AZUSA, Cali. – The Montana State University Billings women's basketball team continued it's NCAA Tournament run in style, taking down Azusa Pacific 66-56 to survive and advance, qualifying for the West Regional Championship game.
 
Facing the No. 1 Seed Cougars (29-4, 20-0 PacWest) who had won 25 consecutive games dating back to November of 2023, the No. 4 Seed Yellowjackets (28-6, 16-2 GNAC) would remain unphased, never trailing once in the entire game on their way to an upset victory on the Cougar's home court.
 
"Tonight was a tremendous win for our team, and our entire program," said MSUB head coach Kevin Woodin. "We played some amazing defense, I thought my assistants did a great job of getting us prepared to face Azusa's offense, they're a tough team to guard because they're so balanced. And we shot the ball very well early, which helped give us a huge boost in the game."
 
Dyauni Boyce led MSUB in scoring with 21 points, all of which she scored in the second half, shooting 6-14 from the field and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. Boyce also added a career high 12 rebounds to collect her first double-double of the season, and the third of her career. Aspen Giese had 11 points with six rebounds, two steals, and a block, while Kortney Nelson totaled nine points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and a steal. Kola Bad Bear, Shayla Montague, and Danielle Zahn each added six points, while Chloe Williams had four, and Natalie Andreas had three. Overall, the Yellowjackets shot 37% from the field, while making 40% of their long-range attempts and going 88.9% from the line.
 
The 'Jackets got off to a picture-perfect start to the first quarter, jumping out to a 21-5 lead following the first ten minutes of play. The team knocked down five three-pointers while making exactly half of their attempted field goals in the first, while holding Azusa to just 2-14 shooting from the field, taking an emphatic lead early in the contest. But the Cougars would regain some ground in the second quarter, keeping MSUB off the scoreboard for the first five minutes of the period. Azusa Pacific would hold the Yellowjackets to score just nine points in the quarter while knocking down half of their own shot attempts to swing the lead back to single digits at halftime, trailing MSUB 30-21 as the halftime buzzer sounded.
 
"We came out shooting the ball excellently in the first quarter," said Woodin. "We had a lot of different players get on the scoresheet early to give us a boost. But we knew that they wouldn't stay down for long for long, and Azusa did a good job in the second quarter to chip away at our lead. I know we didn't score for the first half of the second, but I liked the way we recovered to close out the half to push the lead back up to nine."
 
The third quarter was a nearly even affair, with the Cougars managing to close the lead by just one point. While they would once again limit MSUB's shooting percentage, the Yellowjackets would find success from the free throw line, picking up a boost as they went 5-6 from the line. They would do even better from the line in the fourth quarter, going 9-10 from the stripe while returning to their first quarter levels of scoring. MSUB would match their total from the first quarter with 21 down the stretch, and despite a continued strong push from Azusa, who got within as close as four multiple times in the fourth quarter, the Yellowjackets would never yield their lead, seeing out their competitors to qualify for the west regional final for the first time since 2018.
 
"We knew that the second half was going to be a war," said Woodin, "We wanted to improve on defending the three and protecting the ball, and I thought we did a great job of doing just that in the second half. We executed well down the stretch, and our team hit their free throws when they needed to late."
 
Azusa Pacific was led Paige Uyehara, who scored 21 points with three rebounds, two steals, and three steals. Amayah Kirkman scored 9 points, while three other players scored five points or more.
 
THE BUZZ: Boyce was selected as the Intermountain Health Player of the Game… Montague has now moved into second place all-time on MSUB's all-time made three pointers list, moving past Quinn Peoples for the top spot in program history….the last time a Yellowjacket team made it to the Elite Eight was 2018, ironically hosted by Azusa Pacific, where the Yellowjackets earned qualification to the next round of competition.
 
UP NEXT: The Yellowjacket receive a day off Sunday before facing off against the tournament's No. 2 Seed Cal State San Marcos. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 PM PT (8 PM MT) on Monday, Mar 18. Live video will be made available here, and live statistics are available here.