BILLINGS, Mont. – With a pair of conference wins to end the 2011 portion of their 2011-12 campaign, the Montana State University Billings women's basketball team has jumped up several spots to fifth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings as they are now 2-2 and 10-5 overall.
 
MSUB closed out 2011 with two dominating wins, downing the Saints of Saint Martin's University 72-43 Thursday night and then followed that lop-sided victory by downing the Wolves of Western Oregon University 69-49 Saturday afternoon.
 
The Yellowjackets will face a pair of tough road games this weekend as they will first travel to take on the ninth-ranked team in the nation in the University of Alaska Anchorage (12-2, 3-0 GNAC). This will prove to be a very good measuring stick for the young squad as they will look to contain an offense that is out-scoring their opponents by an average of 28.9 points per outing, allowing only around 54.5 points per game.
 
MSUB will then take on the Nanooks of Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday, and despite being 0-3 in the conference and 4-9 overall, Fairbanks is always a tough place for any team to play.
 
The Yellowjackets are 24-21 all-time against the Seawolves that includes an 11-12 mark in Anchorage. MSUB is 42-11 all-time against the Nanooks, 20-7 on the road in Fairbanks.


As a team, MSUB is playing at an extremely high level for such a young squad, particularly on defense. The fact that head coach Kevin Woodin starts three of his six freshmen shows how talented this team is as the Yellowjackets continue to apply a stifling defense that has forced their opposition to turn over the ball almost 100 more times, 304-206.
 
On offense, the Yellowjackets are currently hitting on 38% of their shots from the field which includes a .326 shooting performance from three-point range.
 
Sophomore Bobbi Knudsen is coming off another stellar performance Saturday afternoon where she accumulated a career-high 22 points. The Malta High School product has certainly stepped into the role as a leader on the court as she is currently averaging a team-leading and conference second-best 16.6 points per contest. Knudsen's 249 total points this season leads the league currently and she is presently eighth in the league in three-point shooting percentage hitting on just over 37% of her shots from beyond the arc.
 
Freshman Quinn Peoples has steadily seen her stock rise this season, especially as of late, as she is averaging 10.2 points per contest, having scored 153 total points. In conference action, the conference leader in total three-point shots made (30) is averaging 15 points in MSUB's four league games and is second in the GNAC with a team-best .871 (27-31) free-throw percentage overall.
 
Billings West High School product Janiel Olson is seventh in the league and leads the team with 8.1 rebounds per game while fellow freshman forward Kayleen Goggins has corralled in five boards a game through the first 15 games. Goggins is also averaging 8.7 points per contest.
 
For Anchorage, a well-balanced attack has them currently ninth in NCAA Division II as they have five players averaging better than eight points per game. The Seawolves are riding an eight-game winning streak after dropping a pair of games to two Division I programs in Miami (Fla.) and Central Michigan earlier in the season.
 
UAA is led in its scoring attack by Haley Holmstead with a GNAC eighth-best 15 points per game while Hanna Johansson is scoring an average of 13.9 points per outing which is good enough for 10^th-best in the conference.
 
Four players are hitting on better than 45% of their shots from the field with Johansson leading the way with a conference-best .582 (71-122). Kaylie Robison is close behind, hitting on .578 (52-90) of her looks.
 
Beyond the arc, the Seawolves are dangerous as they are currently hitting on .384 of their attempts led by Sasha King who is fourth in the league with a .474 (26-66) three-point shooting performance. Under the basket, Robison and Johansson lead the way with 9.2 and 8.5 rebounds per game respectively.
 
Alaska Fairbanks is currently on a three-game losing skid with their last win coming over the Academy of Art on Dec. 9 68-62.
 
For Fairbanks, the Nanooks are currently only hitting on 33% (244-747) of their shots from the field and are shooting a dismal .255 (52-204) of their looks from three-point range.
 
Autumn Greene and Nicole Bozek lead UAF in scoring with 11.5 and 15.8 points per contest respectively. Nicole Hartzog is the only other player close as she is scoring 8.5 points per game.
 
Bozek has corralled in a team-high 8.3 rebounds per game and is leading the team in shooting percentage with .405 (60-148) of her shots finding the bottom of the net.