BUTTE – Shooting struggles hurt the Lady Diggers Friday night as Montana State Northern got an important conference victory in Butte 56-47.

Montana Tech (13-10, 6-5) move to fourth place in the Frontier behind the Lights.

Northern (15-8, 7-4) sweep the Diggers and move into sole possession of third place in the conference.

The Lights would lead by as many as 12 in the first half. The Diggers would get back to 27-19 going into the break.

The Lady Diggers struggled shooting the ball in the first half. The team shot 33.3-percent from the field and hit only 1 of 7 from long.

The Lights hit 57.1-percent from the field and outrebounded Tech 18-10 in the first frame.

The Diggers were missing their all-conference center Kelsey DeWit who was sitting out with an injury.

The difficulties continued for the Lady Diggers hitting 37.3-percent from the field in the second half. They would complete only 35.7-percent in the game.

Just two Diggers had double-figure scoring in Dannii Devenny and Shaye Murphy.

Devenny finished with 14 points, five rebounds and a steal. The Australian was the lone Digger to shoot well hitting 6 of 11 from the field and 2 of 3 from beyond the arc.

Murphy had 10 points in the game and added four rebounds and a block to her totals.

Nikki Tresch led the Lights with 14 points, two assists and two steals.

Kylee Denham had 11 points and eight rebounds for the Lights.

The Lady Diggers are home again tomorrow when they host the Lewis-Clark State Warriors.