Skylights unable to come back against Rocky Mountain

There's no quit in the Montana State University-Northern Skylights. Time and time again, Northern tried to battle back on "Pink Night" at the Armory Gymnasium. Unfortunately though, it wasn't enough, because the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears are really, really good.

Thursday night in Havre, the No. 15 Battlin' Bears thwarted every Skylight comeback in a 72-55 win. The loss dropped Northern to 1-12 in the Frontier Conference, while Rocky improved to 12-1 in league play and remained in first place.

"The first quarter was their game," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "They came out hot, they were ready to go. And on our end, I thought we had a bunch of defensive breakdowns, shot it really poorly and only put seven points on the board. And against a team like Rocky - they should be a Top 10 team right now - you can't get off to a start like that."

It was a tough battle for the Skylights, who fell to Rocky for the third time this season, including twice in Havre. And a big reason why was once again the play of RMC's N'Dea Flye, who scored 25 points and racked up seven steals, as the Skylights committed 17 turnovers.

Flye, though, had help. Chloe Thatcher scored 23 points and hit five trips, helping RMC jump out to a 23-7 lead at halftime. Sydney Hovde did help the Skylights pick up the pace in the second stanza, but the Skylights would still trail 35-17 at the break.

From there, though, Northern made several pushes.

On a Peyton Kehr 3-pointer, the Skylights closed the gap to 12 points in the middle of the third stanza. Hovde had a big second half as well, keeping the Skylights within shouting distance, but two big threes by Thatcher in the fourth, gave the Bears plenty of cushion down the stretch, as Rocky shot 48 percent and out-rebounded Northern 32-28.

"I thought we played a lot better in the second half," Mouat said. "After the first quarter, it was a one-point game. We were solid. We did some good things. But we have to get off to a much better start than we did tonight. But they're (Bears) really good. They played very well tonight, and we didn't play well enough defensively to put that much pressure on our defense."

On the other side of the coin, the Skylights shot on just two of 13 threes, shooting 42 percent from the field for the night. Kehr scored 14 points, while L'Tia Lawrence had 11 and Hovde finished with a 10 and 10 double-double.

Now, MSU-N will get ready for its final home game of the season when the Skylights host Montana Western Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. The game will also be MSU-N's senior day.

"We just have to come out ready to go Saturday," Mouat said. "We've got to get off to a better start. We've played much better basketball the second half of the season, and we just have to keep working, keep getting better."

Rocky Mountain 72, Skylights 55

Rocky 23 12 20 17 - 72

Northern 7 10 19 19 - 55

RMC - N'Dea Flye 9-18 5-6 25, Kloie Thatcher 9-16 0-0 23, Gracee Lekvold 1-1 0-0 2, Shauna Bribescas 2-10 0-0 4, Mackenzie Dethman 4-6 0-0 8, Katelyn Ostrowski 0-0 0-0 0, A Baca-Martinez 2-4 0-0 4, Dominique Steohens 2-5 0-0 4, Kacy Horton 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 30-63 7-22.4.

MSU-N - L'Tia Lawrence 5-9 0-0 11, Ryley Kehr 5-15 3-4 5, Peyton Kehr 5-15 3-4 14, Morgan Mason 0-2 0-0 0, Sydney Hovde 5-7 0-0 10, ShaAnn Danelson 1-1 0-0 2, Danielle Tyler 2-7 0-0, Savanna Toms 2-6 0-0 5, Shyan Krass 2-4 0-0 4. Totals: 24-57 5-6.

3-pointers: RMC: 7-22 (Fle 2, Thatcher 5,), MSU-N 2-13 Lawrence 1, Kehr 1). Rebounds: RMC 32 (Flye 5), MSU-N 28 (Hovde 10), Fouls: RMC 9, MSU-N 12. Technical Foul: Flye.