Yellowjackets Host Florida Team Friday and Saturday for Final Home Games –
Will Honor Three Seniors after Saturday’s Game (March 5, 2003)

BILLINGS, MT – The MSU Billings men’s basketball team will close the 2002-2003 season with a pair of games against Nova Southeastern on Friday and Saturday.  The Knights, who hail from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., are 6-19 this season.  The Yellowjackets are 16-9 and finished the PacWest schedule with an 8-7 conference mark.

At the conclusion of Saturday’s game, Yellowjacket coaches, staff and fans will honor this year’s three graduating seniors.  Willy Davison is a four-year letterman from Ballantine, Mont., and Huntley Project HS.  Kyle Stirmlinger and Dan Thompson have been with the Yellowjackets for two seasons.  Stirmlinger transferred from MSU-Bozeman and Thompson came to MSUB from Lamar Community College.

Davison will finish his career with 107 games played as a Yellowjacket.  His senior season has been his most productive as he has guided the Yellowjacket offense through a series of key injuries to be the sixth-highest scoring team in the nation.  Davison currently ranks 20^th in NCAA Division II for assists at 5.9 per game.  As a result, the Yellowjackets are also 2^nd for three-point field goals made and Davison’s backcourt mate Cameron Munoz is 4^th in the nation for three-pointers made.

Davison enters this weekend’s games No. 5 on the Yellowjacket career list for assists with 399.  One more assist will give him over 500 points and 400 assists in his career.  He is nine assists shy of overtaking Billy Foster for the No. 3 spot in the Yellowjacket career record book.  He is also No. 11 in school history for career three-point percentage at 39.0 percent.  This season Davison has almost doubled his career total of three-pointers made with 40, including 14 in his last four games. He has made 90 threes in his career.

Davison has dished out 148 assists in his senior campaign, good for the 10^th-best single season output in school history.  He also scored more than 200 points in a season for the first time in his career.  He has had five games of 10 assists or more and has recorded four double-doubles for points and assists.  Ranked in the PacWest in seven offensive categories, he has become an all-conference candidate this season.

Davison is currently No. 2 in the PacWest for assists at 5.92 per game and has been first in the conference on a couple different occasions this year.  He is ranked in the top ten in the PacWest for assists-to-turnover ratio (3^rd), free throw percentage (5^th), and three-point percentage (6^th).  He is also 11^th in the league for three-pointers made and 22^nd for scoring.  In addition to his on-court success this season, Davison will earn Academic All-Conference honors for his 3.75 cumulative GPA as a chemistry major.

Thompson is a native of Adelaide, South Australia and transferred to MSU Billings from Lamar Community College in Lamar, Colo.  Entering this weekend, he has played in 52 games as a Yellowjacket.  In 37 of those games he has scored in double figures, largely due to his explosive outside shooting.  He needs just six more three-pointers to make the school’s top ten career list.  He currently has 99 threes and has made at least one in 14 of his last 15 games.  Thompson will finish his two-year career with over 100 three pointers, 750 points, 275 rebounds and 115 assists.

Earlier this season Thompson had a streak of seven games in which he scored over 20 points, including a career-high 34 against Great Falls.   He has been the Yellowjackets’ most consistent offensive threat all season and ranks in the top fifteen in the PacWest in eight different categories.  Thompson’s consistent all-around play has him ranked 3^rd in the PacWest for both scoring and three-pointers made per game.  He is also 7^th for defensive rebounding, 10^th for total rebounding, 10^th for three-point percentage, 12^th for free throw percentage, 13^th for field goal percentage, and 15^th for assists.  Thompson will also earn Academic All-Conference honors this year with a 3.53 cumulative GPA in psychology.

Stirmlinger transferred to MSU-Billing after spending two years with the Bobcats in Bozeman.  The native of Eagen, Minn., who stands close to seven feet tall made an immediate impact on both ends of the floor for the Yellowjackets.  He averaged 11.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocked shots as a junior to help the Jackets to the PacWest Conference title.  He has been even better this year, shooting over 57 percent from the field and blocking 42 shots.

Stirmlinger led the PacWest in field goal percentage for almost half of the season and still ranks in the top four.  His 57.3 percent career field goal percentage ranks him 6^th all-time in Yellowjacket history, and he also ranks 4^th for career blocked shots with 71.  His 42 blocked shots this season rank him third in school history for blocked shots in a season.

In the second half of this season, Stirmlinger has had ten straight games of double-figure scoring, including 12 of his last 13.  He has tallied nine double-doubles for points and rebounds and has scored in double figures 32 times in 48 career games.  One of the premier big men in the PacWest this year, Stirmlinger ranks in the top 12 in the conference in six statistical categories.  In addition to field goal percentage, he is 2^nd for blocks, 2^nd for defensive rebounds, 12^th for offensive rebounds, 5^th for total rebounds, and 11^th for scoring.

Over the past two seasons the three Yellowjacket seniors have been instrumental in leading MSU Billings to a combined 37-16 record, including a 31-1 mark in Alterowitz Gymnasium.  A large number of those 31 home wins were part of a school-record 38-game home winning streak that included a perfect 18-0 record last season.