Frontier Conference Notebook

Thursday, Jan. 18

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

gferguson@havredailynews.com

After two weeks of Frontier Conference basketball, a few things are becoming quite clear.

First off, Lewis-Clark State University probably has the best 1-2 punch in the league this season with both their men’s and women’s teams rated in the NAIA Top 25. That is usually a spot reserved for Carroll College, and while both Saints’ teams are also in the Top 25 again this week, no one can question what LC State did on the road last weekend. Both Warriors teams went undefeated in games at the University of Great Falls and Montana State University-Northern, and they did it in impressive fashion.

The other fact that is starting to take shape early on is that the Frontier women might just have the best league in all of NAIA basketball. Supporting that fact is UM-Western’s 20-point demolishing of Carroll on Saturday night in Dillon. The Bulldogs handed the Saints their first loss of the season. That, coupled with LC State’s win in Havre on Saturday night has the Warriors and Bulldogs both ranked in the NAIA Top 25.

LC State (17-1) moved up two spots to take the No. 2 ranking in the nation. The Warriors are undefeated in conference play as are the Bulldogs (18-1) who are ranked sixth in the nation this week. That sets up a huge national matchup tonight between the Warriors and Bulldogs in Lewiston, Idaho. The winner of tonight’s battle will strike the first blow in not only the race for the Frontier crown, but also a possible No. 1 seed in the NAIA tournament in March.

Despite Carroll’s loss to Western, the Saints are still 18-1 overall, 2-1 in conference play and are ranked 13th in the country. That means that the Frontier has three one-loss teams giving the conference an extremely strong NAIA power ranking.

MSU-Northern (14-5, 2-2), Montana Tech (13-4, 1-2) and Westminster College (13-6, 1-2) all boast winning overall records which means 75 percent of the league is above .500 with a good portion of the NAIA season already over. Tech and Northern received votes this week in the NAIA poll. So come March, the league should get at least four teams into the NAIA tournament for the second straight season. And despite the fact that all of the Frontier schools will continue to beat up on each other over the next month, the league could be looking at a record five bids to the tournament if everything shakes out just right.

While the Frontier women have five-to-six dominant teams on the national level, nobody on the men’s side has really stepped to the forefront other than LC State and Carroll. The Warriors look like the most talented team in the conference at the moment. After wins against Westminster, UGF and MSU-N to start the season, LC State (14-4, 3-0) has climbed to No. 23 in the NAIA rankings. And this week, the Warriors face Western and Tech at home, meaning a 5-0 start in league play is a good possibility.

Meanwhile, Carroll sits atop the Frontier standings at 4-0. The Saints, who are 14-5 overall, are ranked No. 20 in the nation this week, but they have struggled in close wins against MSU-N at home two weeks ago, and most recently, the Saints had to pull out a 101-99 double-overtime victory at Western on Saturday night to keep their hold on the league standings.

At the middle of the pack in the league is a few surprises. Former MSU-N assistant coach Nate Larson has Tech off to a 2-1 start despite a sub-.500 nonconference season. And Rocky Mountain College (12-8, 2-2) is off to a less-than-stellar start in league play after many picked the Bears to compete for the conference crown.

Then there is MSU-N (12-7, 4-4), UGF (11-9, 0-4) and Westminster (9-9, 1-2). The Lights look like one of the most talented teams in the league, but they have been up-and-down offensively in four conference games so far. Meanwhile, the Griffins, who were a unanimous pick to win the league crown, clearly miss the services of two-time All-Conference performer Nick Booth who is out for the season with a knee injury. And UGF, which got off to a fast start in the nonconference season, has lost four straight games to open league play.

This week’s most critical men’s game will take place in Helena on Friday night when RMC visits Carroll. The game could literally make or break Rocky’s regular season, while a Carroll victory could mean both the Saints and LC State will be undefeated when they meet for the first time next week in Helena.