The Retort

Yellowjackets Fall to Falcons, 68-52

January 29th, 2010 by MSUB Athletics For The Retort

The Montana State Billings women’s basketball squad was not able to overcome 30 turnovers on Thursday night, dropping a 68-52 decision to the 18th nationally ranked Falcons of Seattle Pacific. The loss drops the Jackets to 9-6 overall on the season and 2-2 in GNAC play.

“I thought we played very hard tonight,” Coach Kevin Woodin said. “We just had too many turnovers again in the half court and we need to get better at that. I was really proud of our players and the way they fought back in the second half to cut the lead to 10, but we just ran out of gas. Kalli Stanhope had a great game for us tonight as did Ashley Reed. I thought Ashley gave us a great spark off the bench and played a tremendous game.”

Mandy Jacobs joined Stanhope as the only players in double-figures for the MSUB. Jacobs scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Stanhope led the Jackets in scoring with 11. Reed had one of her top performances of the year, scoring nine points and pulling down four boards off the glass.

The Falcons (13-2, 4-0) managed to stay perfect in GNAC play behind 16 solid points from Megan Hoisington who also had three steals. Caitlin Rohrbach came off the bench for SPU to dump in 10 points of her own

MSUB held strong throughout most of the first half until the Falcons went on a 19-4 run toward the end of the half to go up by 16 on a lay-in from Rohrbach. MSUB went into the half trailing by 12 when Callie Kautzmann hit bucket in the paint and Sarah McNamee hit a runner to make it 29-17.

SPU looked to put the game out of reach in the second half, leading by 18, 47-29, with 10:18 to go. MSUB used the free throw line to cut the lead down to 10, 49-39, going on a 10-2 run over the next four plus minutes.

It looked as though the Jackets used up all the gas in their tanks however, never getting any closer to the Falcons lead. SPU closed out the game from the free throw line to continue their perfect start in conference action.

The Yellowjackets shot 37.8 percent from the field and were held to 31.3 percent shooting from deep. MSUB found success from the charity stripe, knocking down 13 of their 15 attempts. The Yellowjackets out rebounded SPU 33-32, 10 which came from the offensive end.

The Yellowjackets returned to the floor and wrapped up their road trip on Saturday, January 23, when they took on Northwest Nazarene in Nampa, ID.