Lady Yellowjackets Drop Third Straight (Dec. 15, 2003)
Box Score

BELLINGHAM, WA – Sophomore guard Jenny Langford came within one 3-pointer of tying the school record, but the Lady Yellowjackets lost their third straight road game, 66-57, at Western Washington Monday night.  Langford was 6-of-8 from 3-point range and finished with a game-high 20 points in 31 minutes of action.  The school record for 3-pointers in a game is seven, set by Amy Winslow in 1997 and tied by Jenni Winter in 1998.

Neither team shot the ball well in the first half as MSU Billings built a 22-19 halftime lead.  The Yellowjackets shot just 28-percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, but held the Vikings to 30-percent including 0-of-8 from 3-point range.  The Yellowjackets hit 50-percent of their shots in the second half to finish with a 39-percent field goal percentage.  They are shooting just 34-percent as a team through the first eight games of the season.

MSU Billings jumped to a 7-2 lead in the first 3:17 of the game behind five early points from junior center Robyn Milne.  Milne finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds in the game for her fifth double-double in eight games this season.  She also had two blocks and two steals.

The Vikings were able to erase the Lady Jackets’ lead by the midpoint of the first half as both defenses controlled the game.  There were six lead changes and two ties in the first 20 minutes.  A Langford 3-pointer with 3:53 left in the half gave MSUB an 18-17 advantage.  Tanya Petersen scored on the next possession to put the Jackets ahead by three.  After a Milne layup 49 seconds before halftime gave MSU Billings a 22-17 lead, the Vikings’ Jodi Gerald hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to three. 

Western outscored the Yellowjackets 14-6 at the free throw line while taking 13 more attempts.  MSU Billings made it to the line just ten times in the game and only twice in the second half.

The Vikings took over the lead just 46 seconds into the second half on a Tessa DeBoer jumper.  DeBoer finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds.  Western held the lead until 12:33 when Petersen’s only 3-pointer of the game gave the Jackets a 39-37 lead.  Petersen finished with 13 points for the second game in a row.  She also had two blocked shots and a career-high eight assists.

The Vikings regained the lead at 9:18 and never trailed again.  Western, which improved to 6-1, built its lead to seven on a Jenn McGillivray layup at the 6:13 mark.  McGillivray scored 17 on 8-of-13 shooting. 

A 3-pointer from Langford followed by back-to-back baskets in the paint from Milne and Petersen tied the game at 53-53 with 3:57 to play, but the Vikings connected on 3-of-4 field goals and 6-of-7 free throws in the final 3:36 to seal the win. 

The Yellowjackets will travel to Alaska this weekend to take on Alaska-Anchorage on Friday and Alaska-Fairbanks on Saturday.  Both games will be played in Anchorage.  MSUB will need to win both games to push their regional record over .500.  The Lady Jackets are currently 2-3 against West Region opponents.