Great Falls, Mont.-  Back in early December, the Montana State University-Northern Skylights started Frontier Conference play with two tough road games. Fast forward one month and the Skylights are back on the road to restart Frontier play.

And, with a trip to nationally ranked Carroll College on the back half of the trip, Thursday night's game against No. 13 UGF was of the utmost importance. And the No. 11 Skylights played it that way as they downed the rival Argos 61-47 at the McLaughlin Center in Great Falls.

"We haven't played well here (Great Falls) the last couple of years," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "So it was big for us to come out and play well right away and we did that. We got a huge spark from our bench, with Peyton Filius hitting a big three, and Katie Fertterer having a monster game. And that second quarter, we just started making shots. That was nice. I thought we were efficient offensively, but in that second quarter, we got hot and that was a big difference."

Despite having not played since before Christmas, the Skylights came out ready against the talented Argos, as they took a quick 7-0 lead. UGF managed to battle back before the end of the first period, cutting Northern's lead to 13-12.

However, MSU-N put its defensive foot down in the second stanza, holding the Argos to just nine points, while buckets in the paint from Sierra Richards, who had a big night for Northern, helped the Skylights rattle off 23 points to lead 36-21. Northern increased its lead in the third period, and, with such a stifling performance defensively, the Skylights never let the high-scoring Argos get going. UGF came into the game averaging 72 points per game, but the Argos made just four 3-pointers, and Northern held them to just 32 percent from the field.

"I'm really proud of our defense," Mouat said. "Great Falls is such an explosive team, so to hold them down the way we did, that was huge. I'm just really proud of our defense and our rebounding tonight, and every player on the team had a hand in that."

Besides out-rebounding the taller Argos 44-35, Northern also made seven 3-pointers, including a clutch one from Filius, as well as three by Fertterer, who scored 13 points and grabbed 10 boards. Jacy Thompson added 11 points, while Natalee Faupel scored nine and dished out seven assists. Molly Kreycik added two threes, while Richards paced the Skylights with 17 points to go with five boards. UGF's Steph McDonagh led all scorers with 19 points, but no other Argos reached double figures as they fell to 0-3 in the Frontier.

Meanwhile, Northern improved to 2-1 in league play ahead of its fourth straight tough road game — a showdown with No. 25 Carroll Saturday night in Helena. And while Mouat knows his team will have his hands full, he says the win in Great Falls was very gratifying.

"The road is so tough in this league," Mouat said. "So to get this one tonight, it's a big one. We have a huge game Saturday with Carroll, so to win this first leg of this trip is so big. It's big for our confidence and our morale going into Saturday. I'm just really proud of our kids for coming down here and getting this one."

MSU-N and Carroll will meet at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Helena.

STORY BY GEORGE FERGUSON, Havre Daily News