Box Score                               Woodin Interview                               Knudsen Interview

BILLINGS, Mont. –The Montana State University Billings Women's Basketball team beat Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Seattle Pacific University, 74-59 Saturday night at Alterowitz gym for their eighth straight win. 

MSU-Billing took a 14-11 lead after Quinn Peoples hit a three with thirteen minutes left, and they would not give it back for the remainder of the game. 

The Yellowjackets would take an eight point lead into the half, 38-30, shooting 40.0 percent and limiting SPU to 37.3 percent.

"I liked the intensity we played with in the first half," Head Coach Kevin Woodin said.  "Our defensive communication and rebounding were very good.  Offensively, we did a good job of getting the ball in the paint." 

MSUB came out of the break hot.  They started the second half on an 11-4 run to extend their lead to 15 points, 49-34.

The Yellowjackets would push the lead to as much as 20 points, 72-52 with five minutes and thirty seconds left in regulation.  They would go onto cruise to the 74-59 victory.

"We talked at halftime about having the first run as I thought SPU finished the first half with some momentum, Woodin said.  "Our players did a great job with that.  Both Kayleen Goggins and Chelsea Banis were active in the post offensively early in the second half which led to some easy buckets."

MSUB finished shooting 42.4 percent from the field and limit SPU to 34.4 percent.  They also did a great job shutting down the GNAC's second leading scorer and rebounder, Katie Benson who finished with 11 points and five rebounds.  Her season average is 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds. 

The Jackets finished with four players in double figures, led by a game high, from the GNAC's fourth leading scorer Bobbi Knudsen, who scored 21 points to go with four assists and seven rebounds. 

"I thought Bobbi played better in the second half," coach Woodin said.  "Her decision making was very good and she and our team were also effective in transition."

Chelsea Banis scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Kayleen Goggins added 11 points and Peoples finished with 10 points going 2-3 from three point range. 

The GNAC's leading rebounder, Janiel Olsen, continued to clean the glass grabbing a game high 12 rebounds; she averages 10.3 a game. 
MSU-Billings controlled the boards, out rebounding SPU 42-29.  MSUB outscored the Falcons in the paint as well, more than doubling their points in the paint, 34-16.   MSUB also had 15 second chance points and the great rebounding efforts of the team limited SPU to just two second chance points. 

With the win MSUB continues to hold sole possession of first place in the GNAC and improves to 18-5 overall and 10-2 in the conference.  SPU falls to 14-6, 7-5 GNAC. 

"Rebounding was key tonight and to have four players with 7 or more boards was very impressive," coach Woodin said.  "SPU plays very aggressive but I thought our effort on the boards was outstanding. We beat a very well coached and good SPU team tonight.  It was a great win for our entire program. We are looking forward to next week's home GNAC games vs. NNU and CWU."

The Yellowjackets are home again next week as they welcome Northwest Nazarene University and then will host their annual "Think Pink" night against Central Washington University. 


Newspaper Box Score
Seattle Pacific vs Montana State Billings
2/8/2014 7:00 PM at Alterowitz Gym
At Alterowitz Gym
MONTANA STATE BILLINGS 74, SEATTLE PACIFIC 59
SEATTLE PACIFIC (14-6, 7-5 GNAC)
Benson,Katie 4-8 2-5 11; Ohlsen,Suzanna 3-10 4-4 11; Kingma,Betsy 4-11 0-0
10; Lukasiewicz,Stacey 3-5 0-0 6; Lasconia,Brianne 2-9 0-0 6;
Rodrigues,Hannah 1-4 3-4 6; Grager,Molly 2-4 0-0 4; Pflaumer,Maddey 1-5 1-2
3; Butler,Riley 1-4 0-0 2; Barnes,Mechela 0-0 0-0 0; Shim,Rachel 0-1 0-0 0.
Totals 21-61 10-15 59.
MONTANA STATE BILLINGS (18-5, 10-2)
Knudsen,Bobbi 7-17 3-4 21; Banis,Chelsea 6-9 4-7 16; Goggins,Kayleen 5-13
0-0 11; Peoples,Quinn 4-9 0-0 10; Breen,Alisha 2-6 3-3 7; Olson,Janiel 2-3
0-0 5; Hanser,Austin 1-6 0-0 2; Capouch,Tenika 1-1 0-0 2; Kumm,Brandy 0-2
0-0 0. Totals 28-66 10-14 74.
Seattle Pacific...............   30   29  -   59
Montana State Billings........   38   36  -   74
3-point goals--Seattle Pacific 7-18 (Kingma,Betsy 2-7; Lasconia,Brianne 2-3;
Ohlsen,Suzanna 1-4; Rodrigues,Hannah 1-2; Benson,Katie 1-2), Montana State
Billings 8-27 (Knudsen,Bobbi 4-8; Peoples,Quinn 2-3; Olson,Janiel 1-2;
Goggins,Kayleen 1-6; Kumm,Brandy 0-2; Hanser,Austin 0-4; Breen,Alisha 0-2).
Fouled out--Seattle Pacific-None, Montana State Billings-None.
Rebounds--Seattle Pacific 29 (Rodrigues,Hannah 6), Montana State Billings 42
(Olson,Janiel 12). Assists--Seattle Pacific 13 (Ohlsen,Suzanna 3;
Lasconia,Brianne 3; Kingma,Betsy 3), Montana State Billings 16
(Knudsen,Bobbi 4; Breen,Alisha 4). Total fouls--Seattle Pacific 10, Montana
State Billings 10. Technical fouls--Seattle Pacific-None, Montana State
Billings-None. A-557