BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings women's basketball team clinched a season sweep in the Rimrock Rivalry against Rocky Mountain College on Monday, taking down their crosstown foes 60-41.
 
Following an emphatic 73-45 win last month against the Battlin' Bears (7-3, 5-2 Frontier), the Yellowjackets (6-7, 0-2 GNAC) would battle Rocky evenly in the first half of the road leg of the season series. But after leading by one going into halftime, the Yellowjacket offense would take control of the game in the second half, outscoring their opponent 37-19 on their way to claiming their second win of the season against Rocky.
 
"This was a nice win for us," said MSUB head coach Kevin Woodin. "Rocky played really hard, they didn't play their key players as many minutes, so they came at us with some different looks, but I thought we adjusted to that, and both teams got to play a lot of players. Defensively I thought our team switched defenses well tonight, which is something we're starting to do better. Our players followed the scout really well with that."
 
Allison Kunze led the way for MSUB with 16 points, shooting 7-9 from the field with a rebound, and scoring 12 of her points in the second half. Kyla Momberg scored 11 points with a trio of rebounds and assists to go with one steal, and Kaitlin Grossman posted a stat line of nine points, ten rebounds, two steals and a block. Rae Smart and Brooklynn Brennan would each score six points, with Smart grabbing three rebounds and one steal, and Brennan dishing out three assists. Tailey Harris scored five with three steals, two rebounds, an assist and a block, while Katelyn Hamilton scored three points, and Lauren Kuhbacker and Avery Burkhart each scored two. Alli Ligocki would total seven rebounds.
 
The first quarter saw the crosstown foes trade made baskets to start the contest in an even affair, exchanging the lead five times in the opening eight minutes of action. But after big threes from Momberg and Brennan would help the Yellowjackets see off responses by the Battlin' Bears, Rocky would finish the final 2:46 minutes of the quarter on a 7-2 run, pulling ahead by five as the contest made it's way into the second period. Scoring would be hard to come by for both teams throughout the second quarter, but it would be MSUB who would be able to get it done more on the offensive end, rallying to outscore the Battlin' Bears 9-5 across the second set of ten minutes, holding their opponents to just 2-11 (18.2%) shooting in the period to take back a narrow 23-22 lead by halftime.
 
The third quarter is where the Yellowjackets would really begin to wrestle away control from the hosts, with MSUB opening the period on a 6-2 run to build a small cushion. From there, Kunze would help swing the game in a big way, scoring eight of MSUB's 17 third quarter points to help the 'Jackets push their lead to ten going into the fourth quarter. The team would then explode offensively down the stretch, shooting 8-13 (61.5%%) across the final ten minutes and outscoring the Battlin' Bears 20-11 down the stretch, walking away with a hard-fought victory, and a season sweep in against Rocky in the Rimrock Rivalry Season Series.
 
I thought in the second half we got off to a great start in the first few minutes," praised Woodin. "We created some good looks in transition, and rebounded better than we did in the first half, which was key to our victory."
 
THE BUZZ: Kunze was named the Intermountain Health Player of the Game… MSUB has now won eight games in a row against the Battlin' Bears, including four consecutive season sweeps.
 
UP NEXT: The Yellowjackets head to Las Vegas, NV next for a pair of neutral site games, opening up the weekend's action on Saturday, December 20 with a game versus University of Tampa. Tipoff is schedule for 12:15 PM MT (11:15 AM PT) at South Point Arena, with live video available on Flo Sports, and live statistics available here.