstveet 2-8 6-10 10, Justyn Juhl 4-4 0-0 11, Markaela Francis 5-13 2-2 13, Eboney Jackson 1-2 0-0 2, Mikayla Jones 5-16 0-0 12, Brooke Jones 1-5 0-0 2, Riana Rogers 0-1 0-0 0, Kiana Corpus 0-0 0-0 0, Alecia Chamberlin 2-5 4-4 8. Totals 20-54 12-16 58.

CC - Peyton Filius 1-5 1-3 3, Brandy Lambourne 4-10 3-3 12, Kealani Sagapolu 5-6 1-1 11, Shiloh McCormick 3-8 3-3 9, Lily Hilderbrand 0-1 0-0 0, Peyton Kehr 0-0 0-0 0, Jessica Curl 0-1 0-0 0, Naomi Terry 0-0 0-0 0, Tiara Gilham 9-14 2-3 20. Totals 22-45 10-13 55.

3-pt FG:Rocky Mountain (Mont.) 6-16 (Farstveet 0-3, Juhl 3-3, Francis 1-2, Jones 2-4, Jones 0-2, Chamberlin 0-2), Montana State University- 1-5 (Filius 0-2, Lambourne 1-2, McCormick 0-1). Rebounds: Rocky Mountain (Mont.) 27 (Juhl 5, Jones 5, Chamberlin 5), Montana State University- 25 (Sagapolu 8, Gilham 8). Fouls Rocky Mountain (Mont.) 14, Montana State University- 10. Fouled out: none.