Lewiston, Idaho- On the same night, both Montana State University-Northern basketball teams had to watch chances to beat the Lewis-Clark State Warriors on their home floor slip away.

In the case of the No. 11 Skylights, they watched as No. 2 LC State stormed back from a halftime deficit to win 58-51. It was the third loss this season to LC for the Skylights, and the second time Northern has lost to the Warriors in a single-digit game in the last three weeks.

"Our kids gave a great effort tonight," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "But, we missed free throws and some 3-pointers we needed to go down in the second half. If we make those, we give ourselves a chance to close the game out in the last two minutes. But we didn't, and they (Warriors) did. So all the credit to LC. They are a great team and they closed us out when they had the opportunity to do so."

Unlike last month in Havre, where Northern trailed for much of the game, the Skylights were neck-and-neck with the Warriors Thursday night.

MSU-N came out playing great defense, and got a couple of early buckets from Natalee Faupel, giving the Skylights a 13-8 lead. Offensively, Northern really caught fire in the second stanza, in particular Cydney Auzenne, who knocked down three 3-pointers, in helping MSU-N take a 28-24 cushion into halftime.

However, things started to flip in the third quarter. LC State rattled off a 9-0 run, sparked by the shooting of Megan Risinger, and by the time the quarter was over, the Warriors had nosed in front, 43-41. But, the deficit wasn't insurmountable, and the Skylights hung tough on thew defensive end the rest of the way. However, Northern's shooting went cold against the defensive minded Warriors, and in the final minutes, the Warriors were able to distance themselves with key stops and some free throws.

Defensively, Northern held the Warriors to a season low on offense, and, the Skylights were even with the NAIA's top rebounding team, 38-38, with senior Sierra Richards grabbing 15 boards. However, Northern wound up shooting just 33 percent from the field, and though the Skylights made seven triples, they were just 29 percent from beyond the arc.

Auzenne led the way with 14 points and four three's, while Faupel scored 12 and Jacy Thompson added 10. Katie Fertterer also hit a trey and scored seven, while LCSC got a combined 25 points from stars Brittany Tackett and Caelyn Orlandi.

"I thought we defended well, we rebounded well, we were right there," Mouat said. "The game was our style and our pace. But we didn't do a good job down the stretch. We've got to do better going forward."

The loss dropped Northern to 8-5 in the Frontier Conference and back into a second-place tie with UM-Western. LC State, at 13-1, clinched a share of the Frontier's regular season title with the win over the Skylights.

Northern (18-6) must regroup in a hurry as well, as the Skylights go to Butte Saturday for a third meeting with Montana Tech. The Orediggers beat UGF Thursday night and have had two very close calls against Northern.

"Montana Tech plays really hard and has a lot of talent," Mouat said. "Hattie Thatcher is back for them and she is such a great competitor. She just makes them go. We will have to do a great job on Martha Dembek who is among the league leaders in scoring. Tech has a lot of weapons and they do a nice job defensively."

STORY BY GEORGE FERGUSON, Havre Daily News