In the home opener of Frontier Conference action, the MSU-Northern basketball teams treated the Armory Gymnasium crowds to two thrilling matchups against Montana Tech on Thursday night.
For the Skylights, they pulled out a (52-51) overtime victory. Sophomore guard Taya Trottier ended up recording the game-winning three-pointer with 6.5 seconds left. She hit three 3-pointers in the overtime session to account for her nine points in the ballgame. Sophomore guard Rachel VanBlaricom ended up leading the Skylights in points and was the only one in double-figures with 10. Northern was able to cause foul trouble for some of Tech’s important players, so between that and being a plus-14 in rebounds over the No. 1 rebounding team in the Frontier, that is how they pulled off the victory.
For the Lights, the game was just as contentious, but the result was not the same as they fell to the No. 7 Orediggers, (62-60). A brutal stretch of play and costly calls costed the Lights a chance to contend for the victory. Senior guard Zack Martinez led everyone with 13 points, while sophomore guard Dae’Kwon Watson scored 12 points, but only three of those in the second half. Tech got clutch shooting down the stretch from Michael Are to turn the game around from a (51-48) deficit to a (54-51) lead with back-to-back threes. Hayden Diekhans also played well late, scoring 12 for the Orediggers.
The Skylights (7-7, 1-1 in the Frontier) and the Lights (8-7, 0-2) are scheduled to be in Billings to play Rocky Mountain College on Saturday with a 2pm tipoff.
