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BILLINGS, Mont. -- Trailing by 19 points at the break, the Montana State Billing men's basketball team stormed back in the second half, shooting 63.2 percent from the field in the half to claim a 93-90 victory over visiting Simon Fraser University for their first conference win of the season.
 
“That was a great comeback win for our team,” said first year head coach Jamie Stevens. “We dug ourselves a huge hole in the first half and Simon Fraser was playing great. We didn't have an answer for anything they were doing. At halftime, we told the guys that we needed to flip the box score in every category to even have a chance to win. To the credit of our team, we did it.”
 
The Yellowjackets (5-3, 1-1 GNAC) got season-high's from Antoine Proctor and Taylor Stevens as the seniors scored 30 and 27 points, respectively. Robert Mayes had his best output of the season with 13 points and nine boards, while Jaxon Myaer tied a career-high 12 assists.
 
MSUB shot 53.7 percent from the floor for the game and 7-of-23 from long range as they hit 56.0 percent of their free throws on the evening. The Jackets forced 19 turnovers and out-rebounded the Clan 41-32, and had 48 points in the paint.
 
Simon Fraser fell to 0-2 in the conference and 4-4 overall as they were led by a team-high 24 points from Javari Williams. Four other players were in double figures for the Clan as Justin Brown had 19 points on the evening. Matta Raivio had a big night with 14 points, eight boards and six assists.
 
SFU forced the Jackets into 22 turnovers with 11 steals, shooting 49.1 percent from the floor in the game, but went from shooting 61.5 percent from the arc in the first half, to shooting just 25.0 percent in the second half.
 
The Yellowjackets looked strong over the first six minutes of the first half, but a tip-in by Cameron Cusworth, which made the score 17-12, was the last for a while as SFU went on a 28-4 run for a seven minute span as they opened a 40-21 lead with 7:25 remaining.
 
All the momentum went with the Clan into the locker room as they got a jumper from Daniel Deflorimonte with :56 seconds to go to take a 53-34 lead into the break. The Jackets were outscored 21-14 off the bench in the half and allowed SFU to get 18 points off of 15 turnovers.
 
The second half saw SFU hold on to a 16 point edge with 11:47 remaining, but an easy layup by Stevens sparked a 13-0 run that was a capped by a fast break layup by Proctor, who had three buckets during the run, with 8:58 to go, cutting the lead to 69-72.
 
Stevens again came up big after he gathered his own missed shot and laid the ball off the glass to tie the game at 76-76.
 
As the two sides scrapped for the ball on every possession down the stretch, the Clan took a one point lead on a pair of free throws by Williams with just 47 seconds left. The Jackets responded as David Arnold rolled off a pick and hit a long jumper to put the Jackets back up by one with 29 seconds to go.
 
On the ensuing trip up the floor, Raivio wanted to swing the ball toward the far sideline, but the pass went out of bounds for the final turnover of the night. SFU couldn't commit the foul and Robert Mayes put the final exclamation points on the board with a thunderous dunk with just five seconds remaining.
 
The Yellowjackets will remain at home next week as they go back outside of the conference for a return matchup against intra-city rival Rocky Mountain College next Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. The game will be a counter for the Yellowjackets and an exhibition for the Bears who fell to MSUB earlier in the year 92-82.