BILLINGS, Mont. – Jumping back into action this week, the Montana State University Billings women's basketball team has three games on its schedule in the next four days.
 
The Yellowjackets (1-1) will square off against crosstown rival Rocky Mountain College on Wednesday evening, with tipoff set for 5 p.m. at the Fortin Center. It will be the first game in a doubleheader with the men's teams, with live video available online here and live statistics available online here. No fans will be allowed at Wednesday's game.
 
MSUB will then hit the road for a pair of games against Lewis-Clark State College over the weekend. After splitting two games at Alterowitz Gym a week ago, the Warriors and Yellowjackets will do battle on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Activity Center in Lewiston, Idaho. Live video for those games will be available online here and live statistics will be available online here.
 
"It's always fun playing Rocky," said Yellowjacket head coach Kevin Woodin. "There will be great intensity out there and I know both teams will play hard. We need to be ready, and it is a difficult place to play. They always get up and play their best for us."
 
The 'Jackets are coming off a 77-69 win over LC State on Jan. 30, after the Warriors won 56-49 in the season-opener the night before. MSUB will look to build into this week's games after two contests decided by single digits. "It was definitely good to play and it was fun for the entire team," said junior Cariann Kunkel, who made her MSUB debut against LC State. "We had never played before with this brand new team, so just getting that under our belt was important. The second game when we were down, came back, and fought through adversity, that was really good."
 
"I was pleased with how we got better as the two games progressed," Woodin said. "Defensively we were pretty consistent throughout both days, and offensively we started to get our tempo and execution going better. It was just great to play, but also we are sure striving to win games."
 
Returning all-conference forward Taryn Shelley was the top performer for MSUB over the first two games of the year, as she racked up 45 points in just 50 minutes of action while shooting 70.4 percent from the floor. Shelley was also MSUB's leading rebounder over the first two games with 14, and she added three blocked shots as well.
 
Kunkel was a standout in her debut as a Yellowjacket, scoring 19 points and hauling in a dozen rebounds while leading the team with nine assists in the split against the Warriors. "Cariann is a wonderful player for us," said Woodin. "I am so impressed with how hard she plays and how versatile she is."
 
"It has been really fun experiencing the new culture and the new team," said Kunkel, who transferred to MSUB after two seasons at Wenatchee Valley College. "I am definitely thankful for my college experience. It has helped me know how to be a leader and know how to talk, and just to know how college basketball is played."
 
Freshmen Dyauni Boyce and Kortney Nelson also had notable debuts, contributing on both ends of the floor. Boyce averaged 8.0 points over the two games, while grabbing nine rebounds and committing zero turnovers in 43 total minutes on the floor. Nelson meanwhile was the team's leading rebounder with 9.5 per game as she earned a spot in the starting lineup in both contests. "They are so much fun to have on the team," Kunkel said when asked about the performance of the Yellowjacket newcomers. "They are definitely adjusting well. College basketball is a lot of hard work, and that's definitely what they're doing."
 
Junior Addison Gardner had a career performance in the win over the Warriors, with her 12 points standing as the most she has scored in a collegiate game. Gardner knocked down four 3-pointers to help the Yellowjackets rally to victory, and she also grabbed seven rebounds on the weekend.
 
After the slow start in the season opener, MSUB's offense came alive as the team averaged 63.0 points over the first two games. The 'Jackets also carried a notable 41.0-33.0 edge in average rebounds in the home series against the Warriors.
 
Rocky Mountain College enters Wednesday's game with a record of 1-7 overall on the season, with all of its previous games being played against Frontier Conference opponents. The Battlin' Bears were last on the court on Jan. 23 and Jan. 24, in a pair of road losses to Montana State Northern in Havre.
 
LC State (9-4) enters this weekend coming off wins over Eastern Oregon on Feb. 4 (79-61) and College of Idaho on Feb. 6 (76-57). The games against MSUB will be the final regular-season contests for LC State, before the Cascade Conference Championships at the end of the month.
 
"It will be nice to see how we have progressed the last 10 days since playing LC," Woodin said. "You're not used to playing somebody four times over two weeks, but that's just the way the schedule goes. It'll be a long trip, but it will be some good bonding time for our team on the bus. Hopefully we will play well, and I expect us to."