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BILLINGS, Mont. – The final score didn't tell the whole story as the Montana State Billings men's basketball team gave the No.17 nationally ranked Central Washington Wildcats a hard-fought game, falling 69-55 Saturday night in Alterowitz Gymnasium. The Jackets fall to 4-11 on the year and 2-6 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, while the Wildcats improved to 13-2 and 6-1 in the GNAC.
“We played a much better second half than we did in the first half,” said head coach George Pfeifer. “We ran a lot of our plays more successfully tonight and our defense stepped up and played a lot tougher in the second half. We were able to force them into some bad shots late in the game, but we were unable to convert our chances down the stretch. Now we have to prepare for a road swing against some tough conference foes.”
Central Washington started the game on a 16-6 run behind a pair of Humberto Perez 3-pointers. Perez led the Wildcats with 14 points, going 3-of-5 from deep and a perfect 3-for-3 from the line. CWU then used a 13-2 run to build their lead to 16, 29-13.
The Wildcats built their largest lead of the half at 17 points, 40-23, just before the half when Jamar Berry connected on a jumper as part of his 11 points. Jaxon Myaer (Salt Lake City, UT) would hit a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left as part of his game-high 15 points.
CWU outscored MSUB 10-0 off the bench in the first half. Both teams combined for 16 turnovers in the first half, eight apiece.
As the second half got underway, Central stretched their lead to its largest margin, 20 points, after Chris Sprinker took an alley-oop from Berry for two of his 12 points.
The Yellowjackets slowly chipped away at the lead, breaking the lead down to just six points, 57-51, on a huge 3-pointer by Myaer at the top of the arc in transition. That would be as close as the Jackets would get as CWU stretched their lead back out to double-digits and won the game by 14.
In addition to Myaer's 15 points and team-high six assists, Robert Mayes (Houston, TX) finished as the only other Yellowjacket in double figures, finishing with 10 points. DeAndre Chambers (Monroe, NC) led the team in rebounding with seven boards to add to his eight points.
The Yellowjackets finished the night with 44.4 percent shooting from the floor, but was a solid 6-of-9 from deep and 9-of-16 from the free throw line.
Central Washington also had Drew Harris in double-figures as he went for 13 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field. Jody Johnson led the Wildcats with seven rebounds, helping CWU dominate the boards, 31-21. CWU shot 52.1 percent from the field, but were only 7-of-20 from deep. The Wildcats shot 80.0 percent from the free throw line.
For the game, CWU outscored MSUB 32-22 in the paint and converted 16 points off of turnovers while MSUB scored 20 points off of turnovers. The CWU bench outscored MSUB 17-9 and held their largest lead at 20.
The Yellowjackets now hit the road at Seattle Pacific next Saturday, Jan. 22, at 3:30 p.m. local time. The Jackets will then continue play on the road at Western Oregon (Jan. 27) and at Saint Martin's (Jan. 29). All three games can be viewed through live stats and webstream through each school's respective websites.
