Happy Holidays: Skylights crush Augustana, twice

As the new year is only a few days away, many sports across Montana are aiming to end 2019 on a good note. Among those is the Montana State University-Northern Skylights, who played two international games in the Armory Gymnasium Saturday and Sunday.

The two-game weekend pitted Northern against the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings in the Duck Inn Holiday Classic, where the Skylights swept the Vikings. In game one Saturday, MSU-Northern won 79-49, followed by a game two win Sunday 67-35.

It was a great set of games for the No. 11 Skylights, and MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat is pleased with his team's play over the weekend.

"I thought, defensively, we were OK," said Mouat. "We made some mistakes Saturday that we cleaned up Sunday. The first night, we were very good from the perimeter, shooting 60 percent for three. Tonight, we couldn't buy one from three and all of a sudden our post is getting carried, so we need to find that balance for our team inside and out and I think we'll be pretty dangerous."

The Skylights started Saturday's game strong early, with Allix Goldhahn and Peyton Kehr leading the charge alongside a strong Northern defense. The Vikings put up a few points by Tayah Fiveland and Sheridan Popenia, but MSU-N led 13-3.

The Skylights added 10 more points to the board, driven by Kenya Lorton and Hailey Nicholson, while Alberta-Augustana put up six points with Tobore Okome and Tegan MacKinnon at the helm. Northern led 23-9 at the end of the first quarter.

The Skylights continued to be dominant on both sides of the ball. Ryley Kehr dropped seven-plus points to further push the Northern offensive attack and lead as the Skylights led at halftime 45-24.

From there, Hailey Nicholson, Sydney Hovde, Peyton Kehr, Tiara Gilham and Goldhahn racked up more baskets to put up a game one victory over Alberta-Augustana. Even so, there was still a major challenge from the Vikings that Mouat pointed out.

"They don't quit," said Mouat. "They play hard. Lot of respect for what they're doing, and I just think they stay in the game no matter what the score is. They keep coming at you. Their coach has done a great job of taking over the program."

The Skylights were led by 20 points from Peyton Kehr, 13 from Lorton and another 10 points and five rebounds from Hovde.

Game two against Alberta-Augustana saw quite a bit of the same from the first matchup, with Northern again jumping into an early lead 15-5 led by Peyton Kehr and Hailey Nicholson. Meanwhile, Fiveland put up three of the five points for the Vikings in the first quarter.

Northern doubled its score in the second quarter, with Lorton, Goldhahn and Hovde shooting well. Alberta-Augustana sank some baskets, but the Skylights' defense smothered the Vikings otherwise. Northern kept the lead 30-12 at halftime.

Then in the second half, Hovde became a force on the Skylights' offense, putting up three field goals and six free throws to propel the lead for MSU-N in the third quarter. Alberta-Augustana dropped more baskets to add 25 points to the scoreboard in the half, but once again, Northern kept ahead to sweep the Vikings.

Hovde led the way for the Skylights with 17 points, while Gilham came off the bench to score 12 and Goldhahn chipped in with 11.

Overall, Mouat was proud of the work his players put in over the weekend to stand out both as a team and individually.

"We had different kids different nights and I think that's starting to become a good thing," said Mouat. "Whether it's scoring, steals, rebounds or assists, we're getting different kids to step in into the scoring role. I think we had a lot of kids scoring both games and I'm just liking our balance right now."

The Skylights improve to 13-1 overall and still maintain a 2-0 record in Frontier Conference play. Next up, Northern will be tested to see if it can keep that undefeated conference record against Carroll College Jan. 7 at 6 p.m. in the Armory Gymnasium, followed by a road-game against the University of Providence at 5:30 p.m. Jan 9 in Great Falls.

Skylights 79, Alberta-Augustana 49

UAA 9 15 15 10 - 49

MSU-Northern 23 22 17 17 - 79

UAA - Tobore Okome 4-11 0-0 9, Tegan MacKinnon 3-8 1-4 8, Sheridan Popenia 0-2 0-1 1, Tayah Fiveland 3-6 0-0 6, Megan Hebert 1-3 0-0 3, Katie Ballhorn 1-3 0-1 2, Kara Strange 1-4 1-2 7, Alexis Myschuke 0-2 0-2 1, Hannah Mitchell 4-9 2-3 10, Meadow Muntoe 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 18-54 4-16.

MSU-N - Hailey Nicholson 1-3 0-0 4, Sydney Hovde 4-10 0-0 10, Allix Goldhahn 7-9 4-5 20, Peyton Kehr 8-11 4-6 20, Kenya Lorton 5-9 1-1 13, Ryley Kehr 3-4 0-0 9, Tiara Gilham 1-7 0-1 3. Totals: 29-62 9-15.

3-pointers: UAA 4-16 (MacKinnon 1, Strange 1, Mitchell 2), MSU-N 9-15 (Goldhahn 4, P. Kehr 4, Lorton 1). Rebounds: UAA 32 (Okome 4, MacKinnon 4, Popenia 4, Fiveland 5, Alyssa Banez 1, Hebert 1, Ballhorn 3, Strange 1, Myschuke 1, Mitchell 3, Macy Meinma 3, Meadow 2), MSU-N 35 (H. Nicholson 8, Hovde 5, Goldhahn 2, P. Kehr 3, Morgan Mason 7, Lorton 3, Petra Sellin 1, J. Nicholson 4, Gilham 2). Fouls: UAA 13, MSU-N 10. Fouled out: none.

Skylights 67, Alberta-Augustana 35

UAA 5 7 8 15 - 35

MSU-Northern 15 15 26 11 - 67

UAA - Tobore Okome 1-4 0-1 3, Sheridan Popenia 2-10 0-1 5, Tayah Fiveland 1-4 0-0 3, Alyssa Banez 3-9 1-3 7, Katie Ballhorn 2-4 1-2 5, Jenessa Doctor 0-1 0-0 1, Alexis Myschuke 2-6 0-3 4, Hannah Mitchell 3-7 1-2 7. Totals: 14-50 3-12.

MSU-N - Hailey Nicholson 1-4 0-0 6, Sydney Hovde 5-8 0-0 17, Allix Goldhahn 4-11 1-5 11, Peyton Kehr 3-12 2-11 8, Morgan Mason 0-2 0-1 1, Kenya Lorton 1-6 0-4 4, Ryley Kehr 2-4 0-1 4, Tiara Gilham 4-11 2-4 12. Totals: 22-62 5-27.

3-pointers: UAA 3-12 (Mitchell 1, Banez 1, Ballhorn 1), MSU-N 5-27 (Goldhahn 1, P. Kehr 2, Gilham 2). Rebounds: UAA 32 (Okome 6, Popenia 2, Fiveland 5, Alyssa Banez 2, Hebert 1, Ballhorn 4, Strange 1, Mitchell 7, Meinma 2, Meadow 1, Team 1), MSU-N 38 (H. Nicholson 6, Hovde 7, Goldhahn 1, P. Kehr 2, Mason 3, Lorton 7, Sellin 3, Jada Nicholson 2, R. Kehr 4, Gilham 3). Fouls: UAA 16, MSU-N 9. Fouled out: none.