Skylights sink Diggers

It was the win the Montana State University-Northern Skylights had been striving for all season.

On Thursday night, Northern made its Frontier Conference home debut by beating the rival Montana Tech Orediggers 52-51 in an overtime thriller inside the Armory Gymnasium.

The Skylights won the first quarter 9-8. Montana Tech came back to take the lead going into halftime 20-16. Northern pushed to take the lead back in the third quarter, but Tech hit a layup to tie the game going into the fourth quarter. The game went back and forth, as Rachel Van Blaricom hit a layup with :19 left in the game. Montana Tech came down and scored with :5 left to push the game into overtime.

Both teams were shooting the ball very well in overtime. The Orediggers made a layup to take the lead by one. The Skylights fouled to put Tech at the line, who went one for two with :9 left in the game. But, from there, Taya Trottier hit a game-winning 3-pointer to send Northern to a victory.

"Really proud of our kids tonight," MSU-N head coach Chris Mouat said. "They had some adversity tonight and overcame a really poor shooting night to find a way to get a win. Montana Tech is a great rebounding team. I thought we did a really good job rebounding throughout the night and it probably saved us many times. We won't be able to shoot the percentages we did tonight and win many games but we did make them at the right times tonight. Taya stepped up in overtime and did some great things when we needed it but, again, our defense and rebounding was pretty consistent throughout the night. We know we'll have a big challenge at Rocky on Saturday. Tonight I'm just proud of the kids for finding a way in a tough overtime game."

Rachel Van Blaricom led the Skylights with 10 points and six rebounds, while Jalen Callender, Taya Trottier and Savannah Toms each had eight points. Trottier added nine rebounds as Northern out-rebounded the Orediggers 48-34.

The Orediggers were led by Liv Wangerin, who had 12 points going 5-12 from the field. Brooklynn Hankwitz added 11 points and three steals. Challis Westwater led the team in rebounds with seven.

The Skylights are 7-8 in the overall season and 1-1 in the Frontier. Tech fell to 10-4 and 1-1 in the Frontier.

The Skylights will be in Billings to play against Rocky Mountain College at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Lights lose another heartbreaker

The home court wasn't as kind to the Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team Thursday night.

Despite leading by seven points at halftime, the Lights fell to No. 8 Montana Tech 62-60, dropping to 0-2 in the Frontier Conference.

Northern started strong and led 37-30 at intermission. However, Tech chipped away in the second half, took the lead with just under four minutes to go, and thanks to outscoring Northern 32-23 in the final 20 minutes, the Orediggers held on for the win, as the Lights missed two game-winning tries in the final seconds.

Zack Martinez led the Lights with 13 points, while Jacob Randall and DaeKwon Watson each had 12. Michael Ure led four Diggers in double digits with 13 points as Tech improved to 2-0 in league play.

The Lights now travel to 15th-ranked Rocky Mountain College Saturday.