HAVRE -- The Montana Western men's basketball team got career games from Max Clark and Jalen Hodges and a game-winning 3-pointer from Jamal Stephenson to complete a weekend sweep of Montana State-Northern. Clark had a career-high 39 points in helping the Bulldogs to an 82-71 win on Saturday, and then Hodges scored a career-high 29 points and Stephenson sank a game-winning 3 in a 65-63 Bulldogs win on Sunday.
Montana Western 82, MSU-Northern 71 (Saturday)
Max Clark's career-high 39 points helped the Montana Western men's basketball team to an 82-71 win over MSU-Northern on Saturday.
The Bulldogs came out on fire, shooting 76% (19 of 25) from the field in the first half to take a 45-41 at the break. Clark scored 23 first-half points and finished the game making 17 of 23 field goal attempts. He added seven rebounds, six assists and two steals.
The game was close early into the second half before the Bulldogs opened things up, building the lead to 26 points with six minutes left. Jamal Stephenson and Tanner Haverfield each added 10 points for the Bulldogs, who finished the game shooting 67.3%.
David Harris scored 20 points and Mascio McCadney added 17 to lead MSU-Northern.
Montana Western 65, MSU-Northern 63 (Sunday)
Jamal Stephenson hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left to cap a wild sequence and give the Montana Western men's basketball team a 65-63 win over Montana State-Northern to sweep the weekend series at Armory Gymnasium on Sunday.
The Lights were up one with the ball with less than 20 seconds left in the game. Stephenson and Jalen Hodges forced the Lights into a bad pass that was stolen by Carlos Allen with seven seconds left. Allen handed the ball off to Max Clark, who sprinted up the court and dished to Stephenson, who hit the dragger from deep. Tanner Haverfield intercepted the Lights' ensuing inbounds pass and the Bulldogs left the Hi-Line victorious.
Hodges finished with a career-high 29 points, going 13 of 18 from the field. He added three rebounds, two steals and a block. Clark recorded his second double-double of the season, scoring 19 points and dishing out 11 assists. He added five rebounds and a block. Stephenson had seven points for the Bulldogs, who shot 53.8% from the field.
Northern was led by Jomel Boyd and Mascio McCadney, who finished with 22 and 15 points, respectively. Boyd added 10 rebounds and three steals for the Lights, who made just 1 of 13 3-point attempts in the game.
UM Western (7-9 overall, 6-9 Frontier Conference) is back in action on Wednesday at Providence. The Bulldogs close out the regular season at home against Carroll College on Feb. 20 and 21.
MSUN (6-10, 5-10) is at Montana Tech on Feb. 20 and 21 to wrap up conference play.
