January 26, 2008

Crusaders March Past Jackets, 90-71
   Box Score
   MSUB Season Stats

NAMPA, Idaho – Four players from Northwest Nazarene scored in double figures Saturday night as the Crusaders defeated the Montana State Billings women’s basketball team 90-71 in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest.  The loss drops the Lady Jackets to 7-9 overall and 4-3 in league play, while NNU improves to 13-4 and 6-2.

Northwest Nazarene broke open a double-digit lead at the 14-minute mark and used a 17-2 scoring run in a span of 5:13 to lead by 28 with eight minutes to play in the opening half.  The Lady Jackets responded going on a 18-9 run of their own to close out the half to trail by 17 heading into the locker room.

Continuing their run into the second half, the Lady Jackets outscored the Crusaders 30-12 to whittle NNU’s lead to 10 at the 15:11 mark.  Kicking it into high gear, Northwest Nazarene’s Janee Olds used 12 second-half points to lead her team to the 19-point conference win.

Alira Carpenter (Lewistown) led all scorers with 19 points.  The junior guard was 7-of-16 from the field and 5-of-6 from the line.  Dani Henderson (Reed Point) netted 17 points off 7-of-11 shooting from the floor.  Henderson was 3-of-3 from the line and pulled down a team-high four rebounds.  Contributing 14 points was Kayla McPherson (Glendive).  McPherson was 5-of-10 from the field and 2-of-7 from long range.  The big story in the game was Shantell Marquis (Cascade).  Marquis nabbed a career-high 10 steals in setting both the Yellowjacket record and GNAC record for most steals in a single game.

The Lady Jackets had a rough go of it from the perimeter connecting on just 3-of-20 attempts for 15 percent.  The team shot 44 percent from the floor and were outrebounded 44-18.

Olds and Jennifer Williams each netted 18 points for Northwest Nazarene with both players combining for 10 of the team’s 23 made free throws.  Lindsay Brady and Nichole Schutte added 12 and 10 points respectively.

The Crusaders shot 30-of-56 from the field for 54 percent and were 7-of-17 from behind the arc for 41 percent.  The team was a fiery 96 percent from the charity stripe going 23-of-24 in the game.  NNU turned the ball over 30 times contributing to 24 Yellowjacket points.

The Lady Jackets return to Billings to defend home court on Thursday, January 3 against GNAC foe Western Oregon (4-11, 0-5).  Tip off is slated for 7 p.m. at Alterowitz.  The Jackets will also face Saint Martin’s University (10-5, 3-3) on Saturday, February 3.  Game time is 7 p.m.  Check out live stats, live internet broadcast and video streaming of all Yellowjacket home games on the Yellowjackets web site.