Skylights,
Lights face
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Pardon the Montana State University-Northern basketball teams for not
getting nostalgic when discussing the Warrior Gym on the
For the Skylights and Lights players and coaches, the best part of the
historic old gym is that it is now history.
Northern will instead be playing in the brand new $15 million
The old gym has been called many things by players and coaches over the
year. Some adjectives that come to mind are: tiny, cramped, claustrophobic,
tight and ridiculously small. But there have been more colorful descriptions
like: cracker box, band box, high school gym and cave.
Regardless, the distinct home-court advantage of Warrior Gym is now gone
with the introduction of the spanking new and spacious activity center.
Neither of Northern's coaches are
exactly sad to see it go.
"It was a difficult place to play," said Skylights head coach
Said Lights head coach
Hopefully the new surroundings will translate to better success at LC,
because the Skylights and Lights, or most teams in the conference for that
matter, haven't had much success there.
Erickson and the Skylights will be out to exchange places with the Warriors
in the Frontier Conference standings. The Warriors come into tonight in a
second- place tie with UM-Western, while carrying a 7-3 league record and an
18-8 record overall.
Northern sits a half game back at 7-4 with a 21-8 overall record. A win
tonight could figure big in the race for the conference tournament's second
seed.
"We want to win every time we step on the floor," Erickson said.
"But we know how important these next three games are for us. Finishing
second in the season would be big."
But that's a few weeks down the road. Erickson's main focus has been a Lewis-Clark
squad that features a solid mixture of size, athleticism and quickness and is
ripe for revenge, following a 74-56 thrashing at the hands of the Skylights on
Jan. 22 in Havre.
"They are going to be fired up and ready to play us," Erickson
said. "We expect a very physical game. It always is when you go there. You
need to play strong against LC."
The Warriors are led by forward Ashley Baker, who is one of the most
explosive players in the conference, averaging 15.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per
game.
Baker dropped 21 points and 15 rebounds on the Skylights in the first
meeting. Lewis-Clark will also be playing on a lot of emotion as point guard
Nikki Haerling will be joining the team this weekend
for the first time since tragedy struck her family a month ago. Haerling's grandfather and younger sister were killed in a
car crash near Moses Lake, Wash., on their way to watch Haerling
play on Jan. 29.
"It sounds like Haerling is going to
play," Erickson said. "It will be her first game back and they will
be playing with a lot of emotion."
Haerling is a solid decision maker who can shoot
from the outside and is averaging 14.8 points a game.
Lewis-Clark averages 75 points per game and leads the conference in
rebounding, pulling down 36 boards a game. It's an area in which Erickson wants
to see his team improve.
"They beat us up on the boards the first time," he said. "We
can't have that happen again. We gave them second chances last time, but they
weren't shooting well. We can't expect that to happen again."
The Warriors were downright frigid from the outside against Northern.
Lewis-Clark was just 4-27 from 3-point range and top long-range shooter Cami Kalbfleisch went scoreless
in the game.
"Our defense had something to do with their shooting," Erickson
said. "We got right up into them and forced them out further."
The one thing Erickson couldn't control this week was the health of his
team. All but one Skylight player - Jaci Heny - has been battling cold and flu-like symptoms. The
sickness has hit all of the Northern teams and it got so bad that Erickson
didn't even practice on Tuesday.
"Everybody's got it but Jaci, even the
coaches," he said. "This means that we aren't going to play as long
of stretches and our bench will be really important."
The Lights have also been battling sickness, but they are more
sick of losing on the road. Northern hasn't won a game on the road in
the conference season and is mired in a four-game losing streak. That recent
run of bad luck doesn't bode well as the Lights face what should be the
toughest road trip of the season.
"There is no doubt that this will be our toughest road test," Huse
said. "We have LC tonight and
Indeed, Lewis-Clark sits in third in the conference standings with a 7-3
record. However, one of Northern's three conference
wins came against the Warriors in Havre.
"They are definitely looking of a little revenge," Huse said.
"They weren't real happy about getting beat up here and they are going to
come out fired up."
There may not be a more athletic team in the conference than the Warriors.
Every player who steps on the floor is capable of putting up big numbers on any
given night.
Senior guard Danny Allen averages 14 points per game, while 6-9 forward
Martin Brothers adds 13.2 points and 6.7 rebounds a game. Both are
all-conference players who can dominate. Also joining them is shooting guard
Joey Ray, who missed the trip to Havre earlier this season. Ray is a deadly
shooter who can get hot in a hurry.
The Warriors have solid size in 6-9 Jared Tikker
and 6-8 James Idoko and 6-5 slasher
John Moore.
"They have so much size and athleticism," Huse said. "It's a
real challenge for us defensively."
Northern's road woes have caused some sleepless
nights for Huse, but he still remains positive.
"We're on the verge of breaking through," Huse said. "I
really believe we are close. It just comes down to doing all those little
things for 40 minutes to get that win."
Tonight's games can be heard locally on 92.5 KPQX-FM.