BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings men's basketball team travels to Washington for two Great Northwest Athletic Conference bouts against last year's regular season champs Saint Martin's University and this year's current first place team the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
MSUB (7-7, 2-4 GNAC) are currently in seventh place in the GNAC after splitting games last week at home. MSUB fell to Northwest Nazarene University on January 9th 85-72 and then snatched victory away from the jaws of defeat in an exhilarating victory over Central Washington University on Jan. 11.
 
"We're back on the road for two tough league games" said head coach Mick Durham". "Seattle Pacific hasn't lost a league game since we beat them in Billings last February. Both teams have a lot of new personnel especially Saint Martin's. Our last game on the road we settled in and played pretty consistent for 40 minutes and hope to continue that on the road this week. Last weekend games were really competitive with both NNU and Central Washington coming in here and playing really well. I thought we learned a lot and are continuing to grow together and improve. Road wins are essential and we're looking forward to seeing how we stack up against these two teams."
 
LAST TIME OUT: The Yellowjackets split games as they dropped their very first home game of the year to NNU 85-72 followed by a thrilling overtime win against CWU 92-91 on a last second, buzzer beating 38 foot three from Tyler Green.
 
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.
 
Brendan Howard is now second in the GNAC and is 20th in Division II in scoring averaging 22.1 points per game. He also ranks second in the league in rebounding, averaging 8.4 per contest.
 
Green is 11th in the GNAC with 14.8 points per game and is sixth in assists with 3.5 per game. Green leads the GNAC and ranks 24th in Division II with a .889 free throw percentage (40-45).
 
Zharon Richmond is averaging 18.2 points per game in his six games he has played this season.
 
Coming off his career high 22 point performance, Chrishon Dixon is averaging 8.9 points per game in his point guard role. Dixon and is second on the team and ninth in the GNAC with 43 assists (3.1/game).  
 
Scouting Saint Martin's University
Game Day: Thursday, January 16-Lacey, Washington. 8:30pm MST
2019 Record: 4-12, 2-5 GNAC, 2-5 home, 2-3 away, 0-4 neutral
2018 Record: 26-6, 17-3 GNAC, 12-1 home, 10-3 away, 4-2 neutral
Head Coach: Aaron Landon (1^st season)   
 
Last year's regular season champions currently sit in ninth place after a rocky start to their season. They are coming off 87-63 loss to SPU on Tuesday. Having lost a lot of players and the coaching staff from last year's team, the Saints currently have the eighth ranked scoring offense averaging 75.1 points per game and carry the 11th ranked scoring defense surrendering a league high 84.5 points per game.
 
Demonte Malloy leads SMU and is eighth in the GNAC averaging 15.2 points per game. Alex Schumacher is second on the team averaging 13.7 points per game and Marky Adams averages nearly a double-double each game with 10.8 points and 9.0 rebounds.
 
MSUB lost twice to SMU last year. First at home against the then ranked number 23 in the nation Saints 76-74 on January 24. The playing at SMU who had improved their national ranking to number 11, defeated MSUB soundly 73-56.  
 
Scouting #25 Seattle Pacific University
Game Day: Saturday, January 18-Seattle Washington. 3:00pm MST
2019 Record: 11-4, 7-0 GNAC, 3-3 home, 8-0 away, 0-1 neutral
2018 Record: 22-7, 16-4 GNAC, 11-1 home, 8-3 away, 3-3 neutral
Head Coach: Grant Leep (3^rd season)
 
Cracking the top 25 for the first time this year, number 25 in the nation, SPU lost their first four games of the year and since have been on an 11 game win streak including seven GNAC games. SPU has not lost a conference game since falling to the Yellowjackets in Billings 76-67 on February 21, 2019. In that streak, SPU won the GNAC tournament and made it all the way to the NCAA West Region Tournament before falling to Saint Martin's in the semifinal.  
 
Currently sixth in the West Region polls, the Falcons are fourth in the GNAC with 78.7 points per game and boast the leauge's top ranked defense only giving up 70.3 points per game.
 
SPU is averaging 33.2 rebounds per game and are second in the GNAC and 22nd in Division II with a .399 three-point percentage and 27th in Division II with a .496 field goal percentage.
 
Individually, Divante Moffitt leads the Falcons with 13.7 points per game and is eighth in the GNAC with 3.21 assists per game. Shaw Anderson is the reigning GNAC player of the week and is second on the team averaging 12.7 points per game to go with 4.9 rebounds. Harry Cavell leads the Falcons in rebounding averaging 6.9 per game and contributes 11.3 points per game.
 
 Live stats and video can be found at msubsports.com.