Cold Shooting Dooms Lady Jackets (2/22/07)
Box Score

LAREDO, TX – Texas A&M-International knocked off the Montana State-Billings women’s basketball team 75-66 in non-conference action Thursday.  The Dustdevils won for the eighth time in the last 12 games to improve to 11-11.  The Yellowjackets dropped to 19-9.

"We were kind of done in tonight by a couple things," said head coach Kevin Woodin.  "We didn't rebound very well, and we didn't shoot as well from the perimeter as we needed to.  We made a good effort, but they made enough shots at the end to ice the game."

The Dustdevils controlled most of the game courtesy of sub-par shooting by the Yellowjackets.  The game was tied four times in the early going, but MSUB led for a total of 18 seconds.  Once the Devils tied the game at 5-5 on a pair of free throws by Vanessa Villarreal, they never trailed again.  TAMIU led by as many as 10 in the first half and were up 37-29 at halftime.  MSUB was just 2-of-15 from 3-point range in the opening stanza.

The Jackets’ shooting woes continued in the second half with the Dustdevils building their lead to as large as 17 in the final three minutes of the game.  Despite attempting 19 more field goals and scoring 36 points off 25 TAMIU turnovers, the Yellowjackets couldn’t complete the second half comeback.  They drew within one on an Alira Carpenter (Lewistown, MT) 3-pointer with 11:30 to play, but a 10-2 Dustdevils run blew the game open for good.

The Yellowjackets shot 37 percent from the field and 21 percent from behind the arc in the game.  They were just 7-of-33 from long range.  The Dustdevils outscored MSUB 20-5 at the free throw line and out-rebounded the Jackets 48-33.

Five different Yellowjackets scored in double figures, although only seven players scored in the game.  Carpenter finished with a team-high 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting.  Kayla McPherson (Glendive, MT) came off the bench to net 13 points, hitting 3-of-10 from behind the arc.  Shantell Marquis (Cascade, MT) and Jen Smith (Belgrade, MT) added 11 points apiece.  Marquis also had a career-high eight steals and four blocked shots.  The eight steals were one short of the school record.  Dani Henderson (Reed Point, MT) finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.

The Dustdevils were paced by Villarreal’s game-high 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting.  She also grabbed a dozen rebounds and had three steals.  Jermina Tomlinson also had a double-double, scoring 16 points to go with 13 rebounds.  She was 10-of-13 at the free throw line.  Nicole Gipson added 11 points, and Mary Tobias had 10 points off the bench.

"I think it's important that we come out and play a better game on Saturday," said Woodin.  "It's an important game in regard to seeding for the tournament, but it's time that we get it done on the defensive boards on the road.  I think that's a big key right now.  We're looking forward to that game and going onto the tournament next week."

The non-conference loss doesn’t affect the Yellowjackets in their quest for the Heartland Conference regular season title.  That will be decided on Saturday when they play at St. Edward’s University in Austin.  A win would give the Jackets the regular season title outright as well as the No. 1 seed in the following week’s Heartland Conference Tournament.  Tip off for Saturday’s game is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. MST.  The game will be aired on AM 970 in Billings and on the internet at www.msubillings.edu/athletics.