Frontier Notebook: Frontier, MSU-Northern finally get a full slate of hoops in

There were winners and losers this past week in Frontier men's and women's basketball. But in reality, everybody won.

For the first time this season, no Frontier games had to be postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests. Instead, a full slate of games were played around the Frontier, which is something that hasn't been easy to accomplish during the pandemic.

All Frontier teams test at the beginning of each week, and a positive test can result in games being postponed. That was especially the case back in December, when many, many games were called off during the first week of the season, and at least four of those, games between Montana State University-Northern and Rocky Mountain College, have yet to be made up.

Of course, there's a long way to go as league play will run through the end of February, and given what has happened during this pandemic, there will likely be more games canceled or postponed. But for one week, everybody got to play, and that's a big win for the entire league.

New Schedule

With Frontier games now in full swing, fans, at least watching on the internet, are getting their first look at a very unusual conference schedule. This week saw Monday-Tuesday games, and now, the entire league will play Saturday and Sunday..

For the Montana State University-Northern men and women, it will be an especially grueling end to an already tough week. After a long layoff, the Lights and Skylights played Carroll College earlier this week at home, and now they'll make the long drive to Dillon for back-to-back games against Western.

The Northern women lost two close ones to No. 6 Carroll College earlier this week, while the Western women swept Rocky Mountain College in Billings. The Bulldogs are now 3-1 in league play and 5-1 overall and will be a tough challenge for Northern in the Straugh Gym.

"We have a lot to clean up," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said after the Carroll games. "I think we need more time to get in better condition, too. The layoff certainly has affected us, but that's the way it goes right now."

The Northern men also lost a pair of heartbreakers to Carroll, dropping to 0-2 in the Frontier and just 1-2 overall. Now, the Lights will try to find the win column at Western, which is 1-2 in the Frontier, after splitting with RMC this week.

"We picked up more great game situations for our new team to learn from," Shawn Huse said. "Seeing certain guys in certain game situations, and what works well and what does not, was huge and badly needed for us as a staff."

The Lights will take that information to Dillon this weekend, where they'll embark on another new part of the quirky 2021 schedule. Not only do teams play each other on back-to-back days or nights, but, Saturday games will be traditional start times, and then, on Sunday teams will play each other at 2 p.m. for the women and 4 p.m. for the men. The schedule will minimize travel during the week, among other things.

First-Timers

Though it was already January, this past week saw four Frontier teams play their first basketball games of any kind.

In Great Falls, the Providence men and women made their season debut against Montana Tech. The Argos did not even schedule games in 2020 because the school was in remote learning for the entire first semester.

Meanwhile, in Billings, the Rocky Mountain men and women also played their first basketball of the season. Different from Providence, the Battlin' Bears were supposed to play games at home against Northern in December, but those games got postponed because of COVID, so Monday and Tuesday's games against Western were their first of the season.

Wagner Milestone

Former Havre Blue Pony Dani Wagner played what was likely her last-ever basketball games in her hometown this past week when Carroll faced MSU-Northern Monday and Tuesday. And so it's fitting that Wagner passed the 1,000-point barrier recently. The three=sport star from Havre, who is a senior captain for the Fighting Saints, now sits at 1,025 career points at Carroll.