Lights thump Concordia-Edmonton to finish non-conference schedule

The Montana State University-Northern Lights celebrated the holidays with two wins over an international team last week and aimed to do so once more in the Armory Gymnasium Wednesday night. And Northern did just that, kicking off the new year with a big win on the home-court.

The Lights fought against the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder in the Armory for another international game to cap off a great stretch of non-conference wins. Northern grounded the Thunder 97-47.

MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse was proud of his team and how they played against an aggressive Concordia Edmonton squad.

"I thought it was pretty good for the most part," Huse said. "It's another good game for us, to push us, wake us up a little bit at times and keep us fresh, if you will, as we move closer towards the conference season."

The Lights opened the game against the Thunder down 5-4, but Mascio McCadney and Adam Huse, who put up two 3-pointers in a row, set Northern back on track with a 14-5 lead. Alex MacLean pulled Edmonton closer with two free throws, but David Harris, McCadney and Kavon Bey put up a quick 6-0 run to put the Lights up 23-9.

The Thunder responded with a bucket and a three, while Devin Bray followed with a three and Courage Sorinolu and Lucas Turchet added six for Edmonton from the field and the free throw line. Northern and the Thunder battled back and forth for some time, but Harris' seven points toward the end of the first half kept the Lights in good stead.

The first half ended on a 7-0 run by McCadney, Adam Huse and Bray. Northern sat comfortably ahead with a 23-point lead at halftime 47-24.

Coach Huse credited Concordia-Edmonton for how they played against the Lights, especially in the first moments of the game.

"They run good stuff and play an aggressive defense," Huse said. "They really made us work for it there. They definitely pushed us. Now it's on to the rest of the year, which is conference games and it should be interesting. We're going to have to keep working every day and prepping."

The second half started off with some more back-and-forth from the two teams, but another seven-point run by Adam Huse, McCadney and Cedric Crutchfield pushed Northern to a 58-29 lead. Edmonton answered with some points by Ipa Emojong and MacLean, but Bey and Bray, who dropped his second 3-pointer of the night, followed shortly after with a 7-0 run, where Bray had his third three of the night and put the Lights ahead with some steam 74-39.

Shortly after, the crowd cheered to Bray's fourth three of the game. Then, the Lights ended the game with a big 11-0 run, capped off by a Eddie Harmon field goal, leading Northern to win the game against the Thunder.

The Lights had five players in double-figures. Bey led Northern with 18 points, followed by McCadney and Bray, who dropped 17 each on the evening. The other two Lights in double-figures were Adam Huse, putting up 14 points, and David Harris, who struck 10 on the night. Needless to say, it was another big game against an international team.And for Shawn Huse, there were a lot of things that stood out on the court.

"I thought we found each other pretty well," Huse said. "A lot of the good stuff that makes us a pretty good team. I think our defense did pretty good once we settled in there and started to kind of understand what they were trying to do a little better. We did a good job of turning them over and converting for the mots oart on those opportunities."

Now the Lights (11-3) will have to prepare for the tough remainder of the season full of conference games, starting with the Carroll College Fighting Saints Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Armory Gymnasium, followed by a road-game against the University of Providence Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Great Falls.

Lights 97, Concordia-Edmonton 47

CUE - Lucas Turchet 2-6 0-2 5, Luka Korosec 2-8 0-3 4, Ipa Emojong 2-9 0-2 8, Thomas Laxdal 3-5 1-2 7, Luke Baker 1-7 0-1 2, Ryan Ulhmann 1-2 0-0 2, Carsten Ritter 1-1 1-1 3, Alex MacLean 3-8 3-8 11, Courage Sorinolu 2-6 0-0 5. Totals: 17-56 5-21.

MSU-N - Kavon Bey 9-18 0-4 18, Cedric Crutchfield 3-4 0-0 6, Gio Jackson 1-6 0-2 2, Mascio McCadney 7-14 1-4 17, Adam Huse 5-6 4-5 14, David Harris 4-7 2-4 10, Jesse Keltner 3-5 0-0 8, Eddie Harmon 1-1 0-0 2, Devin Bray 6-7 5-6 17, TJ Reynolds 1-2 1-1 3. Totals: 40-70 13-26.

3-pointers: CUE 5-21 (Laxdal 1, Ritter 1, MacLean 3), MSU-N 13-26 (McCadney 1, Huse 4, Harris 2, Bray 5, Reynolds 1). Rebounds: CUE 22 (Turchet 4, Korosec 4, Emojong 6, Laxdal 2, Baker 3, Ritter 1, MacLean 2), MSU-N 42 (Bey 7, Crutchfield 6, Jackson 8, McCadney 6, Huse 2, Harris 2, Keltner 5, Harmon 1, Bray 2, Reynolds 3). Fouls: CUE 10, MSU-N 7. Fouled out: none.