BILLINGS, Mont.  – Playing their third game in four nights, the Montana State University Billings men's basketball team (7-3, 0-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) couldn't make enough plays to beat the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears (6-3, 02 Frontier Conference) in a 95-87 loss on Saturday night. It was a counting game for the Yellowjackets and an exhibition for RMC.
 
The 'Jackets clawed their way back from a nine-point deficit with 1:27 remaining. Sven Jeuschede woke the crowd with a three off of a Zharon Richmond assist to cut the lead to six. Following a quick RMC bucket, Jueschede again connected from downtown to trim the margin to five. Playing press defense, Kobe Terashima sparked the play of the night for the 'Jackets. Terashima stripped Rocky's Danny Betcher and delivered a pass to Zack Rollins who sunk a corner-three to bring the lead down to two. From there it was all Rocky as they converted 6 of 6 free throw opportunities to ice the game.
"Our guys' effort was awesome," head coach Jamie Stevens said after the first home loss of the season for the 'Jackets. "They competed really hard tonight, they've played 120 minutes of basketball in the past four days against very good competition. We had some adversity after losing Tyler (Green) on Wednesday and we bounced back to win yesterday. I am really proud of our guys, we just didn't make enough defensive stops to win. I wanted this week to prepare us for our conference schedule and we did that."
 
RMC shot 61.1 percent in the second half after shooting just 36.1 in the first. MSUB also shot better in the second period but only converted 46.3 of their shots in the final 20 minutes. Turnovers were costly for the 'Jackets with Rocky forcing 17 and converting them into 27 points. The Bears also scored a big advantage in the paint with a 50-34 scoring differential in the post.
 
The Yellowjackets never led the Battlin' Bears by more than two for the entirety of the game while RMC's largest lead of the night was their nine point advantage while the second half was winding down.  
 
Jeuschede set a career-high in points for the second time this week with 28 points. He scored a remarkable 23 points in the second half, just one point short of the 'Jackets previous high for an entire game this season. Prior to Wednesday, Jeuschede had never eclipsed 17 points in a game. He will head into Thursday's contest with three consecutive 20-point performances.
 
MSUB held a one-point advantage at the break thanks to five points in the last minute of the first period from Kendall Denham. Denham sunk a 3-pointer with 58 seconds left to give the 'Jackets their first lead since the 7:56 mark and answered a pair of Rocky free throws with a perfect fade-away jumper with five-seconds on the clock. The senior guard finished the night with 10 points and three assists.
 
Rollins scored a season-high 21 points in the game and tallied six rebounds. He finished the night 5-for-12 from deep adding an assist and a block while shooting 50 percent from the field.
 
Richmond played a physical game in the paint making his way to the free throw line a team-leading seven times and making six. The freshman finished the night with 13 points, three blocks and a team-leading seven rebounds. He also tied for the team lead with three assists.
 
Jared Samuelson led the way for RMC with 27 points and 10 rebounds in the win. Latrelle Franklin added 25 for the Bears with a game-high eight assists.
 
The 'Jackets will host GNAC opponent Central Washington (4-4, 0-2 GNAC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. before heading on a three game trip to Hawaii. Last season, MSUB and CWU split the series with each team winning on the road. In the last matchup the 'Jackets defeated the Wildcats 96-69 in Ellensberg, Wash.
 
All MSUB home games and all GNAC road contests can be followed via the MSUB Stretch Internet Portal.