Montana Tech sweep Northern in hoops

The Montana State University-Northern women's basketball team needed an epic comeback on Thursday night at Montana Tech. But the Skylights couldn't quite pull it off.

Northern fell to the Orediggers 65-55 in Butte. MSU-N fell behind 20-11 after the first quarter and were down 41-19 at halftime as the Orediggers played at a high level.

Northern rebounded in the second half, but it was too little, too late as Tech held Northern to just 32 percent shooting and 6-of-21 from three. The Diggers' also out-rebounded the Skylights 43-38, while Northern 13 points from Taya Trottier and 12 by Canzas HisBadHorse in their first Frontier Conference loss of the new season.

The Skylights are now 1-1 in the Frontier.

Things didn't go any better for the Montana State University-Northern men's team Thursday night. The Lights fell to nationally-ranked Montana Tech 82-56 in Butte.

Montana Tech pushed the lead in the first half to double digits. The Lights scrambled back cutting into the lead by seven. The Orediggers went on a 9-0 run to finish the first half going into halftime 40-24. The Orediggers pushed the lead in the second half outscoring the Lights 42-32.

The Lights were led by Cinque Maxwell who had 17 points on the night going 50 percent from the field. Raefe McEnroe added 11 points going 4-6 from the field.

  The Orediggers were led by Michael Ure who was just shy of a double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds. Ifeanyi Okeke added 16 points and eight rebounds.

Both the Lights and Skylights return home to host Rocky Mountain College Saturday. The women's game is set for 2 p.m. and the men at 4 p.m. inside the Armory Gymnasium.