Northern sweeps basketball, wrestling at home

A busy Thursday in the Armory Gymnasium was highlighted by a bunch of winning at Montana State University-Northern.

In the morning, the MSU-N basketball teams hosted their annual Field Trip games.

The Skylights beat the University of Alberta-Augustana in their Field Trip game by a score of 106-52. The Skylights had a big first quarter outscoring the Vikings 29-8. Northern kept the gas pedal down, as they pushed the lead to 26 points, 48-22, going into halftime. The Skylights pushed the lead in the second half to take the game.

The Skylights were led by L'Tia Lawrence who went 5-9 from the three-point line with 21 points and adding five assists. Savannah Toms added 20 points going 8-9 from the field. Ryley Kehr was close to a triple-double with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Shyan Krass and Dulci SkunkCap came off the bench scoring 14 and 13 points. The Skylights shot a field goal percentage of 59, 32 percent from the arc, and 79 percent from the free throw line.

The win improved Northern to 4-4 on the season ahead of next week's trip to Arizona.

After the Skylight's win, the Lights took the floor for their turn with the Vikings. The Lights beat Augustana with a score of 100-64.

The Lights had a great start, as they pushed the lead to 19, 23-4, with 13:40 left on the clock in the field half. They were able to extend the lead going into halftime 48-24.

Augustana shot 28 percent from the field and 37 percent from the three in the first half. Northern shot a high 56 percent from the field and 46 percent from the three.

By the final buzzer Augustana had shot an incredible 64 percent from the three, but it wasn't enough to catch up to the Lights.

The Lights were led by Jacob Randall who had a double-double with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Zackry Martinez added 18 points, six assists and five steals. Dalton Myles went 6-12 from the field with 15 points. Xavier Bailey came off the bench and added 13 points. The Lights shot a field goal percentage of 57, 42 percent from the arc, and 83 percent from the free throw line.

The 7-2 Lights also head to Arizona for three games next weekend.

The Field Trip day wasn't the end for Northern, however.

On Thursday night, the No. 8 MSU-Northern wrestling team dualed the Dickinson State Blue Hawks, and the Lights prevailed 32-16. The win was Northern's 10th straight win over the Blue Hawks, and it came with some exciting drama.

The Lights fell behind the Blue Hawks 12-0 after the first three matches, but head coach Tyson Thivierge's team stormed back.

Georgino Moraga got things started at 149 pounds with a win, then Justin Windauer (157) and Devin Crawford (165) won by falls. NaKoda Siegel picked up a technical fall at 174 pounds, and Carl Hansen sealed the comeback win at 197 with a pin. For good measure, though, Shane Mattson ended things with a fall in the final seconds of the heavyweight match as Northern improved to 4-2 in duals this season.

The Lights will remain in dual action taking on St. Ambrose and Eastern Oregon before heading to the Reno T.O.C. next weekend.