December 28, 2007

Seawolves Top Lady Jackets, 66-51
   Box Score
   MSUB Season Stats

ROHNERT PARK, Calif. – The Montana State Billings women’s basketball team fell 66-51 Friday against host team Sonoma State University in night one of the Hampton Inn & Suites Basketball Classic.  The Lady Yellowjackets drop to 3-5 overall, while the Seawolves improve to 7-1.

After an 8-0 Seawolves’ run to open the contest, the Lady Jackets finally broke the ice at the three-minute mark on a pair of free throws by sophomore Dani Henderson (Reed Point).  At 12:39, Kayla McPherson (Glendive) drained a 3-pointer to pull with six, but the Seawolves answered back grinding away to hold a 36-20 advantage heading into the locker room.

Early in the second half it looked as though Sonoma State would run away with the ball game, but a determined Yellowjacket squad fought for every basket and possession.  Trailing by 24 points with 4:39 left to play, the Jackets’ Jen Smith (Belgrade) and Alira Carpenter (Lewistown) combined for seven points narrowing the Seawolves’ lead to 17. 

The Jackets put together a 9-0 run to close out the final five minutes of the game but were unable to overcome the large deficit, granting the Seawolves a victory on their home court.

Kayla Ryan (Big Timber) came off the Yellowjackets’ bench to lead MSUB scoring a career-high 16 points.  Ryan was 7-of-9 from the floor and 2-of-5 from the charity stripe.  Carpenter came alive in the second half scoring all 11 points in the final 20 minutes of play, while Henderson pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

As a team the Lady Jackets were 20-of-51 from the field for 39 percent and a cool 4-of-15 from long range for 27 percent.  MSUB out rebounded the Seawolves 35-33 and outscored the powerful CCAA team 31-30 in the second half.

Genny Anderson scored a game-high 19 points for Sonoma State going 8-of-11 from the floor and 3-of-6 from the free throw line.  Lauren Redfield and Danae Wellander added 13 and 11 points respectively, while Heidi Mertle grabbed a team-high 10 boards.

The Seawolves shot 48 percent from the field connecting on 28-of-59 attempts and were 6-of-18 from behind the arc for 33 percent.  The team was just 4-of-9 from the line for a breezy 44 percent.

The Lady Jackets are set to face No. 12 ranked Chico State University (7-3) Saturday, December 29th.  The Wildcats are coming off a loss against St. Cloud State on night one of the tournament.  Game time is set for 5 p.m. PST.  Live stats of the tournament are available and can be viewed by logging onto http://www.sonomaseawolves.com/live/wbball/xlive.htm.