Lights hit the road for big games in Idaho

The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team is just one game into its 2018-19 season, but already this weekend the Lights will face their first major challenge.

After blowing out Salish-Kootenai College 111-58 last Saturday at the Armory Gymnasium, the Lights will hit the road this weekend, traveling to Lewiston, Idaho, for the Lewis and Clark State tournament. Northern will play its first game in the tournament Friday against New Hope Christian College at 4 p.m. Then, the Lights will take on a familiar foe in the College of Idaho. The two schools traditionally meet in football, but this time around, they will meet on the hardwood. The matchup, which will give MSU-N a chance to score a key non-conference victory, against a College of Idaho team that went 30-7 a year ago and reached the NAIA Division II national semifinals, will tip off at 6 p.m. Saturday.

"We will have to work really hard to go on the road and have success," MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. "We are excited to get out and play a couple of good teams and get back to a normal schedule instead of these long periods of just practice."

While the Yotes are part of the NAIA Division II, New Hope Christian College is a bible college that plays its own league. However, one thing that both teams have in common is that they recently played teams from the Pac-12. College of Idaho paid a visit to Utah in an exhibition game last week and lost to the Utes 96-76. New Hope took on Washington State and was beaten handily by the Cougars 138-63.

"New hope is unpredictable and very athletic," Huse said. "They are trying to score in every way possible and make your defense really have to work. You have to contain their attacking offense and that could be another game where our bigs have to chase around some guards and that presents some interesting scenarios and challenges."

New Hope has already played seven games and is winless in those outings. MSU-N, on the other hand, is 1-0 after scoring over 100 points in its season opener. Leading the way for the Lights will be newcomer Mascio McCadney, who scored 24 points and grabbed six rebounds in his Northern debut. He also knocked down four 3-pointers; MSU-N as a team hit 13, with Devin Bray also connecting four times from deep.

Cedric Crutchfield, another first-year Light, scored 18 points and 10 boards in his debut. Caulin Bakalarski, Justin Dunsmore and Adam Huse are the other starters alongside McCadney and Crutchfield. Bray, James Fry, Kamari Burnside, Kavon Bey and Joe Fons are all guys that have seen minutes so far this season for the Lights.

"We are still in the infancy of our season," Huse said. "We are still trying to figure out who we are."

After taking on New Hope Friday, the Lights will move on to their contest against College of Idaho, which comes in ranked third in the NAIA Divison II poll. The Yotes come in averaging 108 points per game in their two regular-season games and they have five players averaging in double figures. Their leading scorer is Keun Palu-Thompson, who is averaging 16 points a game while shooting 54 percent from 3-point range. Gibson Berryhill also averages 13.5 points for College of Idaho, Matt Meyers scores 13 and rounding things in the starting lineup are Conner Desaulniers and Justin Saunders, who each average 11 points per game.

In addition to being a good scoring team, College of Idaho is also limiting opponents to 38.7 percent shooting from the field. They have also outrebounded teams 56 to 28.5 in part because of Desaulniers, who is averaging 11 rebounds and two blocks per game.

"They have a lot of good experience," Huse said. "They have got a good team. We just have to try and focus on every play and take advantage when we can using our strengths and try to disrupt what they try to do. If we can do those things, we may have a shot to send a good message, but it's going to take a lot of work and we just have to focus on winning one possession at a time."

Following their trip to Idaho, the Lights will play Salish Kootenai College on the road Nov. 17 and in Dickinson, North Dakota, against Dickinson State Nov. 20. The Lights won't play in Havre against until Nov. 23, when they will host Portland Bible College as part of the American Thanksgiving Classic.