MSU-Northern Lights ink power forward

The season is less than a month from being over, but, Montana State University-Northern men's basketball coach is now hot on the recruiting trail. And he recently announced his first signing of the class of 2024-25.

MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse announced last week the signing of 6-7 Forward, Ashton Taylor-Franklyn. A senior this past season at Ischool Academy in Lewisville, Texas, he averaged 10.5 points per game and eight rebounds per game, connecting on 63 percent of his field goals and 76 percent of his free throws.

Prior to his year at the academy he played at 6A Irving Nimitz High School, earning First-Team All-District honors and leading his team in almost every statistical category his junior year.

"Ashton played for the same program that Jacob (Randall, Lights forward) played in," said coach Huse. "Brian (Nweule, head coach) does a great job of training guys and preparing them for the next level. They played a national schedule on their Independent team this year, going up against and playing with, multiple D1 level centers and forwards. They competed against six teams ranked in the top 25 and Ashton did extremely well stacking up. He is a team-first guy who practices and competes with great energy. He comes highly recommended as a great person and teammate both on and off the court, who we anticipate helping with our overall depth and excelling for years to come."

Northern looks to be the right fit for Taylor-Franklyn and the Lights.

"Living and thriving on his family farm, Ashton is an outdoors guy, looking to spend his student-athlete years in a supportive rural area," Huse said. "Everything added up well in terms of fit. He was looking for the things our tight-knit community has to offer, and brings attributes to really help our team while studying in our exceptional agricultural program."

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MSU-Northern is coming off a challenging injury laden season, graduating two senior starters, one of which was unable to compete in conference play due to his surgery, but it returns a great deal of experience from the 2023-24 team.