Lights and Skylights road woes continue at Westminster

George Ferguson

Havre Daily News sports editor

gferguson@havredailynews.com

The road trip to Salt Lake City and Lewiston, Idaho has never been kind to the Montana State University-Northern men’s and women’s basketball teams. And this weekend was no exception.

On the heels of losses at Lewis-Clark State on Thursday night, the Lights and Skylights found themselves on the losing end of games at Westminster College on Saturday.

The MSU-N women fell victim to a vicious 3-point attack by Westminster in a 94-72 loss on Saturday. The Griffins attempted 36 three’s and connected on 14 of them en route to the victory. Westminster used a 52-point second-half explosion to break open a five-point game at halftime.

The Griffins shot an astounding 60 percent from the field in the win and had six players in double figures, including a 24-point outing from Shannon Evans. Evans connected on six 3-point attempts and also dished out seven assists. Alicia Haberle also made three long-range bombs and Breanne Haslam gave the Griffins 17 points off the bench.

The loss to Westminster overshadowed a 24-point 10-rebound performance from MSU-N senior DeLayne Johnston. Beck Sorenson was the only other Skylight to reach double figures with 12 points. Aside from the 3-point shooting by Westminster, MSU-N also got outrebounded 24-28.

The loss drops the Skylights’ Frontier record to 4-7 on the season. The Skylights (15-10) have just three conference games left before the league tournament in Butte next month.

Meanwhile, the MSU-N men also found nothing but pain in Salt Lake on Saturday. The Lights couldn’t overcome a hot-shooting night by Westminster in a 72-51 loss to the Griffins.

Westminster shot better than 56 percent from the floor in both 20-minute halves and got a game-high 24 points form point guard Danny Reeder.

The Lights battled throughout, and pulled to within seven points late in the contest, but they could never completely climb back into the game.

Northern had just one double-digit scorer in junior Erv Sims. Sims poured in 11 points and grabbed five rebounds. Drew Pettersen added nine points and Durwin Williams came off the bench to score eight. Westminster’s defense held the league’s second-leading scorer, MSU-N’s Delvaughn Tinned to just seven points.

With losses at LC State and Westminster, MSU-N(6-5, 16-10) dropped into a tie with Rocky Mountain College for fourth in the league standings.

The Lights and Skylights finish the regular season with three straight home games, starting Saturday night against the University of Great Falls.

Griffins 94, Skylights 72

MSU-N — Chelsie Searle 3-7 1-2 8, Becky Sorenson 5-11 0-0 12, DeLayne Johnston 10-15 3-5 23, Jena Heggem 1-3 2-2 5, Michele VanDyke 3-5 2-6 8, Kylee Starr 1-3 3-3 5, Amanda Hovey 1-1 0-0 3, Jayla McPherson 3-5 0-0 6, Ashley Trulock 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: 28-55 11-18 72.

WC — Shannon Evans 8-15 2-2 24, Alicia Haberle 4-14 0-0 11, Jordan Eckman 3-6 4-5 10, Elisa Leader 4-12 0-0 10, Mara Hoskins 4-6 3-4 12, Kelsi Redmond 1-3 2-2 4, Tiff Dodge 2-2 0-0 6, Breanne Haslam 8-9 1-2 17. Totals: 34-67 12-15 94.

Halftime: WC 42, MSU-N 37. 3-pointers: MSU-N 5-12 (Searle 1, Sorenson 2, Heggem 1, Hovey 1), WC 14-36 (Evans 6, Haberle 3, Leader 2, Hoskins 1, Dodge 2). Rebounds: MSU-N 28 (Johnston 10), WC 34 (Eckman 8). Fouls: MSU-N 14, WC 16. Fouled out: None.

Griffins 72, Lights 51

MSU-N — Erv Sims 5-10 1-3 11, Drew Pettersen 4-10 2-2 9, Delvaughn Tinned 2-7 2-2 7, Cory Brothers 1-4 0-0 2, Brian Erickson 0-2 2-2 2, Leo Bullchild 1-6 0-0 3, Durwin Williams 3-3 2-2 8, Marcus Wilson 1-3 0-0 2, Ronnie Simpson 2-6 2-5 7. Totals: 19-51 10-17 51.

WC — Danny Reeder 9-12 3-5 24, Jordan Jacobs 3-6 1-2 10, Danny Stoisch 5-8 2-4 13, Nate Sanchez 3-7 6-6 12, James Thompson 2-3 0-0 4, Les Brown 0-1 2-6 2, Lance Brown 1-1 0-0 2, Tanner Gregory 0-1 2-2 2, Eric Anderson 0-1 1-2 1. Totals: 24-44 17-27 72.

Halftime: WC 41, MSU-N 29. 3-pointers: MSU-N 3-12 (Tinned 1, Bullchild 1, Simpson 1), WC 7-15 (Reeder 3, Jacobs 3, Stoisch 1). Rebounds: MSU-N 22 (Sims 5), WC 33 (Stoisch 9). Fouls: MSU-N 18, WC 18. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: Erickson.