Yellowjackets Drop Second Straight at Western New Mexico (Jan. 31, 2004) 
Box Score

SILVER CITY, NM – The MSU Billings men’s basketball team’s PacWest championship hopes took a serious hit Saturday night as the Yellowjackets lost their second straight game at Western New Mexico.  The 87-77 loss dropped MSU Billings to 4-4 in the PacWest and 12-6 overall.  Western New Mexico won its third straight conference game to improve to 3-5 and 6-12 overall.

The Yellowjackets started quickly, jumping to a 10-2 lead in the first 3:16.  Trae Fortier and Bill Day led the surge with six and four points respectively as MSU Billings appeared to take control early.  Fortier’s dunk at 16:44 gave the Jackets their largest lead of the game at eight.  Following a Mustangs 3-pointer, Fortier hit a 3-pointer of his won to put the Yellowjackets ahead 13-5 just over four minutes into the game. 

The Mustangs rallied over the next two minutes, however, cutting the Yellowjackets’ lead to one, 15-14, at the 13:39 mark.  Jason Jackson hit two of his six 3-pointers during that stretch for WNMU.  The Mustangs gained their first lead of the game after another Jackson 3-pointer at 11:16 put them ahead 19-17.  Jerett Skrifvars tied the game with a jumper just less than a minute later, but that was the closest the Yellowjackets would get for the remainder of the game.

The Mustangs extended their lead to ten by halftime and didn’t relinquish the lead in the second half.  The Yellowjackets were able to pull within two points on two occasions, but couldn’t close the gap.  A Skrifvars jumper at 15:01 made the score 50-48, and a Fortier 3-pointer drew MSUB to within 53-51 with 13:55 to play. 

History didn’t hold true for the Yellowjackets, who have traditionally had big shooting nights in Silver City.  The Yellowjackets shot just 36.6 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from 3-point range Saturday night.  They struggled even more at the free throw line, making just 57 percent of their attempts to help the Mustangs to a 23-12 scoring advantage from the charity stripe.

Cameron Munoz scored a game-high 28 to lead the Yellowjackets.  He was 7 of 15 from 3-point range.  Fortier finished with a double-double of 19 points and ten rebounds.  Day added 13 points and nine boards, and Skrifvars grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, nine on the offensive end.

The Yellowjackets have only lost back-to-back games to the Mustangs one other time in the series history, dropping the first two games between the teams back in 1995.  MSUB had won eighteen in a row against Western before this week.

MSU Billings now has ten days until its next PacWest game when the Yellowjackets host first place BYU-Hawaii for two games in Billings on February 10 and 12.  The Seasiders are unbeaten in the conference.  The Yellowjackets will play the University of Great Falls in a non-conference tune up on February 5.