Lights spilt with
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
The Westminster College Griffins have been at or near the top of Frontier Conference men’s basketball for what seems like forever.
That is why Montana State University-Northern’s 64-51 thumping of the Griffins was extremely special to MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse even though the Griffins are under .500 and even though the game was, at times, very sloppy.
Unfortunately, the Lights couldn’t duplicate Friday night’s success. On Saturday night, Northern was soundly defeated by No. 25 Lewis-Clark State, meaning the Lights earned a home-split with the Frontier’s two out-of-state schools.
Coming into Friday night’s game at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse, Huse expected the Griffins to slow the pace of the game way down and try to take the air out of the basketball. What Huse didn’t know was if his Lights would be patient enough to handle that tempo for 40 minutes.
Huse got that question answered as MSU-N methodically picked apart the Griffins on both ends of the floor, especially in the second half.
Northern led just 24-21 after the first 20 minutes, but the Lights stayed poised, and broke the game open in the final five minutes.
Leading 46-42 with 4:47 remaining in the game, MSU-N reeled off a 13-2 run behind the stellar play of senior forward Durwin Williams and the steady influence of senior point guard Brian Erickson. The duo combined to score 23 points and grab 10 rebounds, and the late rally by the Lights finally broke the will of the Griffins.
“I thought
for the most part we played really well, and we executed our gameplan like I’d hoped,” Huse said. “I don’t care what
The win over the Griffins was the second in an as many seasons for the Lights in Havre. And it gives the Lights a boost in the Frontier standings. But Williams said that MSU-N had more to prove than just getting back into the win column.
“We were really determined to play hard for 40 minutes and we wanted to make sure we bounced back from the Carroll game,” Williams said. “This game was all about bouncing back and all of our guys played really hard.”
MSU-N did play hard, especially on defense. The Lights limited 2006 Frontier Player of the Year Danny Reeder to 5-of-17 shooting and just 13 points. Northern also held the Griffins to a dismal 1-of-16 night from the 3-point line.
Offensively, the Lights got 13 points from Williams and 10 from Erickson. Delvaughn Tinned chipped in with 12 points, and Erv Sims added 11 points and seven rebounds.
Northern
also got the services of senior Marcus Wilson back for the first time this
season.
“It’s really nice to have Marcus back,” Huse said. “He brings another dimension to our offense and he is a veteran player who certainly will help us as the season goes along.”
As good as the Lights played on Friday night, nothing could help MSU-N overcome what now looks to be one of the most talented teams in the Frontier on Saturday night as LC State claimed a 74-61 win in Havre.
“I think you really have to just credit LC State,” Huse said. “They outplayed us. They were very efficient, they shoot a good percentage from the floor and from the three, and they play good defense. They just played a complete game.”
The final score of Saturday night’s tilt told the story of how well the Warriors played, but not how well MSU-N battled.
Time and time again, the Lights charged back from big deficits until they just ran out of gas.
LC State, as expected, went inside early to center Mike Gordy, and as a result, built a 21-11 first-half lead. But MSU-N closed that gap thanks to a 3-pointer and a thunderous slam dunk by Cory Brothers. Northern cut the lead all the way down to two points with just two minutes left in the half. But LC State reeled off an 8-2 run to close the first half and lead 36-28.
That momentum carried over into the second half, and the Warriors quickly pushed their lead to 14 points at 44-30 before Brothers ended a four-minute MSU-N drought.
“I think the start to the second half was a critical,” Huse said. “We didn't’ play particularly well coming out of the lockerroom and we got into a little bit of a whole.
“I have to credit our kids for fighting the whole way,” he added. “But in the end, we just couldn’t make shots when we had to have them.”
Twice, MSU-N did make enough shots to trim the LC State lead. Leo Bullchild hit a trey that cut the lead to eight points midway through the half, and Erv Simms hit a big putback bucket to cut the lead to four points with 4:32 remaining. But Sims’ bucket is where MSU-N’s magic ran out, and the Warriors wound up putting the game away in a hurry.
“We had our chances,” Huse said. “But then we got a little careless. Right when we started to come back we started to commit some silly fouls and that hurt us. Those are mental breakdowns, and we can correct those things. But again, give credit to LC State. They came in here and played a complete game.”
Tinned led
the Lights in the loss with 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Brothers
chipped in with 11 points and four rebounds. Gordy, a
transfer from
The weekend
split with
Lights 64, Griffins 51
WC — Danny Reeder 5-17 2-2 13, Rob Holcombe 4-8 3-3 11, Danny Stoisch 1-1 3-4 5, Nate Sanchez 4-7 2-3 10, Tyler Heugly 1-2 0-0 2, James Thompson 3-3 0-0 6, Les Brown 1-3 2-4 4. Totals: 19-53 12-17 51.
MSU-N — Erv Sims 4-8 3-3 11, Drew Pettersen 2-2 0-0 4, Delvaughn Tinned 4-12 2-2 12, Cory Brothers 2-3 3-4 7, Brian Erickson 2-2 6-7 10, Colby Fetter 0-0 1-2 1, Durwin Williams 3-5 7-7 13, Marcus Wilson 2-4 1-2 5, Ronnie Simpson 0-2 1-4 1. Totals: 19-38 24-33 64.
Halftime — MSU-N 24, WC 21. Three-point goals — WC 1-6 (Reeder 1), MSU-N 2-8 (Tinned 2). Rebounds — WC 27 (Stoisch 5, Eric Andersen 5), MSU-N 31 (Sims 7, Erickson 6). Totals fouls — WC 24, MSU-N 17. Fouled out — Stoisch, Andersen.
Warriors 74, Lights 61
LCS — Keith Scarbrough 1-2 0-0 2, Mike Gordy 7-11 7-8 21, Chris Pitts 4-5 0-0 8, Napoleon Gordon 4-6 1-2 11, Teran Lee 4-9 7-8 16, Steve Thompson 4-5 2-2 10, Jared Tikker 1-5 0-0 2, Kevin Ochoa 1-1 0-0 2, Robert Comer 0-1 0-0 0, Jon Daly 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 27-47 17-20 74.
MSU-N — Erv Sims 3-5 0-0 6, Drew Pettersen 2-7 2-2 6, DelVaughn Tinned 6-13 0-0 15, Cory Brothers 5-7 0-0 11, Brian Erickson 1-2 0-0 2, Leo Bullchild 1-7 0-1 3, Durwin Williams 1-5 0-0 2, Andrew Sellars 0-3 0-0 0, Marcus Wilson 4-4 1-2 9, Ronnie Simpson 2-5 2-2 7. Totals: 25-58 5-7 61.
Halftime—LCS 36-38. 3-point goals—LCS 3-7 (Scarbrough 0-1, Gordy 0-1, Pitts
0-1, Gordon 2-2, Lee 1-1, Comer 0-1), MSU-N 6-24 (Pettersen
0-4, Tinned 3-7, Brothers 1-3, Erickson 0-1, Bullchild
1-4, Sellars 0-2, Simpson 1-3). Rebounds—LCS
31 (Thompson 7), MSUN 26 (