Box Score

Photo Gallery

BILLINGS, Mont. – For the second week in a row, the second-place team in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings entered Alterowitz Gymnasium only to fall at the hands of the Montana State University Billings men's basketball team. This time, the Yellowjackets tamed the Wolves of Western Oregon University using a balanced attack and a healthy dose of three-pointers from six different players to earn the dominating 79-57 victory Thursday night.
 
With their second victory in a row, the Yellowjacket men improve to 11-7 overall and now own a 6-4 mark in league action while the Wolves move to 14-5 for the season and begin the second half of their conference slate with a 7-3 record.
 
“I was very pleased with our effort again tonight,” said head coach Jamie Stevens. “At times we didn't play as smart as we should have, but our players are playing their tails off right now. This was certainly another good win against a really good team.
 
“I thought our crowd was great tonight and that gave us the energy to go out there and compete at the level we did,” Stevens stated. “Our students were awesome and I hope they can continue to give us that motivational boost.”
 
The 'Jackets entered the week boasting the 20^th-best offense in the nation and backed that up by shooting 44.6% (25-56) from the field that included an extremely strong 45.5% (15-33) effort from three-point range. MSUB is currently ranked 13^th in NCAA Division II with an average of 9.3 treys per outing, but the Yellowjackets caught fire Thursday night as they drained a season-high 15 treys with a trio of players each draining three three-pointers.
 
At the same time, the Yellowjackets, playing at an extremely high pace the entire game, held Western Oregon to a 33.3% (19-57) effort from the field to exact revenge from the two programs' earlier meeting when the Wolves claimed a 71-60 win in Monmouth, Ore.
 
Four players scored in double digits for the 'Jackets and almost every player who played for Coach Stevens scored at least two points led by senior guard Jaxon Myaer. The Salt Lake City, Utah native led the way with 14 points including being perfect (4-4) from the charity stripe while also leading all players with seven assists.
 
Just behind Myaer, junior David Arnold was the most efficient Yellowjacket as he scored his 13 points off a 4-6 effort from the field that included draining three three-pointers while senior Antoine Proctor was just one point behind with 12. The Washington, D.C. native was 4-8 from the field and was the second player for MSUB to hit three three-pointers. The final Yellowjacket with three made shots from beyond the arc was senior Taylor Stevens who finished the 22-point victory with 11 total points.
 
Robert Mayes just missed out on a double-double performance, but the 6-7 senior from Houston, Texas still had a stellar night as he brought down 13 total rebounds, recorded nine points and batted away three balls for a trio of blocks.
 
For Western Oregon, three players had double-digit outings led by Blair Wheadon with 18 points. Jordan Freelander recorded 14 points and James Gehring was able to tally 12 points and corral in nine boards. Wheadon hit six of his eight free throws while Freelander was 4-7 from the field.
 
The two teams established a fast pace to the game early on with each squad streaking up and down the court to try to find some early momentum. The teams swapped the lead back-and-forth seven times over the first half with neither team gaining a lead of more than six points when Wheadon hit one of his two free throws for WOU with three minutes remaining in the half.
 
However, the Wolves would only score one more point over the final three minutes of the half as the Yellowjackets roared back to claim a three-point (37-34) lead to head into halftime. Cameron Cussworth and Stevens drained a pair of threes to book-end a pair of jumpers by Proctor and Myaer as the Yellowjackets went on their 10-1 run to end the half.
 
From there, MSUB would never trail again as the Yellowjackets slowly extended their lead out. When Robby Trabing hit one of his two three-pointers with just over 14 minutes remaining in regulation, the Yellowjacket lead had been extended out to 11 points, and would never dip below double-digits from there.
 
To cap the win off, Emery Henning deftly laid in a finger-tip roll off a feed from Jimmy Hook to put the exclamation point on the 22-point victory.
 
39 of MSUB's 79 points came from the bench as the Yellowjackets continually took advantage of a deep roster to keep fresher legs on the court than the Wolves.
 
From here, MSUB will look to host Saint Martin's University on Saturday and hope to earn the season-sweep over the Saints. The last time the Yellowjackets and Saints met on Saint Martin's home court, MSUB came away with a 79-61 victory.