Lights begin postseason ride tonight against Bulldogs
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
Every college basketball team's goal at the beginning of the season is to be
playing in a postseason tournament. The Montana State University-Northern
Lights are no different.
But, because of an up-and-down season, the Lights are now faced with the
daunting task of having to win the 2006 Frontier Conference tournament in order
to keep their postseason dreams alive.
Northern (7-7, 18-11) finished the regular season in a three-way tie for third
place in the conference. Because of tiebreakers, the Lights are the fourth seed
as they open tournament play tonight at 8 at the MAC in Butte against
fifth-seeded UM-Western (7-7, 13-17).
What makes MSU-N's run to a conference
championship so difficult isn't just the inconsistency that has plagued its
offense all season. Finishing where the Lights did put them in the toughest
opening-round game of the tournament - the dreaded No. 4 versus No. 5 matchup.
“We knew down the stretch that we were going to have a really tough first-round
game,” veteran MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. “But we also know that in
order to go to the national tournament we're going to have to win this thing,
so we were going to have to beat three really good teams anyway.”
No matter who the Lights play this weekend, their success will rest solely on
whether or not they can find the basket. Northern has been at the bottom of the
league in field goal percentage for most of the season, and the Lights only
have two players who average in double figures in Jordan Matthews (16 ppg) and
Ronnie Simpson (11 ppg).
MSU-N has shown flashes of being a very good offensive team as illustrated in
impressive victories over the league's top two teams in
“Sometimes it really is a simple game,” Huse said. “We know we can play with
anybody in this tournament and we know that if we get hot we could win the
whole thing.
“But it is really going to come down to whether or not we make shots,” he added.
“It sounds pretty simple, but it is the truth. If we shoot the ball well, we'll
play well. If we don't, it is going to be tough for us to advance.”
UM-Western's season has been almost a mirror image of the Lights' campaign. The
Bulldogs' offense was nowhere to be found when the Lights beat them by 12
points on the opening night of the conference season in Dillon. But a month
later in Havre, Western returned the favor by shooting 56 percent from the
field in a double-digit win of its own.
Western's Ty Palmer, who had been leading the league in scoring for most of the
season, cooled off some down the stretch. But in Havre, 6-4 forward Wes Morales
picked up the slack by scoring a game-high 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.
Morales, Palmer and freshman sensation Charlie Cox give the Bulldogs plenty of
offensive firepower.
“Western is a lot like us in that they need to shoot the ball at a high
percentage to be successful,” Huse said. “And they are plenty capable of doing
that. They have a lot of really good shooters and they aren't shy about putting
the ball up.
“I also think Morales has made a huge difference,” he added. “They are playing
pretty well right now and he is a tough matchup for us. We didn't do a very
good job on him in Havre, so we're going to have to be better this time
around.”
Unlike the women's tournament, the men's tourney is a little top-heavy. Despite
bad losses in Havre, both Carroll (12-2, 25-3) and
“I think they are both heavy favorites,” Huse said. “Not only are they both
really good teams, but they are very experienced and they have a lot of veteran
players. That makes them very tough to beat in a tournament.”
But Northern has some leadership of its own. Couple that with the fact that the
Lights are the only team in the field to have beaten both the Saints and
Griffins this season, and one could make a strong case for the Lights as a dark
horse this week.
“Jordan (Matthews) has been pretty vocal this week,” Huse said. “He has talked
to the guys a lot about what we have to do in order to be successful and he
really appears like he is going into this tournament ready to lead us in one
way or another.
“I also think the guys have a lot of confidence because we did play very well
at times this season,” he added. “Again, it will all come down to how well we
shoot the ball.”
The winner of tonight's game between the Lights and Bulldogs will face the
top-seeded Saints at
The 2006 Men's Frontier Conference tournament will continue through Saturday
night in