Box Score

LACEY, Wash. – Road games can be an extremely difficult obstacle to overcome, especially for a young team, but the Montana State University Billings women's basketball team survived the final test of their three-game road-swing, overcoming an early 10-point deficit to post a 58-52 win over Saint Martin's University Thursday afternoon in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action.
 
With the win, the Yellowjackets are improve to 15-7 overall and are now 7-4 in GNAC play while the Saints fall to 7-14 overall and 2-9 in the GNAC.
 
“This was another great win for us today because we were not at our best,” stated head coach Kevin Woodin. “I want to give SMU a lot of credit, they guarded us very well in the first half particularly and kept the pace of the game at a very high tempo. I was impressed with how they played and at the same time, we missed a lot of shots that we should have made.
 
“I do have to give our players credit for regrouping and coming out with a strong second half as far as rebounding goes especially the first three-quarters of the second half. We rebounded the ball better off the offensive glass, got the extra touches we needed and that was really important for us to get the win. We found a way to win today with a young team that had to be tired from three road games, and that is all that matters.”
 
The Yellowjackets have now won three games in a row, all on the road, and have won five of their last six games to have them in the hunt to earn an opportunity to host the first round of the conference tournament if the chips fall in their favor.
 
MSUB ended the contest shooting just 30.6% (19-62) from the field after a 21.9% effort in the second half derailed a 40% shooting performance in the opening stanza. The 'Jacket women were able to muster up nine three-pointers, six in the first half, to finish the game shooting 34.6% (9-26) from beyond the arc.
 
Leading the way for the Yellowjackets was a quartet of players in double-digits headlined by sophomore guard Bobbi Knudsen with 16 points. The Malta High School product went 5-6 from the free throw line and served up a game-high five assists.
 
Behind Knudsen, Kayleen Goggins recorded 13 points, going 5-10 from the field while also bringing down seven rebounds, four off the offensive glass. Fellow freshman Quinn Peoples finished the afternoon win with 12 points that included draining three treys and three free throws.
 
Junior Brooke Tolman was the final Yellowjacket to finish with double-digit points as she continued her momentum from Thursday night with 11 points. The Honeyville, Utah native equaled Peoples' team-high three three-pointers.
 
Freshman Janiel Olson led MSUB in rebounding as she corralled in 12 total boards. The Yellowjackets ended the six-point victory out-rebounding the Saints 51-35 that included 23 offensive boards.
 
For SMU, Jordyn Richardson finished the game with a game-high 17 points while teammate Chelsea Haskey ended her effort with 16. The duo combined to go 11-23 from the field as the Saints shot 33.9% (19-56) from the field over the two periods, making just five three-pointers.
 
The Saints kicked off the game on a 19-9 run, taking advantage of a tired MSUB squad to establish the early 10-point lead. But with seven minutes remaining in the first half, Goggins drilled a three-pointer home to begin the come-back that would see the Yellowjackets take the lead for the final time off an Olson layup with just over four minutes remaining.
 
MSUB would enter intermission with a one-point (30-29) lead after Haskey sank a couple of free throws, but the second half would see a different game for young squad.
 
Out of the break, it was Goggins again who spurred the scoring drive with another three-pointer to begin to open the lead back up.
 
The Yellowjackets flirted with a double-digit lead several times after Peoples sank one of her treys at the 8:37 mark, but the Saints were relentless in their pursuit of a home-win as they continued to battle hard to keep the high-paced tempo.
 
In the end, MSUB was able to hang on through the closing minutes to claim their seventh league victory of the season. The Yellowjackets out-scored the Saints 12-10 off second-chance points thanks to their 23 offensives boards and 11-4 off bench points.
 
MSUB will now head home to open the month of February with a pair of games against the two schools in the league from Alaska which includes hosting the nationally-12^th-ranked Seawolves of the University of Alaska Anchorage next Saturday, Feb. 4 after hosting Alaska Fairbanks two days earlier on Thursday, Feb. 4.