MSU-Northern’s Frontier Conference tournament run has come to an end after a 72-70 loss in the semi-finals to Providence.
The game started with both teams scoring their first two baskets on dunks, in fact, it wasn’t until Sam Vining’s’ jump shot four-and-a-half minutes into the game, that we had someone score outside the paint. After that, MSUN’s offense was stifled. It seemed like all the shots were falling for the Argos, as they would go up 27-12 before Coach Huse would take a timeout. MSUN would get the lead back down to 10, eventually getting it down to 3 after a Zackry Martinez three, but he Argos would add two more, going into the half up 33-28. Martinez would score 14 of his 31 in the first half, shooting 5-9 from the field and 2-5 from behind the line. Martinez would also be the only Light with more than four points.
In the second half, it was again the shooting of Providence that would get them back out to a 10 point lead 1:30 into the half. For most of the half, MSUN never got closer than 10 to the Argos and would once again find themselves down 15 with 13:44 left to go in the game. MSUN would slowly start fighting their way back, getting it within five after a Dae’kwon Watson three to making 55-50. with 3:14 left to play, the Lights would finally tie the game up at 68 on Zackry Martinez’s third three of the half. The game would again be tied at 70 when Keltner would dunk the ball through the net. A steal by Jake Olsen, would lead to Marcus Stephens getting fouled by Keltner. With the Argos in the single-bonus, Stephens had a chance to put them up with only 22 seconds left to go. Stephens would miss the free throw however, with Keltner getting the rebound and Huse calling a timeout. MSUN would be able to inbound and hold the ball for the last shot of regulation, but Dae’kwon Watson would get tripped up by Eric Milner, but no would would be called and instead Watson was called for a travel. With 11 seconds left, MSUN was still in the middle of not only setting up their defense, but also a couple players still arguing the call. That left Jake Olsen all alone underneath the basket and he was able to get the easy layup to put Providence up by two. With no timeouts left and the clock ticking down, CJ Nelson go the ball and attempted a baseline jumper. That was unsuccessful, but Keltner had a chance to get the put back and tie the game. He would miss that and Martinez would get the second offensive rebound, but that point time had expired and he would’ve missed the shot anyways.
With that final buzzer, it meant that Providence was moving on and MSUN will have to wait, and hope, that they will be getting an at-large bid into the NAIA Opening Round.
Martinez scored 17 in the second half, including adding three more threes to his line. Keltner got 12 of his 14 in the second half and Watson scored seven of his nine in the second half as well. MSUN would force 17 turnovers and get 11 steals, three by Immanuel Anderson and CJ Nelson, two by Martinez and Watson.
Now MSUN will go back home and wait to see where the committee will put them in the tourney. I don’t think they are in trouble of missing it, bit they will most likely be a three or four seed and travel to someone else’s home court.
Stay tuned to Hilinetoday.com for updates on the National Tournament and for updates on MSUN as a whole.
