Cold-shooting, missed free throws hamper Lights in back-to-back road
losses
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
The search for the first road win for the Montana State University-Northern
men's basketball team will have to wait a few more weeks. The Lights dropped
two tough Frontier Conference games this past weekend, one in heartbreaking
fashion.
Northern missed out on a golden opportunity to notch its first conference road
win, while Montana Tech earned its first conference win of any type with a
73-71 win at the HPER Complex in
The Lights appeared poised to put the game away, leading 71-70 with less than
30 seconds remaining and freshman Ed Lowe at the line shooting two free throws.
But as has been the case all season for Northern, the free throws were far from
free. Lowe missed both attempts, which gave the Orediggers
one last chance.
Tech point guard Luke Harman was fouled on the ensuing possession and he sank
two free throws with 14.6 seconds remaining to give Tech a one-point lead.
The Lights called timeout following Harman's big free throws, giving the them one last possession with 11.7 seconds remaining.
Northern head coach
"We had a set play, but we didn't execute
it right," Huse said. "All it takes is one or two guys to miss an
assignment for the whole play to fall apart, which is what
happened."
Northern was forced to foul on the inbounds and Tech's Kellen
Ori sank the first free throw and missed the second
on purpose so time could expire.
Still it wasn't just the last sequence of events that hurt Northern. The Lights
put themselves in an early hole, as Harman, who returned the night before after
missing several games with a knee injury, spurred a solid start for Tech.
The Diggers raced out to an early lead with Harman pushed the tempo and Tech
getting several easy baskets in transition. Coupled with Davin
Blixt's five 3-pointers and Northern's
cold shooting, the Diggers took a 39-27 halftime lead.
"The transition baskets didn't make me very happy. That is something that
we shouldn't give up," Huse said. "Offensively, we had good looks and
open shots; they just weren't going in. That just puts a lot of pressure on us
defensively."
But things changed early in the second half. The Lights erased the 12-point
halftime deficit with a 10-4 run, sparked by four consecutive buckets from
Marcus Wilson. Northern tied the game for the first time at 63 on Landen Grant
3-pointer.
From there, the teams traded baskets and leads, until Blixt
converted a four-point play and sank another 3-pointer to put Tech up 68-63
late in the game. Northern answered the rally, surprisingly from the free-throw
line, scoring five points and taking the brief lead.
"We did some things late in the game that really hurt us," Huse said.
"We committed some silly fouls, like on the 3-pointer, and missed some
free throws. You just can't do those things on the road and expect to
win."
Blixt led Tech with 20 points and six assists, while
Harman had 17, including nine of Tech's last 14.
"Harman definitely makes a them a better
team," Huse said. "He's a very capable point guard and really makes a
difference with how they play."
"You know we're in the situation where a lot of these kids haven't been in
these situations late in the game at this level," Huse said. "Really,
I thought we played well enough defensively to win, but we just didn't do what
we needed to offensively to close them out."
Things didn't get much better for Northern on Saturday in Dillon. The Lights
ran into an offensive resurgence from perhaps the conference player of the year
in a 77-66 loss to the UM-Western Bulldogs.
Senior transfer Matt Luedtke broke out of a recent
offensive funk in a big way, hitting four three-pointers in the game's opening
minutes, staking the Bulldogs to an early lead and propelling them to the win.
Luedtke, who scored 41 points on the Lights in Havre,
finished with 23 first-half points, as Western took a 39-28 halftime lead. The
rest of the Bulldogs weren't exactly on fire, scoring just 16 points in the
first half.
"It seems to be our misfortune," Huse said. "Luedtke
hadn't been shooting well in the past few games and you knew he was due to
break out. You just wish he could have picked another night to do it.
"It's no exaggeration to say that we were draped on him, but he just hit
some impossible shots. He's a great player."
Despite Luedtke's first-half explosion, Northern
wasn't out of the game. The Lights tightened up defensively, forcing Western,
even Luedtke, into cold shooting and turnovers.
Northern used the defensive stops, and solid play from Wilson and Matthews, to
get back into the game. A pair of Matthews' free throws tied the game at 48
with 12 minutes remaining.
However, Matt Cornelius answered for Western with a score and the Bulldogs
would never trail again. Western steadily pulled away, using near perfect
free-throw shooting and two timely 3-pointers to get the win. The Bulldogs sank
23 of 25 free throws in the game, including 9-10 in the second half.
