Lights look to rebound in home doubleheader

The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team is looking to move past last weekend. The Lights suffered losses to Montana Tech and Carroll College at home so they will be looking to bounce back this weekend at the Armory Gymnasium.

The Lights will host University of Providence tonight and then they will face Rocky Mountain College Saturday.

"Expectations are to go out and improve on things from last weekend," MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. "At the end of the day, we did some really good things last weekend but there's also some things that we got to do better and we want to continue to grow."

The Lights will look to get the weekend started on the right note when they play Providence tonight. The Argos come into the game with a 11-8 record and a 2-4 record in conference play. The Lights and Argonauts played earlier this season on Dec. 4 when the Lights won, 73-65 at home.

However, the Argonauts are not the same team they were a month ago. Brendan Howard joined the program this semester after transferring from North Dakota. In only three games for the Argonauts, he averages 23.7 points per game on 50 percent shooting from the field and he averages nine rebounds a game. Last week, he was named the Frontier Conference Player of the Week, so the Lights expect him to add a new wrinkle to the Argonauts.

"They have added another piece of the puzzle that plays a big role for them so we have to prepare for a slightly different Providence team than we prepared for when we played them before Christmas," Huse said.

The Argos have many other players who can give the Lights trouble. Marcus Stephens averages 21.6 points a game this season on 42.2 percent shooting from the field and he leads the team with 60 total assists this season. Rashee Stocks is also playing well averaging 15.2 points a game on 33 percent shooting from the field.

The Lights will continue the weekend Saturday afternoon with a game against Rocky Mountain College. The Bears are 9-9 and have a 2-4 record in the Frontier Conference. The Lights defeated the Bears, 78-69, on the road in Billings Jan. 6. While the Lights won, Huse believes they did not get off to the best start and that they will need to play better this time around.

The Bears have many players who could make an impact Saturday. Maxim Stephens leads the Bears with 14.6 points a game on 45.9 percent shooting and he averages 8.3 rebounds a game. Jesse Owens is also playing well with 11.6 points a game on 40.7 percent shooting from the 3-point line. He also leads the team averaging 3.2 assists a contest.

"Rocky's got size and they've got some guys that can put the ball in the hole from the perimeter," Huse said. "We have a lot to deal with between their different personnel that they have on the floor at different times and the things they run to get themselves their shots."

If they are going to snap their two-game losing streak, the Lights will need their best players to step up. Mascio McCadney leads the Lights averaging 19.2 points a game on 48.1 percent shooting from the field and 40.2 percent shooting from the 3-point line. David Harris is also playing well averaging 17.1 points a game on 47.3 percent shooting. Jesse Keltner cleans up the boards for the Lights with seven rebounds a game.

The Lights are 15-6 this season and are 3-3 in conference play, good for third in the Frontier Conference. If they want to climb the standings, they will need to pick up wins this weekend. Huse believes the Lights played good defense in their previous games against the Argos and Bears this season, so he hopes to do that again in order to survive this doubleheader.

"I thought we took advantage of good stops when we played them last time and that's something that we didn't do great this past weekend," Huse said. "You got to keep improving on things you don't do well and improve on even the things you do do well. It'll be a challenge, we know that and that's just what the Frontier Conference is. Every night's a battle. There's no easy nights for anybody so we know that we're just getting ourselves prepared to give everyone our best shot."

The Lights will play Providence tonight at 7 p.m. at Armory Gymnasium. The Lights will then play Rocky Mountain College at Armory Gymnasium Saturday at 4 p.m.