Lights go down at Tech, fight back at UM-Western
Jan. 29, 2006
George Ferguson
Havre Daily News sports editor
gferguson@havredailynews.com
Most of the time, earning a split on the road in the Frontier Conference is like winning two games on your home floor. At least that’s the way the veteran coaches in the league tend to look at things.
But for the
Montana State University-Northern men’s basketball team, this weekend’s split
with Montana Tech and UM-Western was a somewhat bitter pill to swallow. The Lights
lost by four points to Tech in
Northern came into Friday night’s game with the Orediggers with a golden opportunity to stay in the mix of teams with a chance to win the league’s regular season title. The Lights were tied with Westminster for third place overall and a win over Tech would have gone a long way in keeping the Lights on the verge of challenging Carroll College and Lewis-Clark State for the top spot in the conference.
Instead, the sixth-place Orediggers were able to overcome several MSU-N second-half leads and pull out a 68-64 victory, giving former MSU-N assistant Nate Larson his first win over his old team.
At halftime, MSU-N clung to a 33-29 lead. The Lights went on a run to start the second half that increased that lead to 11 points. But Tech’s Jake Williams and Maurice Williams refused to let the Orediggers die. Both players hit key shots to bring the Diggers back time and time again, until they finally took the lead for good with two minutes remaining in the game.
“I think timely turnovers and missed opportunities to score when we were close to the basket did us in,” MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. “And credit Tech. They did a good job of getting to the foul line at the end of the game, and they made their free throws.”
Jake Williams was nearly unstoppable in the second half. He pumped in a game-high 22 points and Maurice Williams chipped in with 11 points, all coming in the final 20 minutes.
The Lights got a big effort from Delvaughn Tinned, who scored 20 points, including three 3-pointers. Cory Brothers added 11 points and a pair of threes in the difficult loss.
“It was a tough loss because we had chances to win,” Huse said. “But we just didn’t do enough late in the game.”
With one loss already in hand, Northern had the unenviable task of going to Dillon on Saturday night to take on a UM-Western team, which was riding high after its first victory of the season, a win over UGF on Friday night.
Despite the difficult scenario, MSU-N regrouped and found a way to hold the Bulldogs off, 76-69.
“I am really proud of the way our kids came back on Saturday night,” Huse said. “That was a tough game and we had to gut it out. Our guys did a really good job of staying focused and finding a way to get a win against a really good team.
According to Huse, Western is a good team despite their one win in conference play. The Bulldogs trailed MSU-N by just three points at halftime, and then wrestled the lead away from the Lights midway through the second half.
But Northern rode the hot shooting of senior Ronnie Simpson, who scored 20 points, and two critical threes from Simpson and senior Durwin Williams to a second-half comeback and a seven-point win that kept the Lights above .500 in league play. MSU-N did all of it without the services of starting forward Erv Sims, who left in the second half with a minor ankle injury.
“We had control of the game for the most part,” Huse said. “But there was a time when it could have gone either way. But when it came time to put the game way away, Ronnie and Durwin both hit big shots, and we were able to get it done.
“Western is a talented team and they played well,” he added. “But I am proud of our guys for bouncing back the way they did. It was a good win for us.”
Simpson’s 20 points came on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor and a stellar 9-of-12 performance from the free-throw line. Tinned tacked on 11 points and Sims had nine before he left the game.
“It was nice to see Ronnie get going again,” Huse said. “And I was really pleased with our guys for stopping Western’s posts when we had to. We had to get stops by committee at times and we were able to do that because of the effort of all of our guys.”
MSU-N’s defense also held the league’s second-leading scorer, Tyler Palmer, to just 11 points. Palmer came in averaging 17 points per game. Wes Morales paced the Bulldogs with 16 points.
The road
split leaves MSU-N at 4-3 in league play and 14-8 overall. Northern is in a
three-way tie for third place in the Frontier with
The Lights
will be back at home this weekend to take on Carroll on Friday night and
Orediggers 68, Lights 64
MSU-N — Erv Sims 2-2 2-3 6, Drew Pettersen 3-6 2-2 8, Delvaughn Tinned 7-13 3-4 20, Cory Brothers 4-8 1-2 11, Brian Erickson 1-4 2-2 4, Leo Bullchild 2-4 0-0 5, Durwin Williams 1-2 2-2 4, Marcus Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Ronnie SImpson 2-7 2-2 6. Totals 22-46 14-17 64.
TECH — Jake Williams 6-7 10-12 22, Casey Briggs 3-8 2-3 8, Shea Bradshaw 4-11 0-0 11, Matt Nottingham 0-4 0-0 0, Sam Conley 3-6 0-0 7, Luke Harman 1-2 0-0 3, Billy Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Tony Trudnowski 2-7 0-0 6, Nate Harris 0-1 0-0 0, D.C. Egge 0-0 0-0 0, Maurice Williams 5-7 1-1 11. Totals 24-53 13-16 68.
Halftime — Northern 33-29. 3-point goals — MSU-N 6-15 (Petersen 0-1, Tinned 3-5, Brothers 2-4, Bullchild 1-3, Simpson 0-2), TECH 7-18 (J. Williams 0-1, Bradshaw 3-6, Conley 1-2, Herman 1-1, Trudnowski 2-7, Harris 0-1). Rebounds — MSU-N 29 (Erickson 5, Simpson 5), TECH 26 (J. Williams 5). Assists — Northern 12 (Bullchild 3), Tech 10 (Briggs 4). Fouls — MSU-M 18, TECH 10. Fouled out — Williams. Technicals — none.
Lights 76, Bulldogs 69
MSU-N — Erv Sims 4-5 1-1 9, Drew Pettersen 3-8 0-1 6, Delvaughn Tinned 4-13 1-2 11, Cory Brothers 2-5 0-0 4, Brian Erickson 3-3 1-1 8, Leo Bullchild 1-2 4-4 7, Durwin Williams 2-2 0-0 5, Andrew Sellars 0-2 2-2 2, Marcus Wilson 2-6 0-0 4, Cody Gillespie 0-2 0-0 0, Ronnie Simpson 5-6 9-12 20, Kyle Stone 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 26-54 18-24.
UMW — Kellen Ori 7-12 0-0 14, Alex Head 5-6 0-1 10, Layne Glaus 0-4 2-2 2, Zach Pitts 0-4 0-0 0, Tyler Palmer 5-15 1-1 11, Gus McDonald 3-10 0-2 9, Chad Myers 1-4 0-0 2, Wes Morales 6-6 4-7 16, Aaron Sims 2-2 1-1 5, Bob Neiman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 29-63 8-14.
Halftime: MSU-N 31-28. Three-pointers: MSU-N 6-16 (Tinned 2-5, Pettersen 0-2, Gillespie 0-2, Brothers 0-1, Erickson 1-1, Bullchild 1-2, D. Williams 1-1, Simpson 1-1), UMW 3-22 (McDonald 3-10, Palmer 0-6, Pitts 0-2, Ori 0-2, Myers 0-2). Rebounds: MSU-N 37 (five with 4), UMW 31 (Ori 8). Fouls: MSUN 18, UMW 19. Fouled out: McDonald.