Box Score

HILO, Hawaii. – Despite leading by as many as 12 points in the first period of play, a cold shooting performance in the second half prevented the Montana State University Billings women's basketball team from securing their fifth win in a row as the Yellowjackets (7-5) fell 49-48 to the University of Hawaii at Hilo (4-5) Sunday afternoon.
 
MSUB did not trail in the game until Hilary Hurley hit a pair of fateful free throws with under a minute remaining. The Yellowjackets took a seven-point (30-23) lead into halftime, but the break in play proved costly for the Yellowjackets as they suffered through their worst shooting performance of the season in the second stanza while also committing 17 turnovers in the game.
 
Quinn Peoples put MSUB up by seven when she slashed a trey with 5:24 remaining on the clock, but the Yellowjackets would not hit another shot in the closing minutes.
 
Hurley swished her two free throws with just 56 seconds remaining in the game to lift the Vulcans to the one-point victory. Kalli Stanhope and Bobbi Knudsen each tried their hardest to find the net in the closing seconds, but both would only find rim, the definition of a second-half that saw the Yellowjackets hit only six of their 23 shots (26%) in the closing stanza to fall for the first time during their trek through Hawaii.
 
“We started the game pretty well, but we just did not finish,” head coach Kevin Woodin stated. “We were able to get some good defensive pressure on them in the first half and made some good transitions, but as the game went on, they (UHH) did a great job of stopping us with some great half-court defense.
 
“We just did not shoot the ball well, and foul trouble became a big factor,” said Woodin. “Three key players were in foul trouble and that really threw off our rotations, but we did have a couple opportunities there at the end of the game, but we just could not convert.”
 
The Yellowjackets ended the contest shooting just 36% (19-53) from the field; a 43% (13-30) shooting performance in the opening stanza helped bolster MSUB's shooting numbers. While they sent the Vulcans to the free-throw line 27 times, the Yellowjackets only made six trips to the stripe themselves, hitting only two of those opportunities while UHH cashed in by making 21 of their attempts.
 
Knudsen led all scorers with 14 points, going six for 12 from the field including hitting two three-pointers She also added five assists.
 
Freshman Annie DePuydt continued to be a solid presence on the court for Woodin as she had her second double-digit point outing in as many games. The Saco-Whitewater High School product chipped in 10 points as she was 4-6 from the field that included sinking both of her looks from three-point range.
 
Hurley led UHH in scoring, netting 13 points. Nine of her tallies came from the charity stripe as she went 9-10 from the line.
 
Jameia McDuffie added 12 points and five rebounds in the Vulcans' effort while Kirsten Shimizu contributed 11 points, four rebounds and three assists.
 
MSUB has one final game to close the curtains on their Hawaiian excursion before the holiday break. Monday evening, the Yellowjackets will square off against the Seasiders of Brigham Young University – Hawaii with tipoff scheduled for 5 p.m.