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BILLINGS, Mont. – After a solid first half performance, the Montana State Billings men's basketball team faltered in the second half Thursday evening at Alterowitz Gymnasium, falling 78-69 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest with Northwest Nazarene University. The Yellowjackets fall to 4-10 on the season and 2-5 in the GNAC, while NNU improved to 6-7 on the year and 2-4 in league play.
“It was a disappointing second half for us tonight,” said head George Pfeifer. “We did a good job in the first half of finding the open man and converting our shots, but we began to turn the ball over way too much in the second half and were unable to hit a lot of our open looks. We have to continue to battle and rebound from this game quickly with Central Washington coming in on Saturday.”
The Yellowjackets had four players with double figures, including a team-high 15 points from Robert Mayes (Houston, TX) and 14 points from Jaxon Myaer (Salt Lake City, UT). Raason Young (Washington D.C.) led the team with five rebounds and contributed 12 points in the loss.
The Jackets had their best first half performance of the season, shooting 64.0 percent (16-25) from the floor, including 3-of-5 from the arc. The second half was completely opposite, shooting 45.5 percent from the field, but maintained a high 3-point shooting percentage (60.0). For the Game they shot 55.3 percent from the field and went 8-of-12 from the free throw line.
The Crusaders got a game-high 20 points and seven boards from Paul Egwuonwu, going 7-of-10 from the field and a perfect 6-of-6 from the line. The Crusaders shot an astounding 88.9 percent (16-18) from the free throw line in the second half. Brian Barkdoll added 16 points and seven boards, while Darious Walker chipped in 12 points.
The Jackets dominated the first half, building a 10 point lead after going on a 13-2 run over a four minute period as Mayes capped the run with a jumper at the six minute mark. NNU cut the lead back down to six at the break, 36-30, after Drew Eisinger cashed in on an open layup.
The second half continued to go back and forth as the Jackets clung to the lead, but a 3-pointer by Anthony Golden with 8:59 to go gave the Crusaders the lead. The Yellowjackets would again take the lead on a trey by Young with just over eight minutes to go, 58-56.
NNU took the lead for good at the 7:29 mark when Barkdoll took the ball off a steal from Lateef Williams and connected on an easy lay-in. The Crusaders slowly built an eight point lead as the game wound down and connected on their free-throws to win by nine.
The Crusaders outscored the Jackets 42-26 in the paint and turned 16 MSUB turnovers into 19 points. The NNU bench also outscored the Jackets 24-10 and out-rebounded the Yellowjackets 27-21. The game saw seven ties and 10 lead changes.
MSUB continues its home stand this Saturday night with a showdown against No.17 nationally ranked Central Washington University. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip with live stats and webstream available through msubsports.com.
