MSU-Northern women’s basketball broke a five-game Frontier Conference losing streak on Saturday, defeating Montana Western in overtime, (81-78). The game got spicy at the end with multiple ejections. Head coach Chris Mouat said that his team’s will to win was proven on the court that day, especially under duress.
“To be able to hold on and find a way to win in the end, on the road through some difficult circumstances, I just have to be proud of our kids,” Mouat said. “It was far from a masterpiece, but at the same time, a win is a win in this league and that’s really hard.”
“So to get back on that end of things felt good for our kids,” Mouat continued. “It made a long ride home a lot better. I’ll say that.”
“We just had some kids make some plays,” Mouat said. “Again, we hurt ourselves too much, but we found a way to get it done. It was a tough game, but a great one to win and we’re certainly ready to move on.”
Northern will be in Billings to start the week against a Rocky team that defeated them handily at the Armory Gym earlier this month, (67-44). Mouat said that from the end of the third quarter on that his team was nowhere near the level of the opponent and that moment in time is going to be dissected all week long before the next one.
“They are hard to score on. They take very good care of the ball. They do some things that make them hard to beat,” Mouat said. “They’re a nationally ranked team.”
“At the same time, I didn’t feel like we were that far out of it until the four-minute mark of the third quarter,” Mouat continued. “We just stopped scoring and they got going.”
“A four-point game turned into 23 really quickly,” Mouat said.
The Skylights will then be back home to take on Providence. Mouat said what kind of adjustments will be made against a team that is now back at full strength.
“We know we can play with them,” Mouat said. “(However, senior guard) Kolby Pimperton came back and played this last weekend and they got right.”
“They had two very big wins and they’re playing really well,” Mouat continued. “You’ll see them make a big jump nationally.”
“Everybody knows how good they are. They’re essentially the same team that played for a national championship (last season),” Mouat said. “We’ll have to be at the top of our game.”
Northern (11-9, 2-5) has a road test at No. 20 Rocky (13-7, 5-2) around 5pm on Thursday, followed by a Saturday matinee matchup with Providence inside the Armory Gym at 2pm. KPQX-92.5FM and HiLineToday.com has you covered with Noah Friedman on the call for Saturday’s games.
