Lights, Skylights ready for Frontier Conference Tournament

For the first time in more than a decade, the Montana State University-Northern basketball teams are not playing the Frontier Conference playoffs. Because there are none.

Instead, the Frontier is returning to a tournament format, which will be played Sunday through Tuesday at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls. Both Northern teams will be in action with the Skylights taking on Rocky Mountain College and the Northern men facing Montana Western.

The Skylights (8-20) are the No. 6 seed in the Frontier women's tournament and will face No. 3 RMC Sunday at 3 p.m. Northern was swept by the Battlin' Bears during the regular season, but MSU-N is coming off a senior-day win against Montana Tech last Saturday in Havre,. And head coach Chris Mouat said he believes his team is ready for more challenges.

"The goal all year was to get better, and to be playing our basketball at the end of February," Mouat said. "And I think we're doing that. This group has worked hard. They've come back every Monday ready to just focus on getting better, and I'm really proud of them."

The Skylights, led by top scorers Ryley Kehr and Brianna McCullough will be looking to pull the upset over the nationally ranked Bears. The other first-round game pits No. 4 seed Providence taking on No. 5 seed Tech at 1 p.m. Top-seeded Carroll College and second-seeded Montana Western have byes and will play in semifinal games Monday at 1 and 3 p.m., respectively.

And Northern hopes to be a part of Monday's festivities.

"Rocky is very good, they have talent at every position on the floor," Mouat said. "They are a huge challenge. So we'll have to play our best basketball of the season. But we do have a little momentum right now, and that was their goal all along."

Momentum is something the Lights (18-10) have lost the last couple of weeks.. Coming into Sunday's tilt with Western, which tips off at 7 p.m., Northern has fallen in its last three outings, including a buzzer-beater against Tech last Saturday at the Armory Gymnasium.

However, the Lights had won five straight prior to last week's heartbreaker, and MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse knows what his team is capable of.

"I would say we have lost some momentum the last few games," Huse said. "I think defensively, we've still been pretty good, but on the other end, we haven't been able to be as good offensively, recently. So that's something we have to do a better job of, getting back to that consistency on both ends of the floor.

"We still have a lot of confidence, though," Huse added. "This team knows we can beat anybody in this league when we play the way we're capable of."

Indeed, with talents like Jesse Keltner, Immanuel Anderson, Anthony Braggs Jr., C.J. Nelson, Zackary Martinez and more, the Lights are dangerous and will look to make it two wins this season against the Bulldogs. Northern fell to Western in Dillon two weeks ago.

The rest of the men's bracket will see fourth-seeded Carroll meet fifth-seeded Rocky. Top-seeded Montana Tech and second-seeded Providence have byes into the semifinals, which will be played at 5 and 7 p.m. Monday night.

The Frontier championship games start with the women's game at 5 p.m. and the men's game to follow Tuesday night, with the winners receiving auto bids to the NAIA national tournaments in March. All of the Frontier action will take place at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls.