Joelnell Momberg's three lifts Western over the Skylights

Against some of the top teams in the Frontier Conference, the Montana State University-Northern women’s basketball team had been knocking on the door. Time and time again, the Skylights were so close.

They got there again Thursday night, only to have a former Hi-Line star shut that door in heart-breaking fashion.

Box Elder’s Joelnell Momberg buried a 3-pointer with :10 left in the game, lifting her No. 15 Montana Western Bulldogs to a 49-47 win over the Skylights in the Armory Gymnasium. The loss dropped Northern to 0-9 in the Frontier, and was a crusher for the Skylights, and head coach Chris Mouat.

“It’s a hard one to swallow,” Mouat said. “Western is a great 3-point shooting team, they’re great offensively. But defensively, we held them in check for most of the night. Our kids played really hard, they showed a lot of heart, a lot of character tonight. I’m proud of the way they fought. But it definitely hurts, we had our chances and we just didn’t finish.”

It looked like the Skylights had finally kicked the door down, as they led Western 47-43 with 1:30 to go. Behind a 10-run that was capped by a Jalen Callender triple, the Skylights had clawed their way back from 14 down to trail just 41-39 entering the fourth quarter. Then, Shyan Krass canned two straight buickets to give Northern a 43-41 lead. Savanna Toms again gave the Skylights the lead and Briaunna McCullough added a shot to give Northern the four-point lead. From there, Mesa King hit two foul shots after Northern missed a free throw, the Bulldogs went into final shot mode, with Momberg hitting the biggest shot of her Western career thus far.

“We didn’t do enough in that final 1:43 and that’s on us,” Mouat said. “And they did. Credit to Western, credit to Joelnell. They had one opportunity at the end of the game and they took advantage of it.”

It was a great comeback by the Skylights, who traded leads with the Dawgs throughout the first quarter on their way to a 18-13 lead after the first quarter. Things then went sideways for the Skylights, as they went the next 9:43 without a field goal, while Western went on a 13-0 run in the second stanza to lead 28-22 at intermission, setting up the exciting second half.

Neither team shot the ball well in a defensive struggle. The Skylights held the normally high-scoring Dawgs to 28 percent shooting and a 4-for-23 performance from beyond the arc. Western also turned it over 15 times, and Northern’s defense held All-American Brynley Fitzgerald to just seven points before she fouled out.

On the other end, Northern shot 38 percent and made three triples, while also out-rebounding the Dawgs 34-33. McCullough led Northern with nine points, while Callender, Ryley Kehr, Toms and Krass each had eight.

The loss was Northern’s 10th straight in conference play dating back to last year, and was another in a series of close calls this season, in which MSU-N fell to 7-15 ahead of Saturday’s visit from Montana Tech.

“We didn’t make enough shots tonight, we didn’t play well enough in the second quarter, we missed too many free throws and we turned it over too many times,” Mouat said. “We also had our chances to put the thing away and we didn’t do that. Our effort is there every night, the kids played with so much heart and passion. We just have to do a better job of finishing these games.”

The Skylights meet the Orediggers at 2 p.m. Saturday, and will host Carroll College and Providence next week as part of their four-game home stand.

Western 49, Skylights 47

Montana Western 13 15 13 8 - 49

MSU-Northern 18 4 17 8 - 47

MW - Brynley Fitzgerald 9, Shainey Mack 8, Joelnell Momberg 4, Jordan Sweeney 13, Mesa King 10, Payton Hagy 5, Emily Cooley 2. Totals: 17-60 11-17.

MSU-N - Brianna McCullough 9, Jalen Callender 8, Rachel Van Blaricom 1, Ryley Kehr 8, Savanna Toms 8, Sydney Hansen 5, Shyan Krass 8. Totals: 18-47 8-14.

3-pointers: MW 4-23 (Mack 2, Momberg 1, Hagy 1), MSU-N (Callender 2, Kehr 1) Rebounds: MW 33 (Fitzgerald 6), MSU-N 34 (McCullough 6, Toms 6, Krass 6); Fouls: MW 16, MSU-N 16. Fouled out: Fitzgerald.