Monday, December 31, 2012

PORTLAND, Ore. - A 57-54 win over NCAA Division I Montana State Saturday at Bozeman has earned Montana State Billings the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Team of the Week award.

The game was an exhibition for the Yellowjackets, but will go down as a loss on Montana State’s official record.

MSUB has won eight games in a row, including a pair of exhibitions, after splitting its first four games of the season.  Officially its record is 8-2.

MSUB’s Bobbi Knudsen recorded two of her game-high 15 points on a go-ahead jumper with 29 seconds remaining. Kayleen Goggins  created the final margin with a pair of free throws. Goggins finished with 12 points. The Yellowjackets rallied from an 11-point deficit with just over seven minutes in the game.

Entering the game, Montana State (7-4, 1-1 Big Sky Conference) had won eight of the last nine in the series, with the last win in non-exhibition play coming on Nov. 11, 2007, in a 78-55 victory.

The last regular season matchup between the two teams was Dec. 16, 1994.  The Bobcats won that game 73-55. MSUB is 3-14 all-time in regular season contests in Bozeman.

“It was a great win for us, they are a very good team,” MSUB head coach Kevin Woodin said. “I like the way we started the game; we were very aggressive on both ends of the floor and played good team basketball.”

MSUB, however, did trail by nine (37-28) at the break.  The Yellowjackets, however, fought back and went on a 13-1 run to take the 53-52 lead with 3:20 remaining. Ashley Bromwell hit a layup at 2:22 to regain the lead for the Bobcats.

Knudsen, however, hit her jumper with 29 seconds left to shift the lead back to the Yellowjackets. 

“We got quality stops on defense, hit big shots, and executed very well over the last few minutes,” Woodin said. “It was also nice to see us hit free throws down the stretch; we struggled as a team with free throws in previous contests. Overall it was total a team effort, we got quality minutes from a lot of players and our team defense was very good.”

MSUB (2-0 in the GNAC) returns to conference play this week playing at Saint Martin’s on Thursday and at Western Oregon on Saturday.