Sweep: Lights beat Tech and Western at home

(Created: Monday, January 28, 2008 11:43 AM MST)

George Ferguson Havre Daily News sports editor gferguson@havredailynews.com

After Saturday night’s triumph at the MSU-Northern fieldhouse, the Montana State University-Northern men’s basketball team can put an early-season loss to the UM-Western Bulldogs behind it. In fact, after beating Montana Tech and Western at home over the weekend, the Lights are in good shape in the Frontier Conference standings heading into the bye week, and that’s critical because Northern will finish the season with five of its last seven games away from Havre. “It’s a good start to what is still a long season,” MSU-N junior Travis Noble said after the Lights beat Western on Saturday night. “There’s still a long way to go, but these games at home were huge. We have some tough road games coming up, so to defend our home court and take care of business like we did this weekend is big for us.” After putting Montana Tech away on Friday night, the Lights turned their attention to Western on Saturday. The Bulldogs soundly beat the Lights at a nonc onf e renc e tournament i n Dickinson, N.D., back in December, but this was Havre and the story was completely different. Noble hit a pair of 3-pointers to spark MSU-N to an 11-0 run early in the first half, before Western got three straight triples from Chad Meyers to even things back up. But the Lights closed the half by going inside to Derek Trembley and Drew Pettersen and led 38-31 at intermission. Western made sure the Lights were in for a dogfight in the second half, and when Myers nailed another three at the 9:03 mark, the Bulldogs were tied with the Lights 53-53. “We knew they would make a run,” MSU-N head coach Shawn Huse said. “They are a very talented team. But our guys never panicked. Shaun (Tatarka) came in and made some nice hustle plays and Delvaughn (Tinned) and Travis hot some big shots late for us. That’s what this group does. They just step up and make the plays and they are at their best when their best is needed. It’s been like that all season.” Indeed, the Lights opened the game back up on a 6-0 run by Clinton Shelton, which included a thunderous dunk that sent a large home crowd into a frenzy. And with Western threatening again, Tatarka took a key charge, and Tinned nailed an ice-cold three at the 1:28 mark which put the Bulldogs away for good and allowed MSU-N to win 68-59. “It was an all-around team effort which swung the game for us,” Noble said. “We had a few guys just step up and make some energy plays. It was a tough game and a long night for us, but as a team, we were able to step up and make enough plays to win.” And Noble was the catalyst for Northern, scoring 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting. He also drilled five three’s on the night. Trembley came off the bench to give Northern 14 points, while Tinned added 14 and Shelton finished with eight. “I thought Derek did a real nice job of sparking us in the first half,” Huse said. “And Travis is just so reliable. But really, I was most proud of the way we hung in there on defense. As a team, I thought we did a great job on Western all night, and that’s been a real trademark of this group. Their effort every night is tremendous.” And Northern’s effort on Friday night against Montana Tech was just as good. The Lights stifled the Orediggers and shot the ball well from the field in a 74-55 win which allowed MSU-N to go for the home sweep. A first-half 19-3 run by the Lights really hurt the Orediggers, and they had no answer for Pettersen, who scored a game-high 22 points to lead the way. “It’s a different game playing Tech,” Huse said. “They do such a good job of limiting possessions and spreading you out. So I thought our guys really handled that well. We shot the ball well and we rebounded well. We were just very efficient. “And Drew had a really big game for us,” he added. “At one point, I think he made six or seven shots in a row. He just continues to be a big part of our success and he always wants to get better. I expect he’s going to have more games like that for us down the stretch.”