BILLINGS, Mont. – With the 2011-12 regular season winding down, the Montana State University Billings women's basketball team is not just in the zone as far as ending the season on a high note with a successful trip to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference; the Yellowjacket women are also in the “Pink Zone.”
 
Last week, the 'Jackets won both of their conference games over Central Washington University and Northwest Nazarene University. On Thursday, Feb. 9, MSUB defeated the Wildcats 61-52 before earning the season-sweep over the Crusaders on Saturday, Feb. 11 with a 69-60 victory over NNU in Nampa, Idaho.
 
Sophomore guard Bobbi Knudsen scored 57 total points over the weekend that included logging a career-high and GNAC season-high 32 against NNU on Saturday. The Malta, Mont. native went 23-42 (.548) from the field through the pair of games and drained 14 treys and her performance earned her recognition from the conference office as she was named the GNAC Player of the Week.
 
The Yellowjackets are now 18-8 overall and their 10-5 record in the conference has them sitting third in the league standings with the conference tournament just on the horizon. The overall mark has MSUB entering the inaugural NCAA Division II West Region rankings in 10^th this week with just three games remaining prior to the 2012 GNAC basketball tournament.
 
This week, MSUB will play just one game inside Alterowitz Gymnasium, hosting Seattle Pacific University on Saturday, Feb. 18 for their Seventh-Annual “Pink Zone” game. The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and will feature the Yellowjackets sporting pink uniforms as they look to not only battle the Falcons, but also breast cancer.
 
Head coach Kevin Woodin and team are hoping to pack Alterowitz Gymnasium in pink for the special event as all women who attend the game will be admitted for free.
 
Entering this weekend's game, the Yellowjacket women are currently averaging 66 points per game and their defense is only allowing a conference second-best 58.2 points allowed. As a team, MSUB is shooting .374 from the field and made 201 three-pointers while their opponents have only made 96 treys.
 
Knudsen's 17.3 points per game has her currently second in the league, but she has scored a conference-best 450 points this season which is 54 more than Simon Fraser's Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe who leads the GNAC with an average of 18.0 points per outing. Knudsen also leads the team with a 40.9% shooting performance from the field and has made 71 of her 90 attempts from the free throw line. The Malta High School product has drilled a team second-best 41 treys so far this season.
 
Just behind Knudsen, freshman Quinn Peoples leads the team from three-point range with 56 total three-pointers this season. The Butte, Mont. native is currently averaging 10.4 points per game and hits 33.3% of her looks from beyond the arc.
 
Janiel Olson continues to lead the team under the basket, averaging 8.8 rebounds per game. The Billings West High School product has corralled in 229 total rebounds this season.
 
Seattle Pacific is currently in the midst of a two-game losing skid, the first time this season the Falcons have dropped multiple games in a row. They currently boasts the league's second-highest scoring offense, averaging 74 points per outing, but they are giving up 64.6 points per game.
 
The Falcons are led in scoring by Katie Benson's 15 points per game. She has hit 44.5% of her looks from the field and is also the team's leading active rebounder with 6.6 boards per game.
 
Behind Benson, Rachel Murray averages 10.5 points per game while Betsy Kingma has hit a team-best 34 three-pointers this season.
 
The last time the two programs met on Jan. 21, the Yellowjackets came away from Seattle with a 63-62 win over the Falcons.