Lights shut down Argos on senior night

Senior night is always special in the Armory Gymnasium. But the Montana State University-Northern Lights also had business to take care of.

The Lights are in a heated race for the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Frontier Conference playoffs, and they need to win both of their remaining games in the regular season to get that seed, and a home game next Tuesday night. So on senior night, Northern took the first step in accomplishing that mission.

On senior night Wednesday night, the Lights closed out their regular season home schedule with a win over the University of Providence Argos, 63-51 inside the Armory Gymnasium.

"I think our guys were more focused on getting the win because of what we need to do in the conference standings," MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. "We're happy that our seniors got a win on senior night. We're very thankful to them, and grateful for their leadership and all they've given us. But I think they would all say getting this win, because of what we're trying to accomplish, was the most important thing. So I'm just really proud of the focus in our guys tonight."

While seniors Ryan Reeves, Charles Porter and Cayeveoon "Paco" Jones ended their Armory nights on a high note, the Lights' defense, and an impressive shooting display from sophomore Adam Huse proved to be the difference.

The Lights opened the game on a 10-0 run, and held Providence without a point for the first 7:26 of the contest. Huse got his night started with a rare 4-point play, and when he and Gabe Porter went back-to-back from deep, the Lights led 28-14. Northern closed the first half on a 10-0 run, holding the Argos to just 15 points in 20 minutes, and taking a commanding 32-15 edge into the locker room.

"Really proud of our energy and fire tonight, especially on the defensive end," coach Huse said. "Our guys really got after it. They played extremely hard. Providence is a very talented, athletic team, so the job our guys did on defense tonight, it was impressive."

The Lights were indeed stout defensively. But, the Argos chipped away in the second half. They opened the half on a 6-0 run, but Huse quickly stopped the bleeding with a triple. Jones added a trey and Huse followed with another one, as the Lights rattled off yet another 10-0 run, and led 51-36 with just over six minutes to play. Providence didn't go away, however, and twice cut the Northern lead to eight, but Northern grabbed several key offensive rebounds, and Devin Bray made four free throws in the final two minutes to salt the game away.

"Give them (Argos) a ton of credit," coach Huse said. "They never go away. They fought and chipped away and made the game very interesting down the stretch. And their pressure defense causes everybody problems, and it certainly did us tonight. But I thought we also handled that pressure really well. I thought we responded to any adversity really well tonight."

Adam Huse finished with a game-high 20 points for the Lights, including a key three in transition in the second half. Reeves, who got a thunderous alley-oop and a standing ovation when he came off the floor added nine points, 10 rebounds and two blocks, while Justin Dunsmore finished with eight. The Lights shot 45 percent from the field and made eight triples, while DuShaun Rice paced the Argos, who the Lights beat two out of three this season, with 15 points.

Now, Northern (8-9, 18-11) will play a huge final regular season game when the Lights travel to Montana Tech Friday night. If the Lights beat the Orediggers and Rocky Mountain College loses one of its last two games, the Lights will finish in fourth place and host a playoff game next Tuesday night.

"Proud of the way the guys played tonight," Huse said. "Now we need to keep it going and go down to Tech and play well again."

Lights are 8-9 in Frontier, 18-13 overall; Next Up: at Tech Friday

Lights 63, Providence 51

UP - Trayvon BASHIR 2-4 1-2 5, Jacob WETZEL 0-0 0-0 0, Quesly-Marie NORESIAS 5-8 0-3 10, Matthew BROOKS-MCGREGOR 1-5 0-0 2, Jared SCHULTZ 2-3 0-0 5, DuShaun RICE 4-11 5-6 15, Steven DAHO-CLARK 1-5 1-2 3, D'shea WILLIAMS 0-4 0-0 0, Jack TAYLOR 3-3 0-0 7, Sergio BERKLEY 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 20-47 7-13 51.

MSU-N - Ryan Reeves 3-6 3-4 9, Justin Dunsmore 3-8 2-4 8, Charles Porter 2-5 2-2 6, Devin Bray 1-3 4-5 6, Adam Huse 7-12 2-3 20, Cayeveoon Jones 1-1 0-0 3, James Fry 0-0 0-0 0, Anthony Harper 0-0 0-0 0, Caulin Bakalarski 2-4 0-0 4, Gabe Porter 3-10 0-0 7. Totals 22-49 13-18 63.

Halftime: Northern 32-15. 3-pt FG:Providence (Mont.) 4-13 (BASHIR 0-1, NORESIAS 0-1, BROOKS-MCGREGOR 0-2, SCHULTZ 1-2, RICE 2-4, WILLIAMS 0-2, TAYLOR 1-1), Montana State University- 6-21 (Dunsmore 0-3, Porter 0-2, Bray 0-1, Huse 4-7, Jones 1-1, Porter 1-7). Rebounds: Providence (Mont.) 26 (BASHIR 6, RICE 6), Montana State University- 33 (Reeves 10). Fouls Providence (Mont.) 18, Montana State University- 15. Fouled out: none.