Young Veterans Lift Lady Jackets to Comeback Win over Lights (Feb. 23, 2004)
Box Score

BILLINGS, MT – On what would have been Senior Night at MSU Billings on Monday, the Yellowjackets’ three veterans scored 19 points apiece in a 79-71 win over MSU-Northern.  Of course, it wasn’t Senior Night because the Jackets have no seniors on the team.  And the three veterans were junior Robyn Milne and sophomores Tanya Petersen and Jenny Langford.

“On the nights that we’ve been successful, those three have played well,” said head coach Melissa Slone.  “When they play well and someone else steps up, we can be pretty good.  We depend a lot on them (Milne, Petersen and Langford), but we’re also trying to get some balance.  When you run the motion offense right, you get that balance.”

The fourth player to step up for the Yellowjackets in the last three games has been true freshman Shannon Harvey, a Billings Senior grad who joined the team late in the summer.  Harvey has started the last six games, scoring in double figures in the final three.  She netted a career-high 13 points on Monday, hitting three 3-pointers and handing out a game-high seven assists.  In the six games Harvey has started, she has averaged 5.8 assists per game.

“Shannon has waited patiently all year for her turn,” said Slone.  “She works hard in practice.  Her assist to turnover ratio in the past few games has been a big positive for us.  She is earning everything she gets, and it’s been a big plus for our team.”

Harvey drilled two 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the game to give MSU Billings an 11-4 lead.  However, she picked up her second foul just a minute later and was forced to sit the rest of the half.  Back-to-back baskets from Petersen and Milne on the next two possessions gave the Yellowjackets a 15-5 lead just 4:03 into the game.

The Lights—who are 18-12 after beating Rocky on Saturday and losing to the Jackets on Monday—answered with a 10-0 run over a four and a half minute stretch to tie the game at 15-15.  Jena Heggem and Jessi Reome combined for all ten of the Lights’ points during the run, including a 3-pointer apiece. 

Reome wasn’t finished, hitting three more 3-pointers, each further behind the arc than the last.   She gave the Lights a 26-25 lead with another three at the 6:43 mark.  Northern led by as many as five in the final minutes of the half before the Yellowjackets trimmed the difference to two at the break, 36-34.  Reome came off the bench to score 14 points in the first half, connecting on 4 of 6 from 3-point range. 

“We wanted to limit her touches and do a better job of switching out on her,” said Slone of her halftime adjustments.  “We did a better job of getting out on her in the second half.  She was 0 for 3 in the second half from 3-point, so she didn’t get as many good looks.”

While the Lights’ perimeter players were giving the Yellowjackets fits on the defensive end, the MSU-Northern zone defense stalled the Jackets’ offense that started so fast.

“Give Northern a lot of credit,” added Slone.  “We were playing around their zone a lot in the first half.  We didn’t execute what we wanted to, and they did a good job on the inside.  We haven’t seen a lot of zones lately, so we drew it up again at halftime and reviewed.  We pushed the lead out when we were able to move the ball against the zone.”

The Lights held the lead for the first five minutes of the second half, before Milne dumped a pass into Petersen for a go-ahead layup at the 15:14 mark.  That was the start of a 10-0 Yellowjacket rally that was capped by a Langford 3-pointer with 12:31 to play.  The Jackets led by nine at that point and pushed the lead to 12 when another Langford triple gave MSUB a 66-54 lead with 6:15 remaining.

Langford was 6 of 13 from beyond the arc, missing the school single game record for 3-pointers by just one for the third time this season.  She finishes the season with 68 threes, only seven short of the Yellowjackets’ single season record of 75 set by Jenni Winter in 1998-99.

“I’m just getting more comfortable shooting, and I’m getting more aggressive taking my shots,” said Langford.  “Coach Slone told us to get more aggressive on both ends of the floor (in the second half).”

The Yellowjackets built their lead to 14 on a pair of Milne free throws with 3:10 to play, but the Lights’ long range shooters put the pressure on in the final two minutes.  A 3-pointer from Kristie Pullin cut the lead to 11 with 2:05 left.  Following a Harvey jumper for the Jackets, Heggem made her second 3-pointer of the game to pull Northern to within ten.

A traditional 3-point play by Khadigha Mohamed off an offensive rebound pulled the Lights to within 75-68 with 36 seconds on the clock.  After Langford hit the front end of two free throws, Pullin was fouled on a 3-point attempt in the corner and sank all three free throws the cut the lead to 76-71 with 23 seconds remaining.

Petersen hit one of two free throws on the next possession, then picked up a Lights turnover and found Harvey streaking down the sideline for a breakaway layup that sealed the win in the final seconds.

Pullin scored 19 points to lead the Lights.  Reome made just one free throw in the second half to finish with 15.  Anna Bateman added 13 with three of Northern’s eleven 3-pointers. 

The Yellowjackets finish the regular season at 16-11 and will have to wait two weeks to see if their season-ending six game winning streak can bounce them back into the NCAA Tournament picture.  The regular season for most of the other West Region teams ends on March 6.  Slone says she intends to practice over those two weeks to stay sharp in case they get an invitation to the Lady Jackets’ third straight NCAA Tournament.  There are two regular season West Region polls remaining (February 25 and March 3) with the tournament pairings announced on March 7.  The top eight teams in the regional poll qualify for the tournament.