The MSU-Northern basketball teams played a regular season finale in Helena on Saturday and were swept by Carroll College. The Lights took the court first and lost, (87-78), while the Skylights were blown out by the No. 8 Fightin’ Saints, (83-53)
For the Lights, who finish the regular season with an (11-17) overall record, including (3-12) in the Frontier Conference, They were led once again in the Carroll game by Zack Martinez, who had a game-high 21 points. Sophomore guard Dae’Kwon Watson contributed 19, while junior forward Xavier Bailey had 13 2nd half points. Northern once again couldn’t stop the prolific scoring of Andrew Cook and Kendall Moore, who each had 21 for the victorious Saints.
For the Skylights, they closed the regular season with records of (11-17, 5-10) and played a great first quarter against a nationally ranked Carroll squad, trailing by a point after 10 minutes. The fun was over after the inbounds pass to begin the second quarter because the Saints came out on a (20-7) run and didn’t let up for the rest of the contest. Reigning Frontier Conference Player of the week and year Jamie Pickens continued her masterful season and showed out for the PE Center crowd on Senior Day, scoring 25 points and grabbing seven rebounds. MSU-N was led by junior forward Shyan Krass, who was the only Skylight in double-figures with 12 points.
The Frontier Conference Tournament is happening next week and MSU-Northern will bring the No. 5 seeded Lights and the No. 4 Skylights. The Lights will take the court first at 1pm and play Montana Western and the Skylights will face Rocky Mountain College in first round action around 5pm. Listen to those games on KPQX-92.5FM and HiLineToday.com.
