Lights' season ends in Frontier semifinal loss at Carroll

After defeating Rocky Mountain College at home to open the Frontier Conference Tournament, the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team was looking to keep it rolling Friday night against Carroll College in Helena.

The Fighting Saints clinched a bye in the tournament as the No. 1 seed in the tournament, so the Lights needed to bring everything they got if they wanted to earn an upset. Early on, the Lights came out strong to take the lead. But the Saints eventually found their footing to take the lead by halftime. The Lights competed through the second half but the Saints held them off for the 71-63 victory to end the Lights' season.

"I could not be more proud of the effort our guys gave," MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. "Take away a couple missed shots or had we been able to get ourselves to the foul line a couple more times, I really believe we would have won that game."

The game started with the Lights and Saints exchanging buckets. Mascio McCadney then knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Lights an early lead. The Saints responded with scores from Brendan Temple and Garrett Long to take a 6-5 lead at the 16-minute mark.

The Lights took momentum with a 9-0 run. Jesse Keltner made a free throw to tie the game and then C.J. Nelson scored to give the Lights the lead. Threes from McCadney and Anthony Braggs Jr. extended the lead to 14-6. Stretches like there were examples of the Lights' strong play throughout the contest.

"Our guys did a fantastic job executing on both ends," Huse said. "We caught a great team off guard on multiple occasions, held their shooting percentage way down and forced them into many turnovers they do not normally commit."

But the Saints responded with a 9-0 run of their own to take a 15-14 lead. Temple was the driving force behind the run with five points for Carroll. Over the next few minutes, the Lights and Saints exchanged scores and the lead. McCadney made another three to give the Lights the lead. Shamrock Campbell then knocked down a shot for the Saints to knot things up again. The teams then exchanged baskets to tie the game, 19-19, with five and a half minutes remaining in the half.

The Saints finally put their foot down as they went on an 8-2 run over the next few minutes. Andrew Cook made a couple of baskets during this run and Long got a basket to go down to give the Saints a 27-21 lead. Ater Immanuel Anderson scored for the Lights, Jovan Sljivancanin went on a personal 5-0 run to further stretch the lead to 32-23. The Lights and Saints exchanged scores to end the half as Carroll had a 34-25 lead at the break.

The Saints started the second half strong as they stretched the lead to 43-29. But the Lights began to slowly chip their way back into the game to try to keep their season going. Nelson knocked down a jumper and McCadney and Holmes Jr. followed that up with a pair of threes. After a Carroll bucket, David Harris knocked down another three for the Lights to cut the deficit to 45-40 with 12 and a half left in the game.

Sljivancanin tried to take back momentum for the Lights with a pair of free throws, but McCadney kept it hot from deep with another three. The Lights and Saints continued to exchange scores and a McCadney layup cut the Saints' lead to 50-47 with less than 10 minutes left in the game.

The Lights got the ball back and tried to tie things up with a 3-pointer. However, their attempt fell short and Sljivancanin quickly got down on the other end to make a layup while being fouled. He then knocked down the free throw to give Carroll a 53-47 lead. The Saints made several free throws over the next few minutes to stretch the lead to 57-47 with about six minutes remaining.

With their season on the line, the Lights continued to battle as they cut the deficit to 62-56 with two minutes left in the game. But the Saints were able to knock down their free throws down the stretch to pull off the win.

Sljivancanin led the Saints with 22 points as he went 7-for-14 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. While the Lights shot 41.5 percent from the field, they did go 43.5 percent from deep and 90 percent from the charity stripe. In the final game of his career, McCadney led the Lights with 28 points as he shot 11-for-17 from the field and 6-for-8 from deep with no free throw attempts.

"He really stepped up big time and played like the All-American that I believe he is," Huse said about McCadney. "I cannot say enough good things about him and David (Harris). They were fantastic leaders who maintained and built upon our great Lights basketball culture."

The Lights finish the season with a 19-13 record and a 6-9 mark in the Frontier Conference. While the season did not end the way they wanted, Huse was proud of the year that they had.

"This group of guys won 19 games this year. That is no easy task in the world of college basketball these days," Huse said. "We weathered some tough storms of quarantine and big injuries at key points in our season, both of which came right when we started to gain huge momentum. Through it all, we found a way to earn a home playoff game, win it and narrowly miss the championship game in an extremely tough Frontier Conference."

Carroll College 71, MSU-N 63

MSU-N - Mascio McCadney 11-17 0-0 28, David Harris 3-15 2-2 10, CJ Nelson 3-5 0-0 6, Immanuel Anderson 2-6 2-2 6, Jesse Keltner 0-0 5-6 5, Anthony Braggs Jr. 2-4 0-0 6, Terry Holmes Jr. 1-2 0-0 2, Tanner McCliment-Call 0-3 0-0 0, Zyare Ruffin 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 22-53 9-10.

CC - Brendan Temple 6-6 4-6 16, Garrett Long 3-9 4-7 10, Andrew Cook 3-5 2-2 8, Shamrock Campbell 3-11 0-0 7, Jonny Hillman 0-4 6-6 6, Jovan Sljivancanin 7-14 6-7 22, Murat Guzelocak 1-3 0-0 2, Lowell Chan 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 23-53 22-28.

Halftime: CC 34-25. 3-pointers: MSU-N 10-23 (McCadney 6, Harris 2, Braggs Jr. 2), CC 3-13 (Sljivancanin 2, Campbell 1). Rebounds: MSU-N 24 (Keltner 5), CC 32 (Sljivancanin 9). Fouls: MSU-N 16, CC 12. Fouled Out: None.