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2002-2003 News
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Lady Yellowjackets Face No. 1 Seattle Pacific in Regional Semifinals (March 14, 2003)

SEATTLE, WA – The fourth-seeded Montana State University-Billings women’s basketball team will face the top-ranked team in the nation Saturday night when the Lady Jackets (21-6) take on unbeaten Seattle Pacific (28-0) in the NCAA West Regional semifinals.  MSU Billings dismantled No. 5 Central Washington 91-69 in the opening round, while Seattle Pacific held off No. 8 Chico State 81-70.

The Yellowjackets led by as much as 30 in the first half of Friday’s game and were paced by senior Joan Langford’s career-high 20 points.  Langford connected on 4-of-5 three-point attempts as the Jackets shot 64 percent from behind the arc against the Wildcats.  After trailing 4-3 early in the game, Langford connected on back-to-back threes to spark the Yellowjacket offense to a 42-11 run that put the game out of reach.

Five players scored double figures for MSUB, including four of the five senior starters.  Senior forward Natalie Visger recorded her 24th career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds.  Senior guard Jessica Bachmann hit 6-of-8 field goals for 14 points, 12 of which came in the first-half onslaught.  Senior center Jessie Henigman was good on 4-of-5 attempts for 11 points.  She also grabbed eight rebounds and blocked seven shots.  Henigman now has 98 blocked shots for the season and 269 in her career, moving her to No. 15 in NCAA II history.

Kelley Berglund scored 30 points and helped fight off a second-half comeback attempt by Cal State-Chico to lead top-ranked Seattle Pacific to an 81-70 win over the Wildcats  in the final game of the opening round.  SPU, which led by 14 at halftime (45-31), never trailed, but saw a 16-point second-half lead shrink to five (61-56) with 8:07 left. 

Berglund took over at that point scoring SPU’s next eight points as the Falcons stretched their lead back to 11 points (72-61) with 3:48 remaining.  In addition to her 30 points, a post-season record for SPU, Berglund also had 15 rebounds, including six at the offensive end, as the Falcons outboarded the Wildcats 51-36.

The Yellowjackets and Falcons are scheduled to tip-off at 8:00 p.m. MST on Saturday.  The winner will play for the West Region Championship on Monday.  MSUB and SPU, former Pacific West Conference foes, have met 25 times in their history.  The Yellowjackets are 14-11 overall, but just 3-10 at Royal Brougham Pavilion.  The two teams last met on February 10, 2001 with the Falcons prevailing 71-53 in Seattle.  The five Yellowjacket seniors are 3-2 against SPU in their four years, including a 79-64 victory at the 2000 NCAA West Regional in Pomona, CA.

Saturday’s semifinal match-up can be heard live on News Radio AM 970 KBUL.  The voice of the Yellowjackets, Pat Boland, will be calling the play-by-play from Seattle.  The game can also be heard on the Yellowjackets website at www.msubillings.edu/athletics.

Saturday’s first semifinal at 5 p.m. will match Northwest Nazarene (20-8), which upset Western Washington 83-79 and Cal State Bakersfield (27-1), which rallied from a 10-point deficit with 5:21 left in regulation to beat Cal State Stanislaus 116-106 in overtime.  Saturday’s two winners advance to Monday’s title game at 7 p.m.

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