Box Score

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Despite entering halftime with the score knotted at 26, the Montana State University Billings women's basketball team was unable to keep up with the ninth-ranked University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves down the stretch, falling 59-50 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action Thursday night inside the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
 
The loss breaks a three-game winning streak for the Yellowjackets which are now 10-6 overall and 2-3 in league action while the Seawolves are now in the midst of a nine-game winning streak that has UAA 13-2 overall and are a perfect 4-0 in the GNAC.

"This was an extremely tough loss for us," said head coach Kevin Woodin. "I thought our players played their hearts out against a very talented, nationally-ranked team. We were right there, tied at half time, and did a lot of nice things in the first half, we just couldn't finish our shots down the stretch.

"When they put some distance on us and got that run there early in the second half I felt like we were a little fatigued, but our players battled back and made a run at them there at the end," Woodin stated. "We did a lot of nice things tonight; despite being smaller, our post players were extremely physical and everybody gave us everything they had out on the court."
 
The Yellowjackets hit on 43.5% of their shots in the first half and finished the game with a .370 (17-46) shooting performance from the field, but hit every one of their freebies. MSUB was perfect (10-10) from the charity stripe, but sent the Seawolves to the line 20 times.
 
Points off a turnovers have been the standard deciding factor for the Yellowjackets this season, but Thursday night MSUB relinquished the ball 20 times and only converted 14 Anchorage turnovers into 11 points.
 
Leading the charge was sophomore guard Bobbi Knudsen with a game-high 20 points. It was the second game in a row the Malta High School product produced at least 20 points as she went 6-15 from the field, including knocking down two treys, and converted all six of her trips to the free throw line. Knudsen barely missed out on a double-double performance as she was the leading rebounder for MSUB with nine boards, eight off the defensive glass.
 
Senior Kalli Stanhope added three three-pointers to capture her nine points as the Yellowjackets doubled up Anchorage's three-point total (6-3).
 
For the nationally-ranked Seawolves, Alysa Horn led the way with 19 points off the bench as she put together an 8-14 shooting performance. Reigning GNAC player-of-the-week Hanna Johansson chipped in 11 points of her own as she recorded a double-double to go along with 10 rebounds while Kaylie Robison added 10 scores of her own and a game-high three steals.
 
MSUB opened the game on an 8-4 run over the opening three minutes, and neither team would be able to establish itself as the front-runner early on as the score was tied four times and changed hands a total of five times in just the first half of play.
 
The two squads entered the intermission tied at 26-all after Knudsen knocked down a pair of free throws with 29 seconds remaining.
 
The Yellowjackets were able to score the first two points of the half off a Knudsen layup, but Anchorage would go on from there to steadily build up what would become a 13-point (53-40) lead with four minutes remaining in regulation.
 
Down but not out of the running, MSUB would try their hardest to close the gap and pull off the upset as Stanhope sank one of her three treys with 1:47 registering on the game clock. The shot pulled the Yellowjackets to within five points of the Seawolves, but that would be the closest the young squad would come as they would eventually settle for the nine-point loss.
 
MSUB will remain on the road for another game in Alaska, traveling to Fairbanks for a Saturday afternoon game against the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. local time.