Yellowjackets Win Shootout with HPU (Jan. 20, 2005)
Box Score

BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings men’s basketball team survived 70 second half points by Hawaii Pacific to win 113-108 Thursday night.  It was the Yellowjackets’ first PacWest Conference win, moving them to 1-4 in the league and 9-6 overall.  HPU fell to 7-9, 1-5.  The same teams meet Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Alterowitz Gym.

The Yellowjackets opened the game with a 9-0 run with freshman Lucas Walker (Launceston, Australia) scoring seven of the first nine points.  Walker had the biggest night of his young career, pouring in 32 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the floor and 11-of-16 from the free throw line.  He spent much of the night in the low post benefiting from one-on-one match ups in the paint.

MSU Billings built its lead to as many as 24 in the first half.  Cameron Munoz’s (Jr., Chino, CA) 3-pointer with 4:46 left in the half gave the Jackets a 52-28 lead.  Two late 3-pointers from Hawaii Pacific’s Gene Barnes cut into the Yellowjackets’ lead and they took a 58-38 advantage into halftime.

Between 13:00 and 7:08 of the second half, Hawaii Pacific trimmed a 23 point MSU Billings lead to just 10.  The Yellowjackets’ lead fluctuated between nine and 14 points until the final minute of the game when the Sea Warriors were able to make a late charge.

Three Buddy Windy Boy (Jr., Lodge Grass, MT) 3-pointers in a span of four possessions kept the Sea Warriors at bay.  Windy Boy scored 20 points with all three of his triples coming between 4:33 and 3:06 of the second half.  He was 6-of-8 from the field.

The Sea Warriors’ Alex Swerzbin answered Windy Boy’s barrage with three long balls of his own over the next two minutes.  His 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining cut the Jackets’ lead to eight at 109-101.  HPU’s Stevie Johnson scored seven points in the final 11 seconds to get the Sea Warriors to within five, but time ran out on the comeback attempt.

Swerzbin finished with a team-high 23 points, hitting 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and 8-of-8 from the line.  Johnson netted 20 points and Barnes added 19.  Audrius Peciukas finished with a double-double of 16 points and 14 rebounds.  Ten of his boards came on the offensive end, rebounding many of his own misses.

Munoz came off the bench to score 18 points for the Yellowjackets.  He played 27 minutes in his return after missing Tuesday’s game against BYU-Hawaii.  Carlin Hughes (Fr., Perth, Australia) added 17 points and a career-high nine assists.  The Sea Warriors chose to put Hughes on the line late in the game to stop the clock and he converted 8-of-11 from the charity stripe.

The Jackets’ Jonathan Wiley (So., Westlake Village, CA) added nine points before fouling out.  Cody Samuelson (So., Broadus, MT) finished with five points and six rebounds.