BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings men's basketball team will host Rocky Mountain College on December 13 at Alterowitz Gym during the annual Eastern Montana College Throwback Night.
 
MSUB (4-4, 0-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) returns home after a quick dive into GNAC play last weekend. Rocky (4-2, 1-1 Frontier Conference) split games in their opening Frontier Conference games, losing to the University of Providence 83-71 and defeating Montana State University-Northern 90-86 last week.
 
Rocky defeated MSUB in the first matchup between the two rivals 79-70 on November 23rd. Brendan Howard led MSUB with 24 points and added seven rebounds. Tyler Green finished with 12 points. Chrishon Dixon had a team high four assists and freshmen Sam Elliott had a team leading eight rebounds.
 

 
"We're going to have to play a lot better this time around if we think things will be different," said head coach Mick Durham. "Rocky is playing with a lot of confidence and has gotten better each week. Rocky's returning players are playing very well and their freshmen are accepting their roles."
 
LAST TIME OUT: MSUB dropped its two opening GNAC games to Simon Fraser University and Western Washington University. SFU won 88-76 and WWU claimed victory 86-62.
 
BY THE NUMBERS: The 'Jackets currently have the seventh ranked offense (74.5 points/game) and ninth ranked defense (80.4 points per game) in the conference.  
 
MSUB ranks fourth in the GNAC with 37.6 rebounds per game. The Yellowjackets are second in the GNAC with 3.88 blocked shots per game. They rank fifth in Division II with 12.5 personal fouls per game and 17th in fewest fouls with 100.
 
Howard continues to lead the GNAC and is 20^th in Division II in scoring averaging 23.0 points per game. The sophomore has put together a nice a nice run of four double-doubles in a row and also leads the GNAC in rebounding with 9.5 per game. On the season, Howard has five double-doubles which is the 10^th best in the nation.
 
Green is seventh in the GNAC with 16.6 points per game and is second in the GNAC with a .875 free throw percentage (21-24).
 
Dixon is averaging 9.0 points per game as is tied with Green for team lead in assists with 27.
 
Stevie James scored nine points in each game to finish with 18 for the week. He connected on 4 of 7 from the field at Simon Fraser and made 6 of 7 from the free throw line at Western Washington. James is averaging 6.8 points per game.
 
Scouting Rocky Mountain College                                                                                     
Game Day: Friday, December 13-Alterowitz Gym 7:00pm
2019 Record: 4-2, 1-1 Frontier, 1-0 home, 2-1 away, 1-1 neutral
2018 Record: 19-13, 10-8 Frontier, 12-4 home, 6-9 away, 1-3 neutral
Head Coach: Bill Dreikosen (19^th season)
 
MSUB will renew the Rimrock rivalry with the Battlin' Bears. It will be the 172^nd time the rivals have clashed with MSUB holding the overall advantage 91-82.
 
Rocky delved briefly into conference play this past weekend as they lost to the University of Providence 93-71 and defeated MSU-Northern 90-86.
 
Rocky is averaging 85.5 points per game as a team while surrendering 80.6 points per game.
 
Clayton Ladine is pacing the Battlin' Bears with a scoring average of 17.2 points per game and chipping in 6.0 rebounds per contest. Sam Vining is second with 12.0 points per contest with 5.3 rebounds.
 
Live stats and video can be found at msubsports.com.