Havre, Mont.-  The Montana State University-Northern Skylights had already beaten the UM-Western Bulldogs twice in Frontier Conference play. But, they needed to do it one more time.

Even with the two wins in hand over the resurgent Bulldogs, the Skylights needed to beat Western Friday night in order to secure a second-place finish in the Frontier.

And beat them they did. Thanks to a herculean effort from Natalee Faupel, the No. 15 Skylights completed the trifecta over No. 20 Western with a 57-53 win inside a raucous Armory Gymnasium.

"To beat this Western team three times, that's so incredibly difficult," Northern head coach Chris Mouat said. "They're a great team. But our kids had a goal at the beginning of the season, to get that first-round bye and host the semifinals. They really felt like they let that slip away last season. So to see them accomplish that tonight, especially having to beat a great Western team a third time to do it, it's special."

Special included Faupel, who wasn't afraid to put Northern on her shoulders when she had too. First, she answered an Aneise Palmore shot that had tied the game at 51-51 with 2:20 to play with a bucket of her own. And while Northern added two Cydney Auzenne free throws to go ahead 55-51, Faupel's heroics were still needed. Western pulled to within two on a Taylor Howlett basket, and the Skylights had to launch a Molly Kreycik 3-pointer as the shot clock expired on the other end. The shot missed and could have given Western a chance to tie or win the game with :15 left.

Faupel though, had other ideas. She grabbed her eighth rebound of the night, an offensive board that would send her to the free-throw-line with :07, where she calmly sank both to lock up the huge win for Northern.

"We joke all the time that our comfort zone is being in close games," Faupel said. "So we knew we just had to stay composed down the stretch. They're a great team, and they were fighting for a lot tonight just like we were. So we knew it was going to be tough. But we have a belief in ourselves that we're going to get that big stop and then get a score. We just stay composed and that's what we did tonight."

The Skylights had to scrap and claw for everything once again, because, in a battle of the No. 4- and No. 6-ranked defenses in the NAIA, everything was a fight.

"It was a slugfest," Mouat said. "It was two really good teams going at it. I thought we did a great job defensively. Aneise Palmore and Kaye Bignell are such phenomenal players, but I thought, Jacy Thompson's defense was incredible tonight, and we got big stops when we needed them. That speaks to how hard our team plays."

Northern fought off a sluggish start to lead 18-12 at the end of the first quarter as Kreycik buried a clutch triple. But Kaye Bignell caught fire for the Dawgs, scoring 14 first-half points, and, when Britt Cooper scored the last three of the first half, Northern's once-12-point lead was down to 27-24 at the break.

Things got even more interesting from there. Cooper knocked in a shot to start the third quarter, and Western went on an 8-2 run, leading 32-29. However, buckets from Jacy Thompson, Sierra Richards and Kreycik helped the Skylights fight right back and actually lead 42-38 with 10 minutes left.

Western was never going to go away, though, and Palmore started to heat up. She hit a three early in the fourth and eventually scored nine points in a four-minute span. Her last bucket tied the game at 51-51. But Faupel was answering every time. She scored 12 points in the final 10 minutes, including the go-ahead bucket with 1:55 left, which set up the dramatic finish.

The Northern All-American was sensational all night, too, scoring a game-high 25 points on 11-of-16 shooting. She also grabbed eight boards, had three steals and dished out a couple of assists. Richards was clutch in the second half too, scoring 11 points, while Thompson added nine.

"Natalee really carried us at times tonight," Mouat said. "She hit big shots when we needed them the most. But she also goes out and gets a huge o-board, she's guarding their tallest player all night, she got a couple huge steals, it's just incredible the way she does it all, and she did it all for us tonight."

As expected, Northern was great defensively, too. The Skylights held Western to 22 percent shooting from three, forced eight second-half turnovers and out-rebounded the Dawgs 32-20. And while Palmore had a big second half, finishing with 17 points, Northern also held Bignell scoreless for the final 20 minutes.

"This was a big win, we really wanted this one," Faupel said. "We knew that it would be a really tough game, but we just have so much belief in ourselves and each other, and that helps us finish these close games like we did tonight."

STORY BY GEORGE FERGUSON, Havre Daily News