Lights stop Argos in overtime; Skylights lose a heartbreaker

It turns out, the Montana State University-Northern Lights weren't done knocking off NAIA Top 25 teams after Saturday's thrilling win over Lewis-Clark State.

Instead, the Lights earned another dramatic Frontier Conference victory when they edged the No. 22 University of Providence Argos, 87-85, in overtime Tuesday night in Great Falls.

The win was Northern's second straight in league play, upping its conference record to 2-3. And it was also the Lights second-straight victory in which the game came down to the wire. Leading almost the entire way, the Lights found themselves trailing the Argos 85-84 in the final seconds of overtime, but senior Caulin Bakalarski drilled a game-winning 3-pointer, stunning the McLaughlin Center crowd.

"Give Providence credit for battling back," MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. "We were executing on both ends very well, controlled the game, and they found a way to come back.

"In the end though, our guys showed such huge character once again, and made the push we needed," he continued "I’m so proud of this group for doing what they did ... and once again without one of our main weapons and leaders in Adam (Huse)."

The Lights did control things against a Providence team which was coming off a home sweep of Lewis-Clark State and UM-Western over the weekend. The Argos were also the highest-scoring team in the Frontier, and yet, Northern soundly built a 44-33 lead at the halfway point. The Lights still led by as many as 10 points with less than 10 minutes to go, but, the Argos made a run, and forced overtime, setting up the dramatic finish.

Mascio McCadney scored a game-high 23 points for the Lights, while Kavon Bey added 17 points. Justin Dunsmore added 13 points and six rebounds, while Bakalarski chipped in with 11, including three of Northern's 11 triples.

"Everyone stepped up," Huse said. "The bench gave us what we needed, and I could not be more proud of the whole team."

With the win, the Lights improved to 10-7 overall, and have made a big jump in the Frontier standings. They'll try and keep the momentum going when they host Montana Tech on Saturday night.

Argos slip by Skylights

For the second-straight night in Frontier Conference play, the Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team had a nationally ranked rival on the ropes. But, for the second straight league game, the Skylights were left to wonder what might have been.

Tuesday night in Great Falls, Northern saw a late four-point lead slip away in a 56-50 lost to No. 13 Providence inside the McLaughlin Center. The loss dropped MSU-N to 0-5 in Frontier play, and 8-9 overall.

"We played very good basketball tonight," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "We did a lot of things right. But the bottom line is, we didn't finish. For the second game in a row, we put ourselves in position to beat a very good conference opponent, and we didn't get it done. So that's very disappointing.

"Again, we played well for much of the game, we felt like we had control of it," he continued. "But turnovers, missed free throws and missed layups cost us down the stretch, and those are things you can't do when you have a chance to win these types of games. So we've got to learn from this, we've got learn how to finish these games when we have the opportunities we've had the last two nights. And we will. We just have to keep learning and growing."

Against the normal high-scoring Argos, the Skylights came out strong, playing well on the heels of their near victory against LC State last Saturday night. Northern took a 24-22 lead into halftime, and while the Skylights trailed in the third quarter, by the time the game down to crunch time, they had wrestled the lead back from the Argos, and were in great shape to pick up their first conference win, especially considering they held UP to just 35 percent shooting, while forcing 15 turnovers.

In the end, however, it wasn't to be as the Argos scored the last 10 points of the game.

"I thought we were very good defensively tonight," Mouat said. "Our kids played extremely hard, and executed our defense really well for 40 minutes, against a really good offensive team. We just didn't finish."

Indeed, Northern was great defensively, holding UP star Parker Esary to just two points. On the other side, Sydney Hovde paced Northern with 13 points and six rebounds, while Hailey Nicholson scored 12 and Sabin Keo added six.

Northern will look to rebound Saturday when the Skylights host Montana Tech in the Armory Gymnasium.

Providence 56, Skylights 50

MSU-Northern 10 14 13 13 - 50

Providence 10 12 16 18 - 56

MSU-N - Lily Hilderbrand 0-0 0-0 0, Peyton Kehr 2-11 0-0 5, Jessica Curl 1-2 1-2 3, Tiara Gilham 2-7 0-0 4, Sydney Hovde 5-10 3-4 13, Hailey Nicholson 6-11 0-2 12, Allix Goldhahn 2-5 0-0 5, Petra Sellin 0-0 0-0 0, Sabin Keo 3-4 0-0 6, Gokce Aslan 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 22-54 4-8 50.

UP - Marca HERRON 0-0 0-0 0, Emilee MALDONADO 4-17 6-6 14, Elly TESKE 1-1 0-0 2, Molly SCHMITZ 1-5 2-2 4, Reed HAZARD 1-5 0-0 3, Kenedy CARTWRIGHT 2-6 0-0 6, Parker ESARY 1-3 0-0 2, Kerstyn PIMPERTON 5-10 0-0 15, Tristan MURPHY 4-8 2-2 10. Totals 19-55 10-10 56.

3-pt FG:Montana State-Northern 2-12 (Kehr 1-5, Gilham 0-3, Nicholson 0-1, Goldhahn 1-3), Providence (Mont.) 8-21 (MALDONADO 0-5, SCHMITZ 0-2, HAZARD 1-4, CARTWRIGHT 2-3, PIMPERTON 5-7). Rebounds: Montana State-Northern 33 (TEAM 8), Providence (Mont.) 38 (MURPHY 9). Fouls Montana State-Northern 14, Providence (Mont.) 12. Fouled out: none.

Lights 87, Providence 85 OT

MSU-N - Justin Dunsmore 5-9 1-2 13, Devin Bray 3-8 0-0 8, Adam Huse 0-0 0-0 0, James Fry 0-1 0-0 0, Caulin Bakalarski 4-8 0-0 11, Cedric Crutchfield 3-3 0-0 6, Kavon Bey 8-11 0-0 17, Joe Fons 2-3 0-0 5, Mascio McCadney 10-16 1-3 23, Kamari Burnside 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 37-62 2-5 87.

UP - Jack TAYLOR 2-3 0-0 5, Brandon COTTON 10-19 5-5 28, Kevin SCHILLING JR. 0-1 2-2 2, D'shea WILLIAMS 0-2 0-0 0, Jacob WETZEL 0-1 0-0 0, Jalen SHEPARD 12-23 1-1 28, Jean-Frederic DAHO 3-6 2-2 8, Austin STARR 2-8 3-5 7, Jaxen HASHLEY 3-8 0-0 7. Totals 32-71 13-15 85.

Halftime: Northern 44-33. 3-pt FG:Montana State-Northern 11-27 (Dunsmore 2-5, Bray 2-4, Fry 0-1, Bakalarski 3-7, Bey 1-1, Fons 1-2, McCadney 2-7), Providence (Mont.) 8-19 (TAYLOR 1-1, COTTON 3-5, SCHILLING JR. 0-1, WILLIAMS 0-1, WETZEL 0-1, SHEPARD 3-6, STARR 0-2, HASHLEY 1-2). Rebounds: Montana State-Northern 35 (Dunsmore 6, McCadney 6), Providence (Mont.) 29 (HASHLEY 8). Fouls Montana State-Northern 16, Providence (Mont.) 13. Fouled out: none.