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McKenzie Gunter missed over a month of her first season as a Montana State University-Northern Skylight with an injury. Saturday night, though, she came up clutch when her team needed her most.
The No. 18 Skylights were literally on the verge of dropping a fourth straight Frontier Conference tilt Saturday night in Butte, that is until Gunter made a 3-point play as time expired to send Northern’s road game at Montana Tech into overtime. And from there, the Skylights outscored the Orediggers 11-9 for a 75-73 win.
Saturday night’s victory snapped a three-game losing streak for Northern, after the Skylights had started 2-0 in league play. The win evened MSU-N up at 3-3 in the Frontier ahead of what will be a four-game homestead over the next two weeks.
“We were looking for a 3-pointer on that play,” MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat said. ”Tech did a good job of snuffing that out, so McKenzie went to the basket and made a play, and gave us a chance.
“And in overtime, our kids were just awesome,” he continued. “They played at a really high level. They were really good, and I’m just really proud of them for finding a way because Tech outplayed us for three quarters. They were really good. So it was a big win for us.”
It was big, especially considering Northern needed a big comeback to get to overtime. Leading 18-17 at the end of the first period, the Skylights saw Tech go on an 18-10 run to lead 35-28 at halftime. Later, the Orediggers took a 52-41 lead into the final 10 minutes before the MSU-N offense exploded for 23 points in the fourth quarter, including Gunter’s and-one.
Gunter’s heroics included scoring 23 points, while Hailey Nicholson poured in a huge 24 points, and Sydney Hovde added 10 points and 14 boards. Those performances offset 19 points and three triples from Mollie Peoples, as Tech fell to 1-5 in league play.
With their first win of January now in tow, the Skylights (14-4) will be back in the Armory Gymnasium for a pair of Frontier rematches. Wednesday night, Northern hosts Carroll College for the second time in two weeks, then welcomes in the University of Providence Thursday night.
Saturday night in Butte wasn’t as kind to the visiting Montana State University-Northern Lights. And the host Montana Tech Orediggers left the Lights searching for the first win in conference play since December.
Inside the HPER Saturday, Tech scored 39 first-half points and held the Lights off in the final 20 minutes for a 75-64 win. The loss was Northern’s fifth straight in league play, as the Lights slipped to 1-5 in the Frontier ahead of this week’s home stand.
Shooting once again did the Lights in. While Tech shot almost 55 percent from the field, and got 24 points and eight rebounds from forward Taylor England, the Lights shot a respectable 44 percent from the floor, but it wasn’t enough, as the Orediggers led by 11 at intermission and kept the Lights at bay for the rest of the game.
Northern were led by Kavon Bey, who was followed by Adam Huse's 13. The pair of Mascio McCadney and David Harris each contributed eight points to the Northern Lights' efforts.
Northern (11-7) will now have to try and right the ship with two difficult home games mid-week. The Lights play Carroll College for the second time in 15 days Wednesday night and then get a rematch with highly-ranked Providence Thursday night in the Armory Gymnasium.
Skylights 75, Montana Tech 73 OT
MSU-Northern 18 10 13 23 11 - 75
Montana Tech 17 18 17 12 9 - 73
MSU-N - Peyton Kehr 4-16 0-0 9, Tiara Gilham 0-2 0-0 0, Sydney Hovde 1-3 8-10 10, Hailey Nicholson 8-13 8-12 24, Allix Goldhahn 2-8 1-1 5, Morgan Mason 0-0 0-0 0, Mckenzie Gunter 9-23 4-5 23, Ryley Kehr 0-1 1-2 1, Kenya Lorton 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 25-68 22-30 75.
MT - Hailey Crawford 0-1 0-0 0, Mollie Peoples 7-16 2-2 19, Hope Lalau 1-3 0-0 2, Dani Urick 2-6 2-2 6, Tavia Rooney 4-9 6-8 14, Mesa Williams 5-14 0-0 10, Kaylee Zard 5-14 6-6 16, Celestina Faletoi 3-10 0-0 6. Totals 27-73 16-18 73.
No box score reported from men's game.
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