Box Score

BILLINGS, Mont. – Bobbi Knudsen and Quinn Peoples combined to score 32 of the Yellowjackets' final 58 points as the Montana State Billings women's basketball team held off a late charge by the Crusaders to secure the 58-53 Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory over Northwest Nazarene University Thursday night inside Alterowitz Gymnasium.
 
With their second victory in a row, the Yellowjackets improve to 12-6 overall and move up in the conference standings to fifth with a 4-3 league record while the Crusaders will fall in the standings with a 9-5 overall mark an even 3-3 record in the GNAC.
 
“This was a great win for us tonight, especially from a conference standpoint,” said head coach Kevin Woodin. “I was really proud of the way we started the game with very good intensity on both ends of the floor, but defensively, we were better in the first half to force them into some turnovers and hold them to below a 25% shooting performance.
 
“Bobbi and Quinn both started off really well offensively and worked extremely well in some two-player games, taking advantage of several double-teams by getting the ball to the other open player and hitting their shots early.”
 
The Yellowjackets ended the game shooting around 34% (21-62) from the field, but had a solid opening half of play as they hit on 42% (13-31) of their looks while holding the Crusaders to a 29% (18-62) shooting performance from the field through the game.
 
Knudsen and Peoples paced all scorers with their 16 points. Both guards scored the majority of their points in the first half as Knudsen entered the intermission with 11 points while Peoples had 12 through the first 20 minutes of play.
 
Peoples drained a game-high four treys, all in the opening half, and added five rebounds. Knudsen was all over the floor as she typically is and brought down a team second-best six boards while dishing out five assists.
 
Senior guard Kalli Stanhope added 10 points in MSUB's winning effort including going 4-for-5 from the charity stripe while freshman Janiel Olson had a team-best 13 caroms to go along with seven points, two steals and a block.
 
For the Crusaders, Megan Hingston led the way with a double-double performance that saw her score 14 points, and similar to her counter-part on MSUB's squad donning the same number, Hingston was all over the court to corral in a game-high 16 rebounds.
 
Matching Hingston's point total was Briaunna King while Chelsie Luke added 11 points and a team second-best eight rebounds. The final Crusader to end the 40 minutes in double-digits was Alla Dzhidzhiyeshvili with 10 points.
 
The Yellowjackets led practically wire-to-wire as the score was only tied twice early in the game before Peoples opened up the scoring drive for MSUB with one of her treys to put MSUB ahead for good just two and a half minutes into the game.
 
From there, MSU Billings would steadily build up a 16-point lead as Olson sank a short jumper with just over nine minutes left in the half before NNU was able to chip into the lead to enter half time trailing by 13 at 33-20.
 
“I felt like we handled their full-court pressure very well in the first half which is very hard because they are an extremely athletic team that is good at applying stiff, full-court pressure,” Woodin said. “I feel like we got complacent in the second half, but still give NNU credit as they continued to play hard deep into the second half to attempt the come-back. But, despite the shrinking lead, I was proud of our players for stepping up, making their free-throws down the stretch and holding on. We bent, but we did not break.”
 
Out of the break, Kayleen Goggins sank a jumper to extend the lead out a little more and then swiped an NNU turnover to kick off the half, but down the stretch, the Crusadors slowly chipped away at the lead starting when King laid the ball off the glass and into the basket to cut the lead down to 14.
 
With 2:43 remaining in regulation, Hingston deftly made a pair of free-throws to cut the lead to single digits, and the Crusaders began their late charge as with 36 seconds remaining Kingston rebounded a missed three-pointer by Luke and tipped the ball back in to pull NNU within just two points.
 
Despite pulling close, Knudsen was able to hit three of four free-throws in the final 23 seconds to give MSUB enough of a lead to hold onto until the final buzzer.
 
Despite the loss, NNU controlled many aspects of the game including converting MSUB's 15 turnovers into 16 points, while the 'Jackets could only manage nine points off the Crusaders' 15 turnovers.
 
MSUB will remain at home for their next contest when Central Washington University travels to Billings for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Saturday, Jan. 14.