Lights pull away early to defeat Providence

After suffering two losses last weekend, the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team was looking to bounce back against University of Providence at Armory Gymnasium Thursday night. Not only were the Lights able to rebound, but they also excelled on the court for an 88-56 win over the Argonauts.

"We were really clicking on both ends of the floor. That was as good of a game as I've seen us play this year," MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. "We just got a wonderful night from everybody on the roster. I thought we executed our game plan very well and everybody was stepping up when they were needed."

The Lights and Argos exchanged buckets to start the game. A minute and a half into the game, Lucious Brown got his shot to go in to give the Argos the lead. Jesse Keltner responded with a layup to tie the game. T.J. Reynolds then made a 3-pointer to give the Lights the lead. Brown made a 3-pointer of his own to tie it up four minutes into the game.

The Lights found some momentum with a 6-2 run over the next couple of minutes. David Harris got the run start with a pair of baskets and Anthony Braggs Jr. made a basket to give MSU-N an 11-7 lead.

The Argos came right back with an 8-2 run to take a 15-13 lead. Marcus Stephens led the Argos with four points during this stretch. The Lights swung right back with a run of their own to take a 23-15 lead. Keltner and Braggs got the run started with a pair of baskets and Tanner McCliment-Call and Immanuel Anderson capped it off with a pair of threes.

The Lights finished the game shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from deep. Huse believes the Lights were able to knock their shots down in this game because they got more practice time this week than they did before last week's losses.

"I think having a full week to practice and work on things and go through our shooting workouts that we just didn't get to do last week, I think it made a big difference for us." Huse said.

Unlike the first three quarters of the half, the Argos were unable to retake momentum. After a Providence bucket, the Lights went on a 10-0 run to make it, 33-17, with three minutes left in the half. The Argos tried to make some plays down the stretch, but the Lights went into halftime with a 41-21 lead.

"(We pulled away because of) our defensive resilience and all of the guys buying into the system," Keltner said. "We were just really focused on that and we prepared really well coming into it."

The Argos started the second half with a bucket and a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 16 points. But that was the closest they ever got to catching up to the Lights as they pulled away in the second half to win the game by 32 points. After losing two games the previous weekend, Keltner believes the team rallied together to get back in the win column.

"We played together, shot the ball a lot better and were just more focused coming into it," Keltner said.

Mascio McCadney led the Lights with 20 points as he went 7-for-12 from the field and 4-for-5 from deep. Keltner recorded 16 points for the Lights as he went 8-for-12 from the field. Stephens led the Argos with 20 points and went 8-for-22 from the field. As a team, the Lights recorded 24 assists in the game versus five for the Argos.

"Our guys were very unselfish and they found each other and for the most part, we made the most out of those opportunities," Huse said about the Lights' ball movement. "That's where your offense is at its best, when you're getting a high percentage of great opportunities which I thought we did."

The win snapped a two-game losing streak for the Lights and put them at 4-3 in the Frontier Conference. Huse believes their preparation throughout the week led to their strong performance and he hopes that his players notice that as they move ahead with their season.

"It just validates the importance of preparation," Huse said. "The preparation really does make a difference because I felt like we were a prepared team tonight. That maturity and growth, I just want to see that and I always want to see our guys just continue to mature and grow and continue to build upon the great character that they have."

The Lights will look to keep up the strong play when they host Rocky Mountain College at Armory Gymnasium Saturday at 4 p.m.

MSU-Northern 88, UP 56

UP - 21 35 - 56

MSU-N - 41 47 - 88

UP - Marcus Stephens 8-22 2-4 20, Brendan Howard 6-15 6-8 19, Rashee Stocks 3-6 0-0 7, Emmett Linton III 1-6 0-0 3, JF Daho 1-2 0-0 3, Elijah Oliver 1-2 0-1 2, Dawson Fowler 1-3 0-0 2, Caleb Currington 0-1 0-0 0, Rasheed Butler 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 21-61 8-13.

MSU-N - Mascio McCadney 7-12 2-2 20, Jesse Keltner 8-12 0-0 16, Tanner McCliment-Call 5-11 0-0 13, David Harris 5-13, 0-0 11, Immanuel Anderson 3-3 0-0 7, William Burns 2-3 0-0 6, CJ Nelson 1-6 2-2 4, TJ Reynolds 1-2 0-0 3, Zyare Ruffin 1-1 0-0 3, Anthony Braggs Jr. 1-2 0-0 2, Micaiah Hauser 1-2 0-0 2, Terry Holmes Jr. 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 35-67 5-6.

Halftime: MSU-N 41-21; 3-pointers: UP 6-22 (Marcus Stephens 2, JF Daho 1, Emmett Linton III 1), MSU-N 13-30 (Mascio McCadney 4, Tanner McCliment-Call 3, William Burns 2); Rebounds: UP 25, (Brendan Howard 7), MSU-N 39, (David Harris 6). Fouls: UP 11, MSU-N 12. Fouled Out: None.