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Lights rally to pick up split of conference games
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
In the Frontier Conference, the unwritten rule is that you hope to split
your road games and win all the home games.
The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team picked up a split
in its first conference road trip of the season.
Despite getting that split, Lights head coach Shawn Huse wasn't exactly
pleased with the way the weekend started out.
Northern opened with a disappointing 96-84 loss to the University of
Montana-Western Friday night in Dillon.
The Lights did the one thing you can't do on the road - come out sluggish.
Western jumped out early on Northern, grabbing a 44-36 lead in the first half
behind some hot shooting, particularly from transfer Jason Buell.
Buell, who transferred to Western from
Montana Tech, scored 18 first-half points en route to a game-high 29,
including five three-pointers. But Buell wasn't the only player shooting
well. As a team, Western shot 61 percent from the field in the first half.
"Any little opening we gave them, they took advantage of it," Huse
said. "Western has really changed their style of play from the beginning
of the season. They make you play defense for the whole possession. They wait
and wait until you make the slightest mistake and they make you pay. I'm
surprised it was only 60 percent. It felt more like they were shooting 90 to
95 percent from the field."
Any hopes of Western cooling down in the second half faded early as the
eight-point halftime lead ballooned to 20 points in the first eight minutes
of the second half.
Huse employed full-court pressure late in the game in an effort to get
something going. Western struggled initially against the press, but the
Lights couldn't quite crawl out of the 20-point hole they had dug themselves
into.
"Against Western we didn't do anything we needed to do to win,"
Huse said. "We got outrebounded (41-25), we let Buell go off early, we
didn't accomplish any of our goals."
Besides Buell, Western got 19 points and eight rebounds from Neil
Christiaens, 12 points from Brandon Day, and 10 points each from Josh Keller,
Jeff Feenstra and Kevin Flatow.
Larry Morinia led Northern with 25 points, while Lamar Morinia added 15 and
Trenton Harbaugh chipped in with 10.
"Western played a very good game, but we didn't play very well,"
Huse said. "I don't know if it was mental or physical, but our players
definitely felt that they came out very flat. They were pretty upset with
themselves. Our captains said they could see it in the way we warmed
up."
If anything, Friday night's failure served as the proverbial wake-up call for
the Lights on Saturday night.
Northern bounced back from the loss and the flat performance with an 84-76
win over Montana Tech in Butte.
The Lights rolled to a 43-37 halftime lead, a start that was a far cry from
the night before.
"We came out with much more focus, a higher energy level and an
intensity level that showed they really took the loss to heart," Huse
said.
While the lead was far from insurmountable, Northern maintained control for
much of the game. Larry Morinia and Berhane Williams keyed the effort in the
final 10 minutes.
Morinia scored half of his game-high 22 points in that span and Williams came
off the bench to score 16 points.
"Larry shot the ball much better and took some better shots," Huse
said. "Berhane had a nice game. He hit some key shots when we needed
them. He brings a certain level of toughness to the floor that we need."
Even with the burst from Morinia and Williams, Tech wouldn't go away quietly.
The Diggers made a late effort to get ahead with baskets from Kellen Ori and
Shane Sutton. However, Northern iced the game at the free- throw line, making
seven of eight down the stretch.
"They are a scrappy team and they're good at home," Huse said.
"They made some three-pointers to get back into it. But I though we were
in control for most of the time. It just took us until the last two minutes
to get completely comfortable that we were going to win."
Dustin Sawejka added 11 points and eight rebounds for Northern. Tech was led
by David Scott's 20 points and nine rebounds, while Pat Weber added 17 and
Sutton chipped in with 13.
"It's good to see our guys respond to a loss like that," Huse said.
"It shows that they understand the importance of conference play and
coming out ready to play."
Northern will return home for a pair of games this weekend against Rocky
Mountain College and Carroll College.
MSU-NORTHERN (84)
Reid Stovall 4-5 0-0 9; Landen Grant 0-4 0-0 0; Trenton Harbaugh 3-7 4-8 10;
Larry Morinia 9-19 6-6 25; Lamar Morinia 6-14 1-1 15; Zach McLean 1-1 1-2 4;
Leo Bullchild 1-3 0-0 3; Berhane Williams 2-4 0-1 4; Travis Moran 2-2 2-3 7;
Steve Ahrens 0-3 0-0 0; Dustin Sawejka 3-7 1-2 7. Totals: 31-69 15-23 69.
UM-WESTERN (96)
Brandon Day 3-4 5-7 12; Kevin Flatow 2-4 6-6 10; Neil Christiaens 8-14 2-3
19; Derek Hibbert 2-6 0-0 4; Josh Keller 2-4 4-4 10; Blaine Hanson 1-1 0-0 2;
Jason Buell 10-17 4-4 29; Jeff Feenstra 4-7 2-3 10. Totals: 32-57 23-27 96.
Halftime: UMW 44, MSUN 36. Three-point goals: MSUN 7-25 (Stovall 1-1, Grant
0-3, Larry Morinia 1-8, Lamar Morinia 2-8, McLean 1-1, Bullchild 1-3, Moran
1-1), UMW 9-20 (Day 1-1, Christiaens 1-5, Hibbert 0-1, Keller 2-3, Buell
5-10). Rebounds: MSUN 25 (Harbaugh 6); UMW 41 (Feenstra 9, Christiaens 8)
Assists: MSUN 10 (Lamar Morinia 4); UMW 16 (Keller 6). Turnovers: MSUN 11,
UMW 24. Total fouls: MSUN 23, UMW 21. Fouled out - Moran, Flatow, Hibbert;
Technicals - MSUN coach.
MSU-NORTHERN (84)
Larry Morinia 6-10 7-10 22, Reid Stovall 3-4 0-1 7, Lamar Morinia 4-8 0-0 9,
Landen Grant 0-4 0-0 0, Dustin Sawejka 3-8 5-6 11, Zach McLean 1-4 4-4 7, Leo
Bullchild 0-1 0-0 0, Berhane Williams 8-13 0-0 16, Travis Moran 1-3 0-0 2,
Steve Ahrens 0-1 0-0 0, Trenton Harbaugh 4-6 0-0 8, Totals 31-64 16-21 84.
MONTANA TECH (76)
Jeremy Rudolph 4-7 0-0 10, Shane Sutton 5-12 1-2 13, Pat Weber 6-9 4-4 17,
Andy Anderson 0-2 0-0 0, Dave Scott 9-16 2-3 20, David Dunn 0-1 0-0 0, Nate
Harris 1-1 2-2 5, Clinton Kauffman 1-3 0-0 2, Kellen Ori 3-5 3-4 9, Totals
29-56 12-25 76.
Halftime: MSUN 43, TECH 37. Three-point goals: MSUN 6-15 (Larry Morinia 3-4,
Stovall 1-1, Lamar Morinia e1-1, Grant 0-3, McLean 1-3, Williams 0-2, Moran
0-1), TECH 6-14 (Rudolph 2-4, Sutton 2-6, Weber 1-1, Harris 1-1, Kauffman
0-2). Rebounds: MSUN 35 (Sawejka 8), TECH 31 (Scott 9). Assists: MSUN 10
(Lamar Morinia 4), TECH 15 (Rudolph, Weber 5) Turnovers: MSUN 6, TECH 11.
Total fouls: MSUN 18, TECH 18. Fouled out - none.
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