Box Score Billings, Mont.- It turns out, the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears might just be a thorn in the side of the Montana State University-Northern Skylights this season. Rocky won just its third Frontier Conference game Thursday night, but two of them are now against Northern.
MSU-N went into Thursday night's game against the Bears in Billings having just knocked off both UGF and Carroll College at home, but the No. 11 Skylights couldn't overcome a torrid shooting pace by the Bears in a 73-57 defeat.
The loss, the second to the Bears in four weeks, dropped the Skylights to 7-4 in the Frontier, and was also a rough start to their six-game road trip. The trip has to continue Saturday night at nationally ranked UM-Western.
Northern's start was perfect with Natalee Faupel knocking down a 3-pointer to open the game, but Rocky shot to a 7-6 lead midway through the first and never trailed again. The modest Bears lead of 17-12 after the first quarter wasn't anything to panic about, but the Bears ripped off two huge runs in a 26-point second quarter and led 43-28 at halftime.
The deficit was the biggest Northern has faced at halftime of any game this season, and while the Skylights played better offensively in the second half, they just couldn't slow the hot-shooting Bears down. Rocky shot 45 percent from the floor for the game, but more damaging was the fact the Bears went 8-of-11 from the 3-point-line. Hailee Farstveet and Justyn Juhl combined for six of those eight threes, while Farvsteet scored a game-high 21 points. Markeala Francis added 14, Juhl scored 12 and Jayde LaFevre added 10 in the Bears' win.
On the other side, Faupel poured in 19 points and two triples to go with seven rebounds for the Skylights. Jacy Thompson hit three triples and scored 14 points, while Sierra Richards added 12 points and eight boards.
The Skylights 17-5), now have to go to No. 22 UM-Western on Saturday night. The Bulldogs (7-4, 18-4) throttled UGF by 20 points Thursday and now are tied with the Skylights for second place in the Frontier standings. That game tips at 5:30 p.m. in Dillon.
STORY BY GEORGE FERGUSON, Havre Daily News
