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BILLINGS, Mont. – A 53% shooting performance from the field that saw five players finish their Great Northwest Athletic Conference game with double-digit point totals spurred the Montana State University Billings men's basketball team as they easily beat the Nanooks of the University of Alaska Fairbanks 95-70 Saturday night inside Alterowitz Gymnasium.
 
With the win MSUB improves to 8-6 overall and are an even 3-3 in league action while Fairbanks falls to 4-11 and 1-4 in the GNAC.
 
“I was pleased with our balanced effort on the court tonight,” said first-year head coach Jamie Stevens. “It was a game where we needed to play well after back-to-back conference losses, and I feel like we certainly did that. We shot the ball much better than we have been most of the year and the guys did a nice job of playing strong under the basket and getting some points in the paint.
 
The Yellowjackets were able to make 35 of their 66 shots from the field that included going .429 (12-28) from three-point range.
 
Robert Mayes led the way for the well-balanced 'Jacket attack off the bench with a game-high 21 points. The senior from Houston, Texas had one of his best games of the season as he finished the night 9-12 from the field and corralled in six rebounds, swatting away a ball for a block.
 
Behind Mayes, fellow big-man Emery Henning went 4-5 from the field including hitting one of the opening treys of the game en route to a 13-point performance. Henning also had a block and brought down three rebounds. He was 4-4 from the charity stripe.
 
Three more Yellowjackets ended the lop-sided victory with 11 points. Seniors Antoine Proctor, Jaxon Myaer and junior David Arnold all finished the game with 11 points.
 
For the Nanooks, Dominique Brinson led the way with 20 points, going 7-13 from the field while Sergej Pucar produced 14 points off his own 7-13 outing. Both players had five rebounds.
 
The Yellowjackets opened the first minute of play on a 6-2 run as Chase Richards and Henning each knocked down a three to commence the game at a fierce pace.
 
From there, both teams played hard to keep the game close through most of the early going before Henning put MSUB up by 11 points (41-30), and the 'Jacket lead would never dip below 10 from that point forward. The Yellowjackets entered intermission with an 18-point (53-35) lead.
 
Three minutes into the second stanza of play, Myaer drained a trey to put MSUB up by 22 (61-39), and it would be all MSUB from there as the 'Jackets would not let up in the closing minutes.
 
MSUB scored 20 of their points off of Fairbanks' 16 turnovers and were able to utilize their bench well as they had 45 points compared to Fairbanks' 21.
 
“We have a big weekend ahead of us next week and we will need to play as well as we did tonight if we expect to win on the road,” stated Stevens.
 
Next weekend, the Yellowjacket men will hit the road for a pair of pivotal GNAC games. On Thursday, Jan. 12, MSUB will travel to Northwest Nazarene University for a 7 p.m. tipoff before taking on Central Washington University on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 7 p.m.