Phoenix, AZ- A slow start and even slower finish caused Arizona Christian to fall 49-33 to #3 Montana State- Northern on Wednesday evening.  The 33 points scored was a season low for the Firestorm.  Senior Madison Austin and Freshman Courtney Christmas both scored a team high nine points.

Three converted free throws by the Skylights (11-1) opened the scoring and the Firestorm (9-6) would not even see as much as a tie in the game.  Jumpers from Senior Alyssa Gruber and Freshman Jada Willingham brought ACU within one and two points respectively.

But MSUN outscored ACU 13-2 to close out the quarter.

Quarter two did not feature a lot of scoring action by either team.  ACU won the quarter by three to find themselves down 25-15 at the break.  Both teams shot under 30% from the floor in the first twenty minutes.

Down 12 early in third quarter, the Firestorm used a slow and steady approach to cut into their deficit.  With about three minutes left in the quarter, Freshman Moana Hala'ufia knocked down two free throws to make the score 33-29.

That turned out to be as close as Arizona Christian would creep as they scored just two points in the final ten minutes of action.

The Firestorm will celebrate New Year's Day before heading across town to meet up with Grand Canyon on Monday.  The teams will tip-off at 7:00 pm in what will be an exhibition for ACU.