Lights, Skylights head to Great Falls

Friday, Jan. 19

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

gferguson@havredailynews.com

Both the Montana State University-Northern men’s and women’s basketball teams are used to playing on the road. The Lights and Skylights have had very few home games over the last two months.

So it won’t be a shock for either team to make the short trip to Great Falls on Saturday night for a meeting with the University of Great Falls.

The Skylights will play UGF at 6 p.m. on Saturday and the Lights and Argos will tip off at 8 p.m.

The Skylights enter Saturday night’s tilt with a 2-2 record in Frontier play, and even though it is the first meeting of the conference season between MSU-N and UGF, the two teams are familiar with one another. MSU-N beat the Argos in a nonconference game on Nov. 21 in Great Falls.

“This is an interesting weekend for us,” Skylights head coach Chris Mouat said. “It’s a short trip to Great Falls and we’re only playing one game. And we have already faced each other once this season.”

UGF (0-4, 2-15) has struggled this season under the direction of first-year head coach Shawn Chaffin. The Argos have won just twice this season and are off to a winless start in league play. That coming on the heels of a last-place finish in 2006.

But records aside, Mouat isn’t taking the Argos lightly.

“UGF is a dangerous team,” Mouat said. “I think coach Chaffin has done a really good job so far and I think you’re going to see them get better as the season goes on.

“We expect them to bring a really big effort defensively,” he added. “I expect them to mix it up against us and throw a little bit of everything at us. So our goal is to just go in there and be better than we were last weekend.”

On offense, the Argos certainly don’t lack scoring power. Former MSU-N guard Laura Keaster leads the league in scoring at 20.1 points per game. Meghan Shwantes and Lesly Richter are also averaging in double figures.

But as good as UGF can be offensively, Northern is just worried about doing their own thing. The Skylights looked extremely sharp last Friday in a double-digit win over Westminster College in Havre. But in a close loss to No. 2 LC State on Saturday night, MSU-N turned the ball over 23 times and gave up 18 offensive rebounds. Northern had the same problems in a difficult loss at Carroll College two weeks ago.

“When we play at a high level and don’t turn the ball over, I feel like we’re as good as anybody,” Mouat said. “But when we are careless and get sloppy, we struggle. So that is our focus this weekend. Just putting together a complete game. We’ve got to do a better job on the boards and take better care of the ball.”

Aside from the turnovers, MSU-N’s guard play has been steady as of late, especially with the emergence of senior Jenna Heggem as a legitimate scoring threat. But the Skylights will still look to get the ball into All-Conference forwards DeLayne Johnston and Michele VanDyke. Johnston leads MSU-N with 15.9 points and seven rebounds per game. VanDyke averages 10 points and six boards. MSU-N is also getting good production from former UGF forward Jayla McPherson, who will be making her second trip back to Great Falls since transferring from UGF two years ago. Junior Ashley Trulock also played extremely well last weekend until she hurt her foot against LC State. But Trulock is expected to play on Saturday night.

“Ashley is a little sore but she’ll play,” Mouat said. “Even though last weekend was very physical, I think we’re rested and ready to play well on Saturday night.”

The men’s game between MSU-N and UGF is also an interesting matchup. Like the UGF women, the Argos are winless in Frontier Conference play. That is somewhat of a surprise considering the Argos went 11-5 in nonconference play.

Meanwhile, the Lights had a very similar weekend to the Skylights last weekend in Havre. MSU-N handled Westminster fairly easily on Friday night, but lost to LC State on Saturday night despite playing well. That leaves MSU-N at 2-2 in league play coming into its lone game this weekend.

And despite UGF’s 0-4 start in conference play, Lights head coach Shawn Huse knows what the Argos bring to the table.

“Their conference record doesn’t show how talented and capable they are,” Huse said of the Argos. “They have played really close games, especially with Carroll, and if they had gotten some breaks, they could easily be 2-2 right now.

“I think UGF is very talented and very good,” he added. “And I still believe there are no easy night’s in this league. So that is the approach we have to take.”

Huse also knows how dangerous the Argos can be when sitting at the bottom of the league standings. Last year, the Lights barely escaped Great Falls with a win, and then lost to the Argos in Havre on the final night of the regular season. That loss most likely kept MSU-N from getting an at-large bid to the NAIA tournament.

And just like last season, the Argos have some of the best individual talent in the league again this year. UGF boasts the Frontier’s leading scorer in 6-4 swingman Tyrone Witherspoon. Witherspoon comes into Saturday night’s game averaging 18 points, seven rebounds and two blocks per game. The Argos are also getting an additional 13 points and seven rebounds from 6-7 Rashaun Puryear as well as 10 and nine points from Keon Polee and former Big Sandy standout Jay Jamieson, respectively. Jamieson transferred to UGF this season from Montana State University-Billings.

Meanwhile, the Lights’ offense is still somewhat of a mystery this season. Delvaughn Tinned is third in the league in scoring at 16 points per game. And he is hitting on 42 percent of his 3-pointers. Senior Ronnie Simpson is the only other MSU-N player to average double figures with 10 points per outing. Northern has four players that all average around nine points per game. And the Lights are third in the league in scoring but last in total field goal percentage. But at this point, Huse doesn’t see that as much of a concern.

“First, I really don’t get too carried away with the stats until everybody has played each other once,” he said. “There is a lot of season left and a lot is going to happen.

“But the fact that we’re last in shooting and still winning games is a good thing to me,” he added. “It shows we’re doing some of the little things and finding ways to get it done. I still feel like we’re a very balanced team and I think we’re very tough to defend every night.”

And Huse is hoping that balance pays off Saturday night against the Argos. With only one game on the docket this weekend and trips to UM-Western and Montana Tech upcoming, Huse does believe that the game at UGF will be critical.

“This is a big game,” Huse said. “It won’t make or break our season. But it is important for us to go down there an play well. We just want to go out and make sure we do things that we do well.”

The Skylights and Argos will tip off at 6 p.m. on Saturday and the Lights and Argos will play at 8 p.m. All of the action will take place at the McLaughlin Center in Great Falls.