Lady Yellowjackets Bow Out of West Region Tourney (March 15, 2003)

BILLINGS, MT – The MSU Billings women’s basketball team had its season ended Saturday night in the NCAA West Region semifinals, falling to top-ranked and unbeaten Seattle Pacific 86-70.  It was the Falcons’ 35^th straight win at home.  The Yellowjackets were able to stay close for most of the game before the Falcons pulled away at the end to improve to 29-0.  MSUB finished the season with a record of 21-7.  Seattle Pacific will face second-seeded Cal State-Bakersfield in the regional championship game Monday night.  CSUB has won 25 in a row and scored over 100 points in each of the first two rounds of the tournament.

The Yellowjackets won the opening tip and scored on the first possession of the game to take a 2-0 lead.  Seattle Pacific scored the next four points to lead 4-2 and never trailed again.  The Falcons built a 47-39 halftime lead behind 52.6 percent shooting from the field.  The Jackets hit 6-of-11 from behind the arc in the opening half to keep the game close.

The Yellowjackets weren’t able to close the gap to less than eight for the first several minutes of the second half.  Freshman forward Tanya Petersen’s three-pointer midway through the second half briefly cut the Falcons’ lead to three, but that was as close as the Yellowjackets could get as Seattle Pacific was able to hit the important shots down the stretch, including 20-of-31 from the free throw line.  SPU pulled away in the final six minutes, leading by as many as 18 in the final minute.

Senior guard Joan Langford led all Yellowjacket scorers for the second straight night.  After scoring a career-high 20 in the first round against Central Washington, Langford netted 15 in the semifinal game.  From three-point range, she hit 3-of-7 in the game and 7-of-11 in the tournament. 

Seniors Natalie Visger and Jessica Bachmann also scored double figures in their final college games.  Visger finished with 12 points to go along with six rebounds.  She was 6-of-6 from the free throw line to finish her career a perfect 100 percent from the line in four NCAA Tournament games.  Bachmann dropped in 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting.

Senior center Jessie Henigman had seven points, a game-high nine rebounds, and three blocked shots before fouling out in the final minutes.  She finished the season with a school record 101 blocked shots, giving her 272 for her career.  She will go into the record book next season as the 15^th most prolific shot blocker in NCAA II history.

Petersen had 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, including 2-of-3 from three-point range.  Senior point guard Amy Bantz scored five points, handed out six assists and grabbed six rebounds in her final game.  Bantz played the entire season with a torn ACL which she suffered in a preseason scrimmage.

MSU Billings shot 36.9 percent from the field in the game, including 9-of-20 from three point range.  The Yellowjackets were a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the second half and made 92.9 percent of their attempts from the charity stripe.  Seattle Pacific finished the game with a 43.9 percent field goal percentage.  The Falcons only hit 63.9 percent of their free throw attempts, but outscored MSUB 23-13 from the line.

Box Score