Box Score

LAIE, Hawaii. – After building up a 35-19 lead in the first half, the Montana State Billings women's basketball team managed to hold on to end their five-day Hawaiian trek with a 67-54 win over the Seasiders of Brigham Young University – Hawaii Monday night.
 
After their four games in five days, the Yellowjackets are now 8-5 before leaping into Great Northwest Athletic Conference action after the holiday break while the Seasiders are now 1-8.
 
“I feel like we played well tonight, especially in the first half,” said head coach Kevin Woodin. “I felt like we created some very good transition buckets through our defense and rebounding. You have to give them (BYUH) credit as they came back in the second half, cutting our lead to three but I also have to give our players credit because they fought hard to regain momentum and finished strong.”
 
Overall, MSUB hit on 25 of their 76 shots (33%) from the field. Neither team did well from three-point range, as the two combined for just six treys, but the Yellowjackets registered 27 points off the Seasiders' 25 turnovers compared to 18 points off of 19 Yellowjacket turnovers for BYUH.
 
Kayleen Goggins and Bobbi Knudsen paced MSUB with 17 points each. Goggins had six rebounds while Knudsen had seven rebounds, five steals and four assists.
 
Janiel Olson had a team-high 10 boards while Quinn Peoples corralled in nine.
 
BYUH was slightly better from the field, hitting 36% (19-53) of their shots. Despite out-scoring the Yellowjackets in the second half 35-32, the Seasiders were unable to overcome the 35-19 deficit from the first half.
 
Shayla Washington had a game-high 21 points to go along with 10 rebounds for a double-double while Brianna Jessop added 11 points. Danyele Hoffman had a game-high seven assists.
 
BYUH kicked off the game on a 9-5 run through the first five minutes, but from there it would be all MSUB in the opening stanza as the Yellowjackets scored 24 unanswered points until six minutes remaining in the half. The 'Jackets continued to outscore the Seasiders 11-8 over the final six minutes, but the second half would once again see a slow start by MSUB.
 
Capitalizing on the slow start, BYUH went on a 14-4 run to start the second half over the first seven minutes before the Yellowjackets could regroup.
 
The Seasiders closed to within three points off a layup but Washington with 10:29 remaining, but the Yellowjackets would never relinquish the lead, extending their lead back out to the final 13 points over the remaining minutes.
 
“Overall, I think this was a good trip for us,” Woodin stated. “To play four games in five days and come out 3-1, it was very physically exhausting but good for our young players, especially ending with this win. After some good rest over the holiday break, we will be ready to jump into conference play.”
 
The victory over the Seasiders served as the last non-conference matchup for MSUB who will now take off until the 29^th, when the Yellowjackets will leap back into conference action with a pair of home games. The first league game will be against Saint Martin's University on Thursday, Dec. 29 before Western Oregon University travels to Billings, closing out the 2011 portion of their slate with a 1 p.m. tipoff on Dec. 31.