Petersen Named Heartland Player of the Week (11/22/05)

BILLINGS, MT – Montana State-Billings senior Tanya Petersen has been named the Heartland Conference Player of the Week for the week of November 14-20.  The Yellowjackets are in their first season as a member of the Heartland Conference.

Petersen, a 6-foot-0 forward from Billings West HS, posted back-to-back double-doubles at the Holiday Inn/Chinook Wireless Yellowjacket Classic last weekend.  She averaged 17.5 points and 12.5 rebounds a game and was named to the all-tournament team.

Petersen scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 75-56 win over Fort Lewis on Friday.  In Saturday’s loss to Hillsdale College, she netted a game-high 22 points to go with 13 rebounds and three blocked shots.  With her 35 points over the weekend, Petersen moved up to 17^th on the school’s all-time scoring list.  She is 24 points away from becoming the 17^th player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.

The Yellowjackets face three tough road games in the span of four days starting Friday.  They’ll play at the West Texas A&M SBS/Coca-Cola Thanksgiving Shootout on Friday and Saturday.  MSU Billings will take on Eastern New Mexico (2-0) on Friday and face perennial regional power West Texas A&M (2-0) on Saturday.

The Lady Jackets wrap up their first road trip of the season with a single Heartland Conference game at Oklahoma Panhandle State on Monday, November 28.  The Aggies are 2-1 with their lone loss coming to Air Force.  The game will be the conference opener for both teams.