BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings men's basketball team will begin their hunt for the post season as the travel to Oregon to kick off 2020 with two Great Northwest Athletic Conference games against Western Oregon Univeristy and Concordia University Portland.
 
MSUB (5-5, 0-2 GNAC) will be solely focused on qualifying for the GNAC tournament in March as all games in 2020 will be conference games. MSUB built their 2019 games in preparation for league games and will look to take the valuable lessons learned into the new decade.  
 
"We need to start the New Year with some road success as we head full swing into league play," said head coach Mick Durham. We started the league season with four road games which is tough but can give you some momentum if you can get a road win or two. Western Oregon is somewhat a new team with a new coach but still strong on the perimeter with their returners and been playing well especially at home. Concordia is also welcoming a new coach and has stayed competitive throughout the pre-season. We are really focused on ourselves coming off a seven day holiday break and getting back into the Thursday/Saturday GNAC schedule."
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Yellojackets split their games at the DII South Point Holiday Classic in Las Vegas prior to the holiday break. MSUB defeated Pittsburg State University 85-76 on Dec. 21 before taking a 58-54 loss to Rollins College on Dec. 22.
 
In his first games of the year, junior forward Zharon Richmond led MSUB in Las Vegas with 47 points and 18 rebounds in the two games. Richmond opened the tourney with 30 points and nine rebounds against Pittsburg State, shooting 10 of 16 from the field and 5 of 8 from three-point range. He then finished with 17 points and nine rebounds against Rollins.
 
Tyler Green scored 36 points to go with 14 assists in Vegas. He had a double-double of 22 points and 10 assists against Pittsburg State to go with four rebounds. Green finished with 14 points against Rollins with five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
 
Brendan Howard scored 34 points and 13 rebounds in the two Vegas games. He scored 19 points to go with eight rebounds against Rollins and had 15 points with five rebounds against PSU.
 
BY THE NUMBERS: The 'Jackets currently have the eighth ranked offense (73.5 points/game) and eighth ranked defense (77.7 points/game) in the conference.  
 
MSUB ranks fourth in the GNAC with 36.6 rebounds per game. The Yellowjackets are second in the GNAC with 3.30 blocked shots per game and rank fourth in Division II with 12.6 personal fouls per game.
 
Howard continues to lead the GNAC and is 22th in Division II in scoring averaging 21.8 points per game. He also leads the league in rebounding, averaging 8.9 per contest.
 
Green is sixth in the GNAC with 16.9 points per game. He ranks fourth in the GNAC with 4.10 assists per game and is 21st in Division II with 99 three-pointers attempted.
 
Chrishon Dixon is averaging 8.0 points per game and is second on the team with 32 assists.  
 
Scouting Western Oregon University
Game Day: Thursday, January 2-Monmouth, Ore. 8:00pm MST
2019 Record: 7-2, 1-2 GNAC, 3-0 home, 1-2 away, 3-0 neutral
2018 Record: 22-11, 13-7 GNAC, 13-1 home, 5-8 away, 4-2 neutral
Head Coach: Wes Pifer (1^st season)   
 
The Wolves are coming off their first conference victory after defeating Concordia 94-73 this past Tuesday.  
 
WOU holds the league's third ranked offense averaging 83.9 points per game and have the seventh ranked defense allowing opponents to score 74.9 points per contest. The Wolves lead the GNAC and rank second in Division II with a .441 three-point percentage.
 
WOU holds what is perhaps the biggest win of the year for any GNAC school as they upset then ranked number 5 in the nation Dixie state University on December 20 91-75.
 
Individually, Dalven Brushier leads WOU and if fourth in the GNAC in scoring with an average of 18.3 points per game. He also leads the league in minutes played with 319 (35.4/game).
 
Darius Lubom is second on the team with 15.0 points per game and Jaylen Richardson is third averaging 13.7 points per game.
 
Scouting Concordia University-Portland  
Game Day: Saturday, January 4-Portland Ore. 3:00pm MST
2019 Record: 1-10, 0-3 GNAC, 1-1 home, 0-4 away, 0-5 neutral
2018 Record: 11-17, 6-14 GNAC, 4-10 home, 5-7 away, 2-0 neutral
Head Coach: Rodrick Rhodes (1^st season)   
 
Off to a rocky start, CU is 0-3 in the GNAC having lost to WOU on December 31 94-73. WOU had five different players reach double figures and converted 11 three point shots.
 
Overall CU has the ninth ranked offense averaging 72.8 points per game and the 10^th ranked defense surrendering 85.3 points per game.
 
Hunter Sweet leads CU and is eighth in the GNAC averaging 16.6 points per game. Dakota Ayala is second with a scoring average of 11.9 points per contest. They are the only two Cavalier averaging double digit figures.
 
Live stats and video can be found at msubsports.com.