Carroll sweeps Northern in the Armory

It's been a tough couple of weeks for the Montana State University-Northern basketball teams. And Thursday night was not different.

The MSU-Northern Skylights lost to No. 8 Carroll College by a score of 57-45 Thursday night in the Armory Gymnasium.

Carroll took the first quarter 15-9. The Skylights held the Fighting Saints to 12 points in the second quarter going into halftime down just 27-20. Carroll pushed the lead coming out of half time outscoring the Skylights 23-12. Northern didn't go away as they won the fourth quarter 13-9, but it just wan't enough as MSU-N slipped to 4-6 in the Frontier Conference and 10-13 overall.

The Skylights were led by Ryley Kehr who had 16 points going 6-15 from the field. Savannah Toms added eight points and six rebounds.

The Fighting Saints were led by Addi Ekstrom who had 15 points going 60 percent from the field. Jamie Pickens had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The Carroll College men made it a clean sweep Thursday night as the Fighting Saints escaped the Armory with a 69-65 win over the Northern Lights.

The game was a close affair throughout, but the Lights surged ahead late in the first half and took a strong, 39-33 lead into intermission.

The second half was a back-and-forth battle, but when Carroll wrestled the lead away from the Lights at the four-minute mark, it wound up being for good. Twice, Northern closed the gap to two points down the stretch, but the Lights couldn't quite get over the hump.

Zack Martinez led all scorers with 23 points, while Northern also got 12 points from Jacob Randall and 11 by Dae'Kwon Watson.

Carroll was paced by 18 points and seven rebounds from Andrew Cook, while Isaiah Moore added 11 points.

The loss dropped the Lights to 2-8 in conference play.

The Lights and Skylights will remain home to host Montana Tech Saturday. The women's game will tip at 2 p.m. followed by the men's game at 4 p.m. in the Armory Gymnasium.