Lights knock off #2 Saints in the Armory

There have been nights over the years, and plenty this season, in which the Montana State University-Northern Lights have bombarded an opponent with some red-hot shooting from the 3-point-line.

That happened to the Montana State University-Northern Lights in a loss to Rocky Mountain College Friday night in Havre.

One night later, the Lights did the same thing to the second-ranked Carroll College Fighting Saints. Northern made 15 3-pointers in a 82-71 win over the Saints, in what was MSU-N's first victory over a #2 team in the country in more than 10 years.

"I was just proud of our guys hanging in there," Huse said. "Carroll came out great. We played with a lot of energy on both ends. I think we wore them down a little bit.

"Proud of these guys," he continued. "Anybody can turn it on and beat anybody. If you're not hitting shots, anybody can get anybody, and tonight, we came out and turned it on and made a lot of shots, and that was big for our guys. I was just really proud of the way we responded."

Both Northern and Carroll came into the game wounded. The Lights suffered a tough loss to Rocky, while Carroll was upset at Providence Friday night, and in the process, lost stars Match Burnham and Matt Wyman. And still, the Saints jumped out to a 24-14 lead in the first half, led by a strong start from former Havre Blue Pony Dane Warp.

That's when things changed. Warp had sparked a 12-1 run for the Saints, but Adam Huse hit four three's and scored 15 points in the final nine minutes of the first half. As a team, Northern finished the half on a 14-2 run, with Devin Bray making a long-range bomb before time expired.

And the Lights never let up.

Justin Dunsmore opened the second half with a three, and as a team, the Lights buried eight triples in the final 20 minutes. Caulin Bakalarski went on an 8-0 run by himself, and Northern never truly let the short-handed Saints back into the game.

"Our guys shot it really well," Huse said. "We were down early, but shooting is a strength of ours, and we showed that tonight. Finding each other tonight. Guys were really unselfish, and we got our shooters clean looks and they knocked them down. The three was big for us."

MSU-N did shoot it well indeed. The Lights were 15-of-32 from deep, and Huse, Bakalarski and Dunsmore all hit three's in the final 20 minutes that countered every punch Carroll tried to throw. The Lights were also balanced. Huse scored a game-high 21 points, with five trey's, while Dunsmore added 20, with five more bomb. Bakalarski dropped 16 and Mascio McCadney scored 12.

Defensively, Northern also held the Saints to just 48 percent shooting, with Warp leading the way at 19 points.

"It's big win," Huse said. "I'm just really proud of our guyys because it's so tough to win in this league, and especially against a really good team like Carroll. So this is a big one for us, and I'm just excited for our guys."

Saints shoot down Skylights

On Saturday night in the Armory, the Skylights weren't just facing their second Top 25 in as many nights, they were facing an angry Carroll College team - one that had lost a heartbreaker at Providence on Friday night.

And as one would expect, the No. 8 Saints played inspired basketball, burying eight 3-pointers and getting a 29-poiint effort from Hannah Dean in a 72-60 win over Northern.

"Hannah Dean was awesome," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "From the second quarter on, we didn't have an answer for her. I thought Dani did a nice job tojnight too. She hit some big shots.

"And overall, Carroll was very, very good tonight," he continued. "They came in here, shot it really well, and took advantage of every mistake we made. There's a reason they're ranked where they are and they showed that tonight."

And while Dean, and former Havre Blue Pony Dani Wagner, who scored 14 points and hit three triples, were the catalysts for the Saints, Northern was in the fight for much of the game.

Allix Goldhahn and Peyton Kehr hit back-to-back three's in a first quarter that saw Northern lead on three different occasions, and one in which the teams traded three's on five trips down the floor, ending with a Sabin Keo bomb that left the Skylights trailing just 17-15.

However, Keo's three would start a stretch where the Skylights went five minutes without a field goal, while the Saints knocked in three more bombs, including a Dean buzzerbeater that sent the Saints into halftime with a 35-26 lead.

And Dean wasn't done. The senior All-American scored 15 points in the third quarter, including three different 3-point plays, as Carroll upped its lead to 22 points at one point, and led by 18 with 10 minutes to play.

Northern didn't go away without a fight though, as Goldhahn hit two triples down the stretch, and Lilly Hilderbrand gave the Skylights a boost off the bench. But, an eight-poiint gap was as close as the Skylights would get as they fell to 2-10 in league play.

"I did think the kids that played in the fourth quarter really battled for us tonight," Mouat said. "Carroll put us in a position we're not used too. We haven't given up that much defensively in a long time, but those kids showed a lot of pride in the fourth quarter, and got us back in it. So I thought we finished with a lot of pride. But again, credit Carroll, they executed at a very high level, and we just didn't have enough answers for them."

Goldhahn would pace the Skylights with 18 points and four of Northern's seven bombs, while Hailey Nicholson finished with 11 and Hilderbrand added seven. Carroll, which shot 44 percent and won the battle of the boards, 30-28, got 29 and nine from Dean, while Wagner scored 14 and Jaidyn Lyman added eight.

The Skylights (8-14) will be back at home Wednesday night when they play Providence for the third time this season. They will remain in the Armory to host Montana Tech for a third time Friday night.