Dickinson State surges in second half to defeat Skylights

The Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team was finally back in Armory Gymnasium on Tuesday night after playing its season opener at Havre High Gymnasium last weekend. Even more exciting, the Skylights hosted a tough Dickinson State University squad for the contest.

Early on, the Skylights were playing well to have a lead at halftime. But in the second half, the Blue Hawks showed how tough they are as they stole a 69-64 win from the Skylights.

"That was a frustrating second half. I thought Dickinson took it from us. They came out, they made plays and they had more energy. Once they got rolling, we didn't do a very good job of stopping the bleeding," MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat said. "I thought they really came to life, they got hot and we didn't answer at the other end."

As a team, the Skylights shot 41 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from the 3-point line. Briaunna McCullough led the Skylights with 14 points as she went 6-for-21 from the field and 1-for-4 from deep. Savannah Toms led the team with nine rebounds and also recorded 10 points.

After a slow start on offense, the Hawks came alive in the second half to finish the game shooting 42.2 percent from the field. Lindsay Peterson led the team with 16 points on 6-for-12 shooting from the field. Samantha Oase continued her strong start to the season with a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds.

The Skylights started the game with a layup from Toms to take an early lead. Taya Trottier followed that up with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 5-0. After a Dickinson bucket, Jalen Callender made a layup to extend the lead to 7-2.

But the Hawks struck back with a 10-4 run to end the first quarter. Oase got the run started with a couple of layups and a free throw. After Ryley Kehr scored to give the Skylights an 11-7 lead, Kayden Steele made a pair of layups to tie the game. Peterson then made a free throw to give the Hawks a 12-11 lead to end the quarter.

Mouat believes free throws made the difference in the first quarter as the Hawks went to the line five times and the Skylights did not at all during that period. If the Skylights had been more aggressive, they have gotten more opportunities at the line early on.

"We need to do a better job attacking the basket early in the game. Whether it's in the post or off balance, we got to do a better job of putting pressure on the defense at the rim," Mouat said. "I thought we settled a lot tonight for 15 to 17 foot jumpers when we probably could have gotten the ball inside."

After the Hawks scored a bucket to start the second quarter, the Skylights found their rhythm with a 13-0 run. Several players contributed during this run with McCullough leading the way with five points during this stretch. Thanks to the run, the Skylights had a 24-14 lead halfway through the second quarter.

"I thought we were defending well and I thought we were rebounding fairly well," Mouat said about this stretch of the game. "I thought we were executing and we had a big lift on offense for a good run."

Over the next few minutes, the Skylights and Hawks exchanged scores to the point Northern had a 29-19 lead with two and a half minutes left in the half. The Hawks then grabbed momentum with a 7-3 run to end the half. The biggest bucket came when an offensive rebound was converted into a layup from Tinley Pierson to beat the buzzer going into halftime. Thanks to that last-second shot, the Skylights only had a 32-26 lead heading into the break.

That bucket gave the Hawks the momentum they needed to start the third quarter. After only scoring a total of 26 points in the first half, the Hawks scored 24 points alone in the third quarter. As a team, the Hawks got hot as they shot 66.7 percent from the field in the period.

The Skylights played well offensively in the third quarter to keep pace, but the Hawks had wrangled away the lead as they had a 50-49 lead heading to the final quarter.

Through most of the fourth quarter, the Hawks played strong on both ends of the floor. As their offense continued to roll, their defense shut down the Skylights in the first seven minutes of the quarter. During this stretch, the Skylights only scored three points as they fell behind by double digits in the game.

"We once again had missed layups and that's unacceptable," Mouat said about the cold shooting. "We had too many shots at the rim tonight to generate the number of points that we had."

Heading into the final two minutes of the game, the Hawks had a 66-54 lead. With time running out, the Skylights looked for one last push. Shyan Krass cut the deficit to nine with a 3-pointer. McCullough then made a layup to cut the score to seven. After a Dickinson bucket, Trottier made another three to cut the deficit to 68-62 with about a minute remaining.

But on their next possession, the Skylights failed to score. The Skylights forced a turnover, but time was running out. Callender got fouled and sent to the free-throw line, but there were only 20 seconds left. She made both free throws to cut the deficit to four points, but Peterson made a free throw on the other end to put the game out of reach for the Skylights.

Through two games this season, the Skylights are now 1-1. While this will be a tough loss to swallow, Mouat knows his team is capable of playing better and competing moving forward. However, improvement will be needed if they want to get there.

"We've got a lot to clean up as a group and we've got a lot of room for growth. I know we have an extremely high ceiling with this team but I also know we're good enough to win games now," Mouat said. "I like this team a lot but we've got to grow up quickly."

The MSU-N women's basketball team will next play against University of Alberta-Augustana Nov. 10 at Armory Gymnasium.

Dickinson State 69, MSU-Northern 64

DSU - 12 14 24 19 - 69

MSU-N - 11 21 17 15 - 64

DSU - Lindsay Peterson 6-12 2-4 16, Samantha Oase 7-12 1-1 15, Kayden Steele 4-9 3-4 13, Heather LaBree 3-6 0-2 7, Danielle Wallace 3-4 0-0 6, Tinley Pierson 2-4 0-0 4, McKenzie Johnson 0-11 3-3, 3, Tayte Kohn 1-2 0-0 3, Sunshine Vicente 1-2 0-0 3, Jenna Jacobson 0-2 0-0 0.

MSU-N - Briaunna McCullough 6-21 1-1 14, Savannah Toms 5-6 0-0 10, Taya Trottier 3-8 0-0 9, Sydney Hanson 3-3 2-3 8, Shyan Krass 3-5 1-2 8,Ryley Kehr 3-10 0-0 6, Jalen Callender 1-4 3-4 5, ShaAnn Danelson 1-40-0 3, Rachel Van Blaricom 0-0 1-2 1.

Halftime: MSU-N 32-26. DSU 3-pointers 6-19 (Lindsay Peterson 2, Heather LeBree 1,Tayte Kohn 1),MSU-N 6-16 (Taya Trottier 3, Briaunna McCullough 1, Shyan Krass 1). Rebounds: DSU 35 (Samantha Oase 12), MSU-N 31 (Savannah Toms 9). Fouls: DSU 8, MSU-N 12. Fouled Out: None.