BILLINGS, Mont. – Well-rested thanks to the Christmas holiday break, the Montana State Billings women's basketball team (8-5, 0-2 GNAC) is looking to jump back into their Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule this week with a pair of home league games to close out the 2011 portion of the season.
 
The Yellowjackets ended their non-conference slate prior to the break with a 3-1 record during their annual trek through Hawaii that featured MSUB opening the trip with victories over Hawaii Pacific University and Chaminade University. MSUB endured a one-point loss to the University of Hawaii at Hilo but bounced back the next day to close out the trip with a win over Brigham Young University – Hawaii.
 
MSUB will dive back into their GNAC slate with a 7 p.m. tipoff against Saint Martin's University on Thursday, Dec. 29 before the Wolves of Western Oregon University travel to Billings on New Year's Eve for a 1 p.m. contest.
 
Sophomore guard Bobbi Knudsen continues to lead the team on offense with a league-best 209 total points this season. The total has the Malta High School product currently tied for fourth in the conference with an average of 16.1 points per game.
 
However, a slew of freshmen have seen their stock rise in recent weeks as they adjust to playing collegiate ball. Most notably, Quinn Peoples and Kayleen Goggins have gone on a scoring tear as both are now currently averaging over nine points per game. But Annie DePuydt came on strong during the Hawaiian excursion to score 36 total points; an average of nine per outing across the four games.
 
A native of Butte, Peoples' 1.8 treys per game is currently fifth-best in the GNAC, but her season total of 23 three-pointers is good enough for second in the conference. Peoples is one of four Yellowjackets to find themselves in the top-10 in the league for three-pointers made as Knudsen, Brooke Tolman and Kalli Stanhope are all tied for seventh in the league with 1.6 three's per outing. The trio has 21 treys each.
 
Under the basket, Billings West product Janiel Olson is quickly establishing herself as one of the strongest rebounders in the conference. Her team-high 7.8 boards per game is good enough for eighth in the league, but her season-total of 102 total rebounds is good enough for fourth-most in the GNAC.
 
The Saints of SMU are currently 6-6 overall and 1-1 in GNAC action. They Saints entered the holiday break with a 67-62 loss to the Academy of Art on Dec. 14 to break a three-game winning streak.
 
As a team, SMU is hitting on 36% of their shots from the field, led by Chelsea Haskey. The sophomore forward leads the team from both the field and under the basket. Haskey averages a conference ninth-best 14.4 points per game as she is hitting on 45% (65-145) of her shots from the floor while also corralling in 8.3 boards per outing, good enough for fifth-best in the league.
 
Freshman Brooke Paulson is second on the squad with an average of seven points per game to go along with a shooting average of .386 (27-70). Jordyn Richardson and Megan Teade lead the team from three-point range as Richardson is currently 12-28 (.429) from beyond the arc while Teade has hit on 12 of her 37 attempts (.324).
 
The Wolves are currently 3-9 but two of those wins have come over conference opposition. WOU has already downed Central Washington University and Northwest Nazarene this season.
 
WOU is currently hitting on an impressive 42% of their shots from the field, but have allowed their opponents to make 44% of their shots against the Wolves.
 
The Wolves are led in scoring by two players averaging double-digit points per outing. Senior Rylee Peterson leads the team with a league-best 17.3 points per game. She also leads the team with 7.7 rebounds per game which is good enough to have her tied for ninth in the GNAC in the category. The senior forward is second on the team in shooting performance, hitting on 45% (80-177) of her shots including a team-leading 17 treys.
 
The second player to average double-digit points is senior guard Jade Haas. Hass is currently averaging 11.8 points per contest and a team second-best six boards per game but she currently leads the team from the field, hitting close to 50% (60-121) of her shots. Her .496 shooting percentage is good enough for 10^th-best in the conference.
 
Following the pair of home games to close out 2011, head coach Kevin Woodin will take his young squad up to Alaska where the Yellowjackets will tangle with the Seawolves of the University of Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 5 to open the curtains on 2012. Two days later, on Jan. 7, MSUB will travel to take on the Nanooks of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.