Box Score HAVRE, Mont. – The Westminster College men's basketball team saw its upset bid fall short in a 53-50 loss against No. 13 Montana State-Northern on Saturday night in Frontier Conference action.
Westminster now sits at 15-7 overall and in a four-way tie for third at the halfway points of the Frontier Conference slate with a 3-4 record. Northern maintains its tie for the conference lead at 6-1 while also improving to 20-3 overall.
The Griffins looked poised to take the upset after shooting 54.5% from the floor in the first half and trailing just 30-29 at the intermission. After scoring he first seven points of the second half, Westminster led 36-30 at the 16:34 mark. They would continue to lead and with 10:14 remaining the Griffins led by seven, their biggest margin of the night.
That is when things changed in favor of the home squad. The Lights scored the game's next 11 points to take a five-point lead with 4:05 remaining. That lead would never be relinquished and when
Jordan Hayter missed a three as time expired, the Griffins had come up short. They went just 2-for-6 from the field down the stretch with five turnovers.
Westminster shot just 40.9% in the second half and finished the game at 47.7%. They were just 2-of-8 from beyond the arc and missed both long range attempts after halftime. Westminster turned it over 17 times with only six assists while grabbing 30 rebounds. They limited MSUN to 39.6% shooting and forced 11 turnovers.
Jake Orchard led all Griffins with 12 points on a 5-of-12 shooting night. He also collected a team-best seven rebounds with one assist and one steal.
Ben Walker added 10 points, six rebounds and four blocked shots.
Alex Drecksel and
AJ Reilly combined for 17 points coming off the bench.
Shaun Tatarka led Northern with 12 points and three steals. Joe Simpson added 11 points and seven rebounds. MSUN shot 11-of-13 at the foul line and had four triples.
Westminster will begin the second half of league play on Thursday when they welcome nationally ranked Montana Western to the Behnken Field House. The game kicks off Hall of Fame Weekend and begins at 7:30 p.m. and will also be available live on Griffins TV.
