Lights take a leap with win over DSU
By Ryan Divish/Havre Daily News Sports Editor/rdivish@havredailynews.com
Head coach Shawn Huse may measure the success of his Montana State
University-Northern men's basketball team in baby steps.
But his Lights took an adult leap on Thursday night with an 81-73 win over the
Dickinson State Bluehawks at the MSU-Northern gymnasium.
Transfer point guard Antonio Jordan hit a difficult 16-foot jumpshot with time
dwindling on the shot clock, and sank three of four free throws in final 25
seconds to secure Northern's third win of the season.
"It's starting to come around," Huse said. "We're taking baby
steps right now, but this is a very good win for us."
In a game that had Frontier Conference-type intensity, and Frontier
Conference-type talent, Northern and Dickinson exchanged leads early and often,
with the Lights outlasting the Bluehawks down the stretch.
"Dickinson has a team and the talent similar to our conference," Huse
said. "It really was like a conference game in terms of intensity and
physicalness of play."
DSU, which was playing in its first game of the
season, played like it was its fifth or sixth game. The Bluehawks, who are
ranked 16th in NAIA Division II, came out aggressive on both ends of the floor,
forcing Northern into some turnovers that led to easy baskets.
"They came out a lot more aggressive than any of the other teams we've
played this season," said junior post player Marcus Wilson. "It's
tough to prepare for it, you just have to react to it."
Said Huse: "It took us a half to get used to their pressure. You just
cannot prepare for it. You can talk and talk about it. We knew it was coming.
But until they experience it, you just don't know."
Northern's experience in the first half was not good. The Lights turned the
ball over 10 times. They also surrendered six offensive rebounds.
"We got careless with the ball and they beat us up on the boards,"
Huse said. "But we were still able to keep things close in the first
half."
Things stayed closed thanks to the Lights' three-point shooting. Northern sank
six three-pointers in the first half -two each from Landen Grant and Jordan
Matthews
The hot shooting even pushed Northern ahead late in the first half, going up
seven on a Pathe Yatera putback. DSU rallied behind Ryan Rostvold's four-point
play and two free throws to retake the lead at 34-33, and eventually a 36-35 halftime
lead.
For as uncomfortable as Northern looked against DSU's pressure, Huse was more
than happy to be only down by one.
"We did what we had to do to keep things close," he said. "We
made some mistakes, but we were able to do enough to offset them."
The Lights would be much more comfortable in the second half, having already
seen 20 minutes of pressure.
Northern retook the lead immediately in the second half on a pair of baskets by
It would take the better part of eight minutes for Northern retake the lead,
using a mixture of outside jump shots and scores inside. Unlike the first half,
the Lights had little trouble getting good looks.
"We started to get settled in against them," Huse said. "Once we
started getting some posts touches everything kind of opened up. We started
attacking and seeing some openings."
Northern steadily cut into the lead, getting baskets from Matthews, Wilson,
TimHutchins and Cory Brothers. A tough move inside by Reid Stovall put the
Lights up 52-51. Matthews followed it up with a three-pointer to extended the
lead to 55-53. From there both teams traded two and three-point leads.
The Lights stretched the lead to four points on a five consecutive points from
Rodrick Carter. But another Rostvold three-pointer gave the lead back to DSU at
71-69 with
"We tried all game to find the best defensive matchup with him, while
still maintaining some chemistry on offense," Huse said.
He found it in the true freshman and former HHS standout, Brothers, who held
Rostvold scoreless the remainder of the game.
With DSU's main offensive weapon neutralized, Northern went back to work.
"We got another nice team effort," Huse said. "We really do have
12 guys that can play in high pressure basketball games. I thought Rodrick,
Cory, Tim and Marcus really stepped up tonight for us. It seems like every
night it is somebody different stepping for us."
Wilson and Matthews led the balanced attack with 14 points each. Carter added
13 points off the bench, while
Rostvold was the only Bluehawk in double figures with 30 points.
Northern will be back in action Sunday at
"We can't just be satisfied with this win," Huse said. "We need
to carry it over against
DICKINSON STATE UNIVERSITY (73)
Derek Miller 2-6 0-0 4; Scott Klaudt 1-7 2-2 4; Chad Glasser 2-8 2-2 6; Willis
Woods 2-2 2-2 7; Ryan Rostvold 9-16 6-6 30; Fred Rurangirwa 3-5 0-0 7; Chris
Ortiz 2-3 0-0 4; Parfait Nayigihugu 1-1 0-2 2; Alex Perkins 1-1 0-0 2; Terrance
Anderson 1-1 0-0 2; Aaron Brown 1-2 2-2 5; Jake Schmitz 0-2 0-0 0. Totals:
24-54 14-16 73.
MSU-NORTHERN (81)
Reid Stovall 3-7 2-2 8; Marcus Wilson 6-8 2-3 14; Jordan Matthews 4-6 2-6 14;
Landen Grant 2-7 0-0 6; Antonio Jordan 3-6 5-6 12; Rodrick Carter 5-9 0-0 13;
Leo Bullchild 0-2 0-0 0; Cory Brothers 3-6 1-2 7; Cody Gillespie 1-2 0-0 3; Tim
Hutchins 1-4 0-0 2; Pathe Yatera 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 29-59 12-19 81.
Halftime score: DSU 36, MSU-N 35. Three-point goals: DSU 9-22 (Miller 0-1,
Klaudt 0-3, Glasser 0-3, Woods 1-1, Rostvold 6-11, Rurangirwa 1-2, Brown 1-1),
MSU-N 11-28 (Matthews 4-6, Grant 2-6, Jordan 1-4, Carter 3-5, Bullchild 0-1,
Brothers 0-2, Gillespie 1-2, Hutchins 0-1, Yatera 0-1). Rebounds: DSU 33
(Miller 8, Schmitz 7)l MSU-N (