Bobcats Down Lady Jackets in Exhibition (11/7/05)
Box Score

BOZEMAN, MT – Montana State-Bozeman shored up its defense to defeat the Montana State-Billings women’s basketball team, 74-54, Monday night in an exhibition game at Worthington Arena.  Less than a week after giving up 91 points in an exhibition loss to Carroll College, the Bobcats allowed just two Yellowjackets to score in double figures and held MSU Billings to 34 percent shooting from the field.

“We didn’t shoot well, especially from the perimeter,” said Yellowjacket coach Kevin Woodin.  “We had a lot of good looks from the 3-point line, but we just couldn’t get them to go.  We played a lot like we do in a first game.  We played in streaks.  We’d have three or four minutes where we’d do good things, and then we would have three or four minutes that weren’t so good.”

The Bobcats jumped to a nine point lead just seven and a half minutes into the game when Amanda DeHann’s layup put MSU ahead 15-6.  The Yellowjackets battled back to tie the game at 24-24 inside of five minutes in the half on a pair of Tanya Petersen (Sr., Billings, MT) free throws. The Bobcats eventually settled for a 38-31 halftime lead.  The Yellowjackets never led in the game.

“The first half was a struggle for us,” said Woodin.  “They jumped out early, but I was pleased with the way we fought back.  Michelle Lieber and Tanya had foul trouble early.  We were forced to go to our bench and got a spark from Jen Smith and Alira Carpenter.  We could have easily folded up our tent, so I was proud of the way we fought back.”

The Yellowjackets’ Shannon Harvey (Jr., Billings, MT) scored the first five points of the second half to pull the Jackets within two at 38-36.  Things turned south in a hurry for the Yellowjackets from that point.  The Bobcats opened a 17-point lead by the 14:30 mark.

A 3-point play by Lieber (Jr., Gillette, WY) and a free throw by Jennifer Skrifvars (Jr., Brea, CA) closed the gap to 57-49 with just over eight minutes to play.  But that was as close as the Yellowjackets would get the rest of the way.

Petersen led the Yellowjackets with 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field.  She was also 5-of-5 from the free throw line and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.  Smith (Fr., Belgrade, MT) had a solid homecoming with 11 points and six rebounds.  She was 2-of-2 from behind the arc.  The Yellowjackets made just 5-of-20 from 3-point range as a team.

Carpenter (Fr., Lewistown, MT) added nine points for MSU Billings on 4-of-9 shooting.  Harvey finished with five points and Lieber added four before fouling out.

The Bobcats had a trio of double figure scorers led by Alyssa Nelson’s 17 points.  She was 6-of-8 from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point range.  Backcourt mate Scotta Morton netted 15 points and also knocked down three triples.  Center Whitney Connolly added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Nubia Garcia pulled down a game-high 10 boards for the Cats.  Shannon Bosley and DeHann each added eight points.

The Yellowjackets open the regular season on November 18 and 19 when they host the Holiday Inn/Chinook Wireless Yellowjacket Classic.  There will be two games Friday and two games Saturday at Alterowitz Gym.  The Yellowjackets will play the late game each night, meeting Fort Lewis on Friday and Hillsdale College on Saturday.

“Our effort was great,” said Woodin of his team’s first performance of the year.  “We just have to play more consistent.  It wasn’t the number of turnovers that killed us, but it was the turnovers at crucial times that led to quick points at the other end.  The best thing for us was getting to play a quality opponent in our first game.  It gives us a way to measure things to work on for the next one.”