Jackets Battle Past Bears, Improve to 3-0 (12/8/05)
Box Score
Game Photos

BILLINGS, MT – The offense kept rolling for the Montana State-Billings basketball team Thursday, carrying the Yellowjackets past cross-town rival Rocky Mountain College, 102-92.  MSU Billings improved to 3-0 while Rocky dropped to 6-6.  The same teams will meet again Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. at Rocky Mountain College. 

The Yellowjackets improved their all-time record against the Bears to 85-76.  The teams hadn’t met since December 6, 2000 when MSU Billings won at home.  The Jackets have now won five-straight against Rocky Mountain.

“They played good enough to win, and I know that they feel they can come back Saturday and win a game,” said Yellowjacket coach Craig Carse.  “In our case we have to continue to get better.  If we could play a team like that—a team that played that hard, shot the ball that well, did that many good things—if we could play a team like that all preseason we could really become a better team.  We’ve got a lot to learn from this and we just need to try to get better.  Saturday should be a fun game.”

After a see-saw start that saw five lead changes and five ties in the first 10 minutes. MSU Billings pulled away late in the first half for a double-digit lead.  The Yellowjackets led by as many as 16 before settling for a 57-47 halftime advantage.  Carlin Hughes (So., Perth, Australia), Cameron Munoz (Sr., Chino, CA) and Moritz Wohlers (Sr., Wolffenbuttel, Germany) combined for 31 of the teams’ 57 first half points.

The Bears refused to go away in the second half, withstanding an early MSU Billings push that gave the Jackets a 14-point lead.  Rocky battled back to cut the lead to single digits by the 10:00 mark.  With 6:20 to play, a Devin Uskoski layup gave the Bears their first lead since 10:13 of the first half.

There were six lead changes and nine ties in the final six and a half minutes as neither team was able to shake the other.  It took back-to-back 3-pointers from Buddy Windy Boy (Sr., Lodge Grass, MT) and Munoz to give the Yellowjackets some breathing room, a 96-87 lead with 1:59 to play.

Five-straight points by Elijah Swan pulled the Bears to within 96-92 with 1:13 left.  With Rocky forced to foul in the final minute, the Jackets made the free throws that counted most to hold on for the win.  The Yellowjackets shot 70 percent from the free throw line in the game (19-27) but at one point in the second half were shooting just 58 percent from the stripe.

Munoz led four Yellowjackets in double figures with 27 points.  He was 7-of-14 from the 3-point line and 4-of-6 from the charity stripe.  Lucas Walker (So., Launceston, Australia) fought foul trouble the whole game to finish with 23 points, 15 coming in the second half.  He was 8-of-11 from the free throw line.

Wohlers and Hughes finished with 16 and 15 points respectively.  Hughes posted a double-double with 15 assists while Wohlers led the Jackets with nine rebounds.  Windy Boy added nine points on three 3-pointers.  Cody Samuelson (Jr., Broadus, MT) added a spark off the bench with eight points on 3-of-3 shooting from the field.

“I thought all the guys that got in played really well,” added Carse.  “We didn’t get Drew (Arnold) in as much as I wanted because Moritz just played so outstanding.  Jonathan Wiley’s defense was phenomenal.  I was really impressed with him tonight.”

The Bears were led by Swan’s 17 points.  Chris Nickolei finished with 16.  Ryan Gomendi had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Uskoski also posted a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 14 boards.  The Bears were 21-of-27 from the free throw line but just 5-of-22 from 3-point range.