Skylights lose a heartbreaker in Phoenix

After a blowout win on the opening night of the Frontier Phoenix Challenge, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights knew things would be tougher on day two.

And they were right.

Despite jumping out to a strong lead, the Skylights ended up losing a heartbreaker to Oklahoma Science and Arts, 48-43 Thursday night in Phoenix. The loss dropped MSU-N to 7-6 with just one non-conference game left.

And while ahead of Thursday night's game, Northern head coach Chris Mouat warned just how tough the game with the Drovers would be, for much of the game, the Skylights were the stronger team.

"We had two very different halves tonight," Mouat said. "Our kids were very ready to go and did an outstanding job executing our game plan in the first twenty minutes. I think we did a pretty good job throughout the game at the defensive end, in fact. Our problems were a 1-18 shooting quarter in the third. We missed shot after shot and never had much going offensively. Despite that quarter this game was a battle to the end. We just have to step up and make shots. We got plenty of good looks throughout the game both inside and out. It’s a very tough one to take for us, because our effort was really good. We just need to knock shots down consistently."

MSU-N played stifling defense in the first half, especially in the first 10 minutes, as the Skylights held the Drovers to just four points, and led 13-4. And while the Drover defense was very good too, MSU-N went into halftime leading 24-14 against a team that went to the NAIA Sweet 16 last March in Billings.

The second half however, and in particular, the third quarter, would be a different story.

The Drover offense got hot, and the defense got tough. By the end of the period, the Drovers had outscored the Skylights 23-6 and had taken the lead 37-30. From there, MSU-N did all it could to fight back, but in the final minutes, the Skylights just couldn't get over the final hump.

Northern did get a great performance from Sydney Hovde, who scored 19 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free-throw-line. It was Hovde's second straight double-double and her sixth of the season. However, the 24 percent the Skylights shot from the field for the game was just too much to overcome. Peyton Kehr added 11 points and three 3-pointers for the Skylights.

On the other side of the ball, Northern was great defensively. The Skylights held the Drovers to just 27 percent shooting and 20 percent from three. However, the Skylights committed 18 turnovers and were out-rebounded 46-37, and those two stats were key down the stretch.

Now, the Skylights will look to regroup and close out 2018 strong. Tonight in Phoenix, Northern plays San Diego Christian in the final game of the tournament. The Skylights will then be off until Jan. 4-5 when they host UM-Western and Lewis-Clark State in Frontier Conference home games.

USAO 48, Skylights 43

USAO 4 10 23 11 - 48

MSU-Northern 13 11 6 13 - 43

USAO - Kaytlen Johnson 1-4 2-6 4, Tori James 4-11 2-2 14, Reyna Ammons 3-15 2-2 8, Vivian Holcolmb 4-10 5-7 13, Taylor Alexander 2-5 2-3 6, Khady Sene Ndeye 1-3 0-0 3. Totals: 15-55 14-22.

MSU-N - Gokce Aslan 2-3 0-0 5, Sabin Keo 0-6 0-0 0, Petra Sellin 0-0 0-0 0, Allix Goldhahn 1-9 0-0 3, Jada Nicholson 0-0 0-0 0, Jessica Curl 1-3 1-2 3, Peyton Kehr 3-13 2-2 11, Lilly Hilderbrand 1-6 0-0 2, Sydney Hovde 4-10 11-11 19. Totals: 12-50 14-15.

3-pointers: USAO 4-20 (James 4), MSU-N 5-17 (Aslan 1, Goldhahn 1, Kehr 3). Rebounds: USAO 46 (Holcolmb 13), MSU-N 37 (Hovde 11). Fouls: USAO 18, MSU-N 18. Fouled out: Curl.