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Northern men gut out another comeback win
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Shawn Huse has used several words when he talks about the players on his
Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team this season. Some are
good, some are bad, some couldn't be printed.
But following Northern's gutsy overtime upset of Rocky Mountain College in
Billings Saturday night, Huse was reduced to one word and one word only.
Heart.
"There is only one word I can attribute this win to and it's
heart," Huse said. "We were just scrapping and playing hard. When
you get into an overtime situation, everybody's legs are tired, and you need
to have that heart and we showed it against Rocky."
Indeed, the game was pretty much over with two minutes left to go. Northern
barely had a pulse as it trailed by nine points with just over a minute left
to play. A pair of dunks from Rocky's Bobby Coleman and Luke Kunkel were just
more salt being poured into the Lights' wounds.
However, Northern is no stranger to coming from behind. The Lights ripped off
three-pointers from Reid Stovall, Travis Moran and Larry Morinia to roar back
into the game.
"It was the craziest thing I've even seen," Huse said.
"Honestly, that game was over. They were getting dunks and while they
were celebrating, we were getting threes. We knew it would take a monumental
effort just to get to overtime and that's what we got."
The last of Northern's barrage of
three-pointers was also a monumental if not an impossible shot. With time
winding down, Zach McLean heaved an awkward lob pass toward Larry Morinia at
the top of the key. Morinia leapt high in the air to catch the pass, came
down and elevated again for a high-arching three-pointer over a Rocky
defender that found nothing but the bottom of the net at the buzzer.
"He had to make a heck of an effort just to catch the pass," Huse
said. "And he had to make an even tougher shot. He had to put a little
extra arch on the shot and jump a little higher just to get the shot off. It
was pretty awesome."
Any momentum Rocky had in the minutes before disappeared as Northern rolled
into the overtime period, grabbed the lead and never relinquished it. Stovall
made another of his solid defensive plays with 6.4 second remaining and the
Lights hung on to a 91-89 lead. Stovall jumped out on a screen for Rocky's
Greg Wood, forcing Wood to lose the ball out of bounds.
The Bears were forced to foul, sending Moran to the line. He sank one of two
shots to secure the win.
It was yet another come-from-behind win for Huse's cardiac kids.
"We've been in enough close games this season so our kids don't get
really rattled," Huse said. "We practice for the situation and they
really responded."
Morinia, who is making a strong case for the Frontier Conference MVP award,
finished with 33 points and five rebounds. Stovall had his finest game of the
season, scoring 22 points on 8-10 shooting while making key defensive plays
the entire game.
"Reid did just a tremendous job defensively," Huse said. "We
had two of our post players fouled out and he was out there guarding guys
that were much taller than him and getting key stops. He's not the tallest or
the most athletic post player in the league, but he plays the game the right
way. Anybody who is undersized and doesn't think they have a spot in this
league, they need to start watching Reid Stovall."
Northern also got 18 points and five assists from Lamar Morinia. Rocky was
led by Luke Kunkel's 29 points and 10 rebounds. Bobby Coleman came off the
bench to score 16 points, while Jake Stuart added 15 points on 10-10 shooting
from the free-throw line.
With the weekend sweep of Carroll and Rocky, Northern improved to 8-4 in
conference and is tied with Rocky for third place. The wins also mean that if
the Lights were able to win this weekend's games against Westminster College
and Lewis-Clark State, they would earn a share of the Frontier Conference
regular season title.
"It would be really neat to do that," Huse said. "But we're
going to go out and play the same free-swinging, aggressive style of
basketball and let the rest take care of itself."
ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLLEGE 89)
Ken Waldo 2-5 1-2 5; Luke Kunkel 13-15 3-6 29; Eddie Stack 3-3 0-2 6; Greg
Wood 4-14 1-2 11; Jake Stuart 2-15 10-10 15; Brett Wilson 0-0 2-2 2; Bobby
Coleman 7-15 2-4 16; Joe Cook 0-0 5-8 5. Totals: 31-67 24-36 89.
Three-point goals: MSUN 8-21 (Stovall 1-2, Grant 1-3, Larry Morinia 3-7,
Lamar Morinia 2-7, Bullchild 0-1, Moran 1-2), RMC 3-15 (Wood 2-7, Stuart 1-6,
Coleman 0-2). Rebounds: MSUN 34 (Grant 7); RMC 46 (Kunkel 10, Stuart 8).
Assists: MSUN 18 (Lamar Morinia 5); RMC 17 (Wood 5). Turnovers: MSUN 17, RMC
18. Total fouls: MSUN 30, RMC 28. Fouled out - Grant, Harbaugh, Sawejka,
Waldo, Kunkel, Stack, Coleman; Technicals - none.
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