"We got into foul trouble and started sending them to the line," Huse
said. "They don't miss many free throws. But I really credit our kids,
because they could have folded the tents after the tough first half, but they
didn't. We gave ourselves a chance to win."
Luedtke finished with 30 points to
lead the Bulldogs. Tyler Palmer came off the bench to score 23 points,
while Bo Segeberg added 10 points and eight rebounds.
"Marcus really gutted it out this weekend, because he was in some
pain," Huse said. "He practices so hard and really works at
everything we do and it shows in games."
With the losses, Northern falls to 3-6 in Frontier Conference and 12-11
overall. But Huse isn't ready panic.
"Basically, we are three made free throws away from being in third
place," he said. "We're right there. Offensively, we don't score
enough points to blow teams out, so we are going to be in some close games.
Hopefully, this weekend will help us in the future, because I see good things
for this team."
MONTANA TECH 73, MSU-NORTHERN 71
MSU-NORTHERN (3-5, 12-10)
Reid Stovall 2-7 3-5 7, Marcus Wilson 8-14 0-0 16, Jordan Matthews 3-11 4-5 11,
Landen Grant 4-8 0-0 10, Leo Bullchild 2-2 0-0 6, Rodrick Carter 3-5 3-3 10, Cory Brothers 0-3 0-1 0, Antonio
Jordan 0-3 1-2 1, Cody Gillespie 1-1 1-2 4, Ed Lowe 0-0 0-2 0, Tim Hutchins 0-1
0-0 0, Dan Brigham 3-4 0-0 6. Totals 26-59 12-18 71.
MONTANA TECH (1-7, 6-18)
Luke Harman 6-9 3-3 17, Davin Blixt
6-17 2-3 20, Casey Briggs 5-6 1-2 11, Andy Anderson 3-3 1-3 7, Kellen Ori 3-6 3-4 9, Jon
Cleveland 1-3 0-0 2, Robbie Redekopp 0-1 0-0 0, Kenny
Herbst 2-2 3-6 7. Totals 26-47
13-21 73.
Halftime: Tech 39, MSU-N 27. 3-point goals: MSU-N 7-20 (Matthews 1-4, Grant
2-5, Bullchild 2-2, Carter 1-2, Brothers 0-3,
Gillespie 1-1), Tech 8-20 (Harman 2-3, Blixt 6-13, Ori 0-1, Cleveland 0-2, Redekopp
0-1). Rebounds: MSU-N 25 (Stovall 7), Tech 36 (Briggs 9). Assists: MSU-N 12
(Matthews 5), Tech 16 (Blixt 6). Steals: MSU-N 10 (
UM-WESTERN 77, MSU-NORTHERN 66
MSU-NORTHERN (12-11, 3-6)
Reid Stovall 1-7 2-4 4; Marcus Wilson 10-13 1-1 21; Jordan Matthews 8-21 3-3
20; Landen Grant 1-3 0-0 3; Leo Bullchild 4-10 0-0
10; Rodrick Carter 1-6 0-0 2; Cory Brothers 0-2 4-4
4; Cody Gillespie 0-2 0-0 0; Dan Brigham 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 26-67 10-12 66.
UM-WESTERN (17-8, 6-3)
Brandon Day 2-4 0-0 4; Bo Segeberg 4-6 2-3 10; Derek Hibbert 0-2 2-2 2; Jeff Graham 0-3 4-5 4; Matt Luedtke 8-25 8-8 30;
Halftime score: UM-W 39, MSU-N 28. 3-point goals: MSU-N 4-21 (Matthews 1-7,
Grant 1-3, Bullchild 2-5, Carter 0-4, Brothers 0-1,
Gillespie 0-1), UM-W 10-29 (Day 0-1, Graham 0-3, Luedtke
6-17, Myers 0-1, Palmer 4-7). Rebounds: MSU-N 42 (Matthews 11, Stovall 7); UM-W
35 (Segeberg 8, Hibbert 7)
Assists: MSU-N 9 (Stovall 3, Carter 3); UM-W 8 (Palmer 3, Cornelius 3).
Turnovers: MSU-N 17, UM-W 16. Total fouls: MSU-N 22, UM-W 11. Fouled out: none;
Technicals: none.