Lights cruise in wins over Canadian schools
Monday, Dec. 4
Chris Peterson
Havre Daily News
cpeterson@havredailynews.com
Everything went according to plan for the Montana State University-Northern men’s basketball team this weekend, as the Lights picked up a pair of easy victories in the AmericInn Classic at the MSU-Northern Fieldhouse.
After an
easy win Friday night over The King’s University by the score of 92-56, the
Lights turned their attention to the
For the second night in a row, the game ended up not being much of a contest. Northern controlled the game from the opening tap to the final buzzer on its way to a dominating 106-45 victory.
“It’s always nice to win no matter where you play or who you play against,” MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. “I thought that, overall, we played very well in both of the games that we played this weekend. We played really unselfish. The guys did a good job of playing together, and it was just a nice effort overall by everybody.”
The Vikings never really got close to the Lights, trailing 34-13 about halfway through the first half and 49-20 at halftime.
Even with a 29-point halftime lead, the play of the Lights saw little decline as they continued to extend their lead throughout the second half, outscoring the Vikings 57-26 in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Drew Pettersen had a solid game in the win with team highs in points and rebounds. Pettersen scored 18 points and grabbed 11 boards, giving him a double-double in the win.
Northern had four other players who managed to score in double figures led by Cody Gillespie, who scored 17 points, in part because of four 3-pointers. Erv Simms added 16 points in the win, while Durwin Williams and Andrew Sellars contributed 12 points and 11 points, respectively.
Defensively, the Lights held the Vikings without a scorer in double figures. The Vikings managed to shoot just 35 percent from the floor.
“We had a lot of guys that got to play good minutes tonight, and I thought it was a good experience for everyone,” Huse said. “We did a lot of good things on offense and we did a nice job on defense. This is the kind of game where you can lose focus and get sloppy, and that is something we didn’t do at all.”
On Friday night, the Lights faced The King’s University in their opening game of the AmericInn Classic.
The Lights took it to the Eagles and never let up on their way to a convincing 92-56 win.
Delvaughn Tinned hit three trey's on his way to a team-high 18 points in the win for Northern. Simms added 14 points and Cory Brothers also contributed 13 points for the Lights.
Aron Balakrishnan led the way for the Eagles with 13 points. Cecil Israel and Simon Doty also added 12 points a piece in the loss.
MSU-N handed the Eagles just their second defeat of the season.
“I think we had a lot of positive things happen this weekend for us,” Huse said. “I think that individually just about everyone played well. I thought that everyone passed the ball pretty well and they looked to get each other involved in the game.
“At this point in the season you just want to go out and get better in every game,” he added. “And I think that we did that this weekend, and now we have got to keep working to get ourselves prepared for conference play.”
MSU-N won’t be back in action until Dec. 15 when the Lights host NCAA Division II Dixie College.
Lights 92, Eagles 56
KU — Cecil Israel 5-10 1-3 12, Aron Balakrishnan 5-9 3-4 13, Brendan McKay 0-1 0-1 0, Terry Seinen 2-5 0-0 4, Simon Doty 6-12 0-0 12, Paul Dhillon 1-4 0-0 3, Chris Aubrey 0-0 0-2 0, Lewis Kelly 3-3 2-2 8, Sam Smiley 1-3 2-2 4. Totals: 23-47 8-14 56.
MSU-N — Erv Sims 7-8 0-1 14, Drew Pettersen 4-6 2-2 10, Delvaughn Tinnod 5-11 5-6 18, Cory Brothers 6-8 0-0 13, Brian Erickson 3-4 0-0 6, Dustin Feasel 1-3 0-0 2, Leo Bullchild 4-7 0-0 10, Durwin Williams 1-2 2-2 4, Cody Gillespie 1-5 3-4 5, Ronnie SIpson 4-8 0-0 8, Kyle Stone 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 37-64 12-15 92.
Halftime: MSUN 54-29. Three-pointers: KU 2-7 (Israel 1-2, Doty 0-1, Dhillon 1-3, Smiley 0-1), MSUN 6-17 (Tinned 3-7, Brothers 1-1, Erickson 0-1, Feasel 0-1, Bullchild 2-3, Sellars 0-1, Gillespie 0-1, Simpson 0-2). Rebounds: KU 24 (3 tied with 3), MSUN 35 (Petterson 8). Fouls: KU 13, MSUN 16. Fouled out: none. Assists: KU 12 (Balakrishnan 5), MSUN 26 (Erickson 7). Turnovers: KU 23, MSUN 15.
Lights 106, Vikings 45
UAA — Jonathan Honey 2-7 0-0 4, Brendin Huculak 1-6 1-2 4,
Joshua Schofield 1-7 0-0 3, Mike McCorquindale 2-4 0-1 4, Will McInnes 2-6 0-0
4,
MSU-N — Erv Sims 5-7 6-7 16, Drew Pettersen 5-12 8-918, Leo Bullchild1-6 0-0 3, Delvaughn Tinned 3-8 2-2 9, Cory Brothers 2-4 2-3 6, Dustin Feasel 1-3 0-0 2, Brian Erickson 2-3 0-0 4, Durwin Williams 6-11 0-0 12, Andrew Sellars 4-4 1-2 12, Cody Gillespie 6-12 1-2 17, Ronnie Simpson 4-7 0-0 8.
Halftime: MSUN 49-20. Three-pointers : UAA 4-16 ( Honey 0-2, Huculak 1-3, Schofield 1-4, McCorquindale 0-1, Ness 0-2, Barnes 2-3, Sohn 1-2), MSUN 8-21 ( Bullchild 1-4, Tinned 1-6, Brothers 0-1, Feasel 0-2, Sellars 2-2, Gillespie 4-6). Rebounds: UAA 23 (Honey 6), MSUN 29 (Petterson 11). Fouls: UAA 19, MSUN 13. Fouled Out: McInnes. Assists: UAA 11 (Two tied with 2), MSUN 26 (three tied with four). Turnovers: UAA 28, MSUN 7.