Lady Jackets Earn Tough Win over Cardinals (1/12/06)
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Score
SAN ANTONIO, TX– The Montana
State-Billings women’s basketball team claimed their second win
in as many nights downing University of the Incarnate Word 61-53
Thursday night in Texas. The Lady Jackets are on an impressive
roll winning nine consecutive games. The non-conference win
improves the Jackets to 10-4 and 3-1 in the league. The
Cardinals fall to 2-13, 0-1.
Neither the Jackets nor the
Cardinals were in a big hurry to take the lead with all five of
the games ties coming within the first 12 and a half minutes of
play. The teams stayed within two points of each other before a
3-pointer by Alira Carpenter (Fr., Lewistown, MT) broke open the Jackets’
lead to 18-13. The Cardinals went scoreless for five and a half
minutes, but two made free throws by Kim Robinson brought the
Cardinals back within five. With 1:42 left in the half Jenny Langford (Sr., Reed Point, MT) knocked down the first
of three 3-pointers on the night to give the Lady Jackets a
double digit lead. The Jackets were able to convert 11 Cardinal
turnovers into 10 points to take the 27-19 lead into the locker
room.
The Jackets shut down the
Cardinals for 3:37 of the second half building their lead to 13
points but the Cardinals answered back scoring nine points in
four minutes to bring them within two. The teams traded baskets
and with 4:28 to play, Julie Dahl knocked down a huge three to
give the Cardinals their closest look at the lead trailing by
one. Much like night one the Cardinals banked on the Jackets
missing free throws but Yellowjacket Lisa Jellum (Sr., Gillette, WY) did quite the opposite.
Jellum was sent to the charity stripe four times in the last 53
seconds of play to hit 8-of-8 sealing the win for the team.
“Give credit to the Cardinals; they regrouped in the second half and came back strong,” said
head coach Kevin Woodin. “We were able to defend Robinson
better and that was one of our goals tonight.”
The Jackets’ defensive changes
proved to be beneficial as the team held the Cardinals leading
scorer Kim Robinson to just six points on the night after
netting 27 in Wednesday night's match up. Cardinals Julie Dahl
and Lacey Shindler each netted 13 points with Shindler grabbing
seven rebounds. Erika Pink added 12 points.
“Michelle Lieber is playing great on both ends of the court and
teamed with Tanya Petersen they are unstoppable,” added Woodin.
“The two of them have a great chemistry and feed off each other
well. We went 14-of-15 in our free throw shooting, something we
have worked on, and it has paid off in both games against the
Cardinals. Lisa (Jellum) is a great foul shooter and she plays
harder and has more passion for the game than anyone I know.”
Four Yellowjackets scored in
double figures. Michelle Lieber (Jr., Gillette, WY) paced the Jackets having
her second double-double on the road in a row with 11 rebounds
and 16 points. Lieber went 8-of-11 from the field. Jellum did
her job defensively sneaking two steals and netting twelve
points on the night. Jellum shot a perfect 10-of-10 from the
line. Senior Tanya Petersen (Billings, MT) also had a double-double with
10 points and 11 boards. Langford, netted 11 points in the game
and struck a milestone in her career for the second night in a
row. After her third point in tonight’s game she claimed the 25th spot for all time scoring in the Jacket record books bringing
her career point total to 746.
“We are going to relax and
have some fun on our off day tomorrow to mentally prepare for
our next conference game against St. Mary’s. They are a good
team so we will review tape and be ready. We are playing very
well and we will be tough to beat.”
The Lady Jackets are idle
Friday and will be back in action against Heartland Conference
opponent St. Mary’s (TX) Saturday in San Antonio. Tip off is 4:30 p.m. MST. Listen in at 970 KBUL or log onto the
Yellowjacket athletic website for game coverage. |
