Saturday, March 15, 2014
POMONA, Calif. - Kayleen Goggins scored 19 points and Bobbi Knudsen added 17 as Montana State Billings overcame a 33-point effort by Simon Fraser's Erin Chambers to beat the Clan 76-68 in the first semifinal game of the NCAA West Regional Saturday at Kellogg Gym.
The Yellowjackets (25-7) will play in Monday's championship game at 7 p.m. against top seed Cal Pomona which beat Chico State 89-80 in the second semifinal.
Simon Fraser finished its season with a record of 20-10, falling one game shy of reaching the regional championship game for the second year in a row.
The winner of Monday's contest will advance to the NCAA Elite 8 which begins March 25 at Erie, Pa.
Chambers scored 21 of her 33 points in the opening half, which ended in a 35-35 tie.
MSUB, which trailed just once (at 3-0), went on a 12-1 run to start the second half and never saw its lead dip below eight points the remainder of the way.
Chelsea Banis, who finished with 14 points, snapped the halftime tie just 33 seconds in with a pair of foul shots. A minute later Austin Hanser hit a trey.
Five free throws and a basket by Banis quickly extended the lead to 11 (47-36) just 4 ½ minutes into the period.
Midway through the second half, MSUB ran off seven straight points, capped by a Goggins three-pointer stretching the lead to 60-45 with 9:31 left.
The Yellowjackets took their biggest lead of the night (75-57) on a layup by Austin Hanser with 3:27 left.
Simon Fraser outscored MSUB 11-1 the rest of the way, but didn’t get closer than 10 until the final minute as they were held to 35.5 percent shooting (22-of-62).
They made 14-of-34 treys, 5-of-12 by Chambers, 5-of-9 by Katie Lowen and 4-of-10 by Kia Van Laare, but were just 8-of-28 from inside the arc.
Lowen finished with 15 points and Van Laare had 14 as they combined with Chambers for all but six of SFU’s points.
MSUB shot nearly 50 percent, connecting on 26-of-53 including 8-of-22 from the three-point line. MSUB also controlled the backboards 44-33. Alisha Breen had 13 rebounds.
Knudsen, in addition to her 17 points, also had six rebounds and a game-high five assists.