Lady Jackets Open Road Trip with Loss (11/25/05)
Box Score

CANYON, TX – The first road trip of the season didn’t start the way the Montana State-Billings women’s basketball team had planned.  The Yellowjackets fell to Eastern New Mexico Friday afternoon, 82-67, at a tournament hosted by West Texas A&M.  The Yellowjackets, now 1-2 on the season, are below the .500 mark for the first time since February 4, 2004, when they were 10-11.

“I was disappointed with the way we played,” said head coach Kevin Woodin after the game.  “They were a very good team, but we shot the ball well and got them down early.  We shot the ball well from the 3-point line.  On a lot of our other shots we had too many missed easy opportunities.  The thing I was disappointed with the most was our effort for the defensive rebounds.  They ended up with the loose balls and hustle plays; we can definitely improve on that.”

The Lady Jackets have another tough test on Saturday when they face host West Texas A&M, a perennial regional power.  The Aggies are 2-0 entering the tournament and face Fort Lewis on Friday night.  The Yellowjackets defeated Fort Lewis in Billings last weekend, 75-56.

Friday’s meeting between the Yellowjackets and Eastern New Mexico was a game of extremes.  MSU Billings started fast, building a double-digit lead in the first four and a half minutes.  During that span, three Shannon Harvey (Jr., Billings, MT) 3-pointers sandwiched between 3-pointers from Tanya Petersen (Sr., Billings, MT) and Alira Carpenter (Fr., Lewistown, MT) staked the Yellowjackets to a 15-4 lead. 

MSU Billings was 5-of-6 from behind the arc during that stretch, but as a sign of things to come they also missed three layups.  Eastern New Mexico (3-0) responded just as quickly as the Yellowjackets had struck, using a 14-3 run in a four minute span to tie the game at 18-18 with 11:30 remaining in the first half. 

Two more 3-pointers from Harvey sparked a 10-0 Yellowjacket run over the next 1:40.  Harvey finished the night with a game-high 20 points and six 3-pointers.  She was 6-of-11 from behind the arc, just missing tying her own school record of seven 3-pointers in a game.  As a team the Yellowjackets were 14-of-28 from downtown.

The Zias chipped away at the Yellowjackets’ lead, eventually regaining the lead with 3:21 remaining in the first half.  ENMU never trailed again in the game, holding a double-digit lead for much of the second half.  The Yellowjackets were able to cut the lead down to four in the first ten minutes of the second half but didn’t have enough gas in the tank to complete the comeback.

Petersen scored in double figures for the third-straight game, dropping in 17 points on 5-of-14 shooting.  She needs seven points on Saturday to become the seventeenth player in Lady Jacket history to score 1,000 points.

Carpenter finished the night with 12 points, hitting 3-of-7 from behind the arc.  Guard Lisa Jellum (Sr., Gillette, WY) added nine points and four assists.  Michelle Lieber (Jr., Gillette, WY) led the Jackets with nine rebounds.

The Zias had five players score in double figures.  Elizabeth Richards posted a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds.  She also had five assists.  Both Tiana Bryant and Rochelle Vance netted 14 points.  Lindsey Wood added 11 points and handed out six assists.  The Zias scored 29 points off 23 Yellowjacket turnovers and had a 36-12 advantage on points in the paint.

The Yellowjackets and Aggies tip off at 5:00 p.m. MST on Saturday afternoon.  WTAMU will broadcast the game on their website at www.gobuffsgo.com.  Following the West Texas A&M tournament, the Yellowjackets will travel to Goodwell, OK, for their Heartland Conference opener against Oklahoma Panhandle State on Monday.

“Defensively we need to be better tomorrow,” said Woodin.  “We’re going to play a very talented West Texas A&M team.  We have to do a better job on the boards and in the transition game.  We allowed too much dribble penetration today.  It’s still early in the season, but the thing that concerns me right now is that our play seems to be very inconsistent within the game.  We play four or five minutes pretty well and then for four or five minutes we don’t.  That’s something we need to get a grasp on, hopefully sooner than later.  That’s going to be the key to our season.  We’re experimenting with some lineups, so that has a little to do with it, but I think our concentration level has to improve so we can be more consistent on offense and defense.”