Lights drop last-second heartbreaker to Rocky

Every game in the Frontier Conference is a battle and Saturday's matchup at the Armory Gymnasium between Montana State University-Northern and Rocky Mountain College was no different.

The Lights and Battlin' Bears battled and threw haymakers at each other through the afternoon. The Bears found momentum in the second half and the Lights came right back to make it a nailbiter.

But it was the Bears that survived as they held on in the final seconds for the 65-63 win. The Lights had several opportunities to tie the game at the end, but MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse believes the Lights' mistakes through most of the game doomed them in the end.

"I thought it was pretty sloppy. Credit to them for forcing us into some things and disappointed in our guys for not handling it better," Huse said.

Like the rest of the game, the final minute of regulation was a hard-fought battle. With 46 seconds left, Jesse Owens made a pair of free throws to give the Bears a 63-60 lead. But David Harris made his jumper and one free throw to tie the game, 63-63, with 29 seconds left.

On the next possession, Abdul Bah pulled through for his team as he knocked down his jump shot to give the Bears the lead with five seconds left. With a chance to tie the game, C.J. Nelson was sent to the free-throw line with one second. But he missed his first attempt and the Lights were called for a lane violation on his second. An offensive foul by the Bears gave the Lights another chance, but their last-second heave at the buzzer fell short and the Bears held on for the win.

The beginning of the game was a sign of how competitive it would be. Two minutes in, Cade Tyson scored to give the Bears the lead and moments later, Jesse Keltner scored to tie the game and get the Lights on the scoreboard. The Bears eventually found an offensive rhythm as they went on a 9-3 run to take an 11-5 lead.

The Lights were able to finally get themselves into a rhythm with an 8-2 run. With just over eight minutes left in the half, Miciah Hauser nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to tie the game, 13-13. Even after the Bears retook the lead with a bucket from Nick Hart, the Lights went on another run to build the lead to 26-18 with about two minutes left in the half.

"We were taking care of the ball, making good reads and were ready to score," Huse said.

The Bears responded by ending the first half on a 6-2 run, capped off by a 3-pointer from Kael Robinson before the buzzer. With a 28-24 lead heading to the second half, the Lights looked to keep up their strong play. In the first minute of the second half, Immanuel Anderson made a layup and one free throw and Keltner made a layup to stretch the lead to 33-24.

But momentum swung in the Bears' favor as they went on a 19-2 run. Owens and Maxim Stephens got hot during this run with a combined 13 points. Owens made a pair of 3-pointers during the run and Stephens threw down a pair of dunks, his second giving the Bears a 43-35 lead with just under 14 minutes left. Huse believes the Bears got things rolling because they shut down the Lights' offense.

"Credit to them for finding ways to get us to turn the ball over and turn those things into points," Huse said. "Tough on your defense when you're missing that many shots and having to play that many positions on defense. Turning it over that much makes things hard on your defense."

The Lights were able to respond with a 9-4 run to get back into the game. Harris got the run started with a layup and a 3-pointer. Keltner also made an impact as he went 4-for-4 from the charity stripe during this stretch. With eight and a half minutes left, Tanner McCliment-Call made a layup to cut the deficit to 47-46.

The Bears knocked down three free throws to stretch their lead out, McCliment-Call continued to make plays as he nailed a three from the corner to cut the deficit to 50-49. After Owens made another basket for the Bears, Mascio McCadney made a layup and one free throw to tie the game, 52-52, with five minutes left.

But the Lights could not wrangle away momentum as the Bears went on a 6-2 run. Bah got it started with a 3-pointer to take the lead. After a bucket from McCadney, the Bears got scores from Stephens and Bah to keep things rolling. Robinson then knocked down a jump shot to give the Bears a 61-54 lead with two and a half minutes left.

With little time left, the Lights went on a run to get back in the game. Harris made a layup for the Lights and McCadney knocked down his shot to keep it rolling. Harris then made his jump shot to cut the deficit to 61-60 with just over a minute left. But the Bears grinded out a tough final minute to win the game.

Harris led the Lights with 20 points as he went 8-for-16 from the field. McCadney scored 14 points as he went 4-for-12 from the field and 6-for-6 from the charity stripe. While the Lights shot 42.1 percent from the field, they had their issues on offense shooting 24 percent from deep and turning the ball over 19 times.

"Have to have a better offensive outing than that to be great in this league. Just wasn't one of our better offensive nights," Huse said.

The loss dropped the Lights to 16-7 and 4-4 in conference play. With such a close loss fresh in their memory, the Lights will need to move on quickly and fix their mistakes if they want to bounce back.

"We can't be weak minded in the Frontier Conference. If you don't get yourself picked up, then you're going to be in for a long ride," Huse said. "It's part of the peaks and valleys of the Frontier Conference. Everybody's going to go through it and you just have to remind yourself that there's lots of basketball left. You just have to keep working and as long as you do that, you have a shot at the end."

The Lights will try to bounce back when they head on the road to play Montana Western this Thursday and Montana Tech Saturday.

Rocky Mountain 65, Lights 63

RMC - Jesse Owens 5-13 4-4 16, Maxim Stephens 4-10 3-3 11, Kael Robinson 4-6 3-3 11, Abdul Bah 4-10 0-0 9, Tayshawun Bradford 4-9 0-1 9, Nick Hart 3-8 0-0 6, Kevin Fassu 1-3 1-2 3. Totals: 25-59 9-12.

MSU-N - David Harris 8-16 2-2 20, Mascio McCadney 4-12 6-6 14, Tanner McCliment-Call 4-7 0-0 11, Jesse Keltner 3-6 0-0 6, Immanuel Anderson 2-4 1-1 5, Micaiah Hauser 1-3 0-0 3, CJ Nelson 1-4 0-1 2, Zyare Ruffin 1-2 0-0 2, Anthony Braggs Jr. 0-1 0-0 0, TJ Reynolds 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 24-57 9-10.

Halftime: MSU-N 28-24. 3-pointers: RMC 6-13 (Jesse Owens 2, Kael Robinson 2, Tayshawun Bradford 1), MSU-N 6-25 (Tanner McCliment-Call 3, David Harris 2, Micaiah Hauser 1). Rebounds: RMC 28, (Maxim Stephens 8), MSU-N 32 (Jesse Keltner 9). Fouls: RMC 18, MSU-N 11. Fouled Out: Kael Robinson.