Furious Second Half Comeback Propels Yellowjackets to 74-67 Victory

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BILLINGS, Mont. – Shooting 70 percent in the second half, outscoring the opponent 47-29 will usually get a team back into a game and that is exactly what happened Saturday night at Alterowitz Gymnasium.  The Montana State Billings men’s basketball team overcame dismal first half shooting and a 16-point deficit as it defeated visiting Saint Martin’s University 74-67 in the Yellowjackets’ Great Northwest Athletic Conference home opener.

The Yellowjackets (8-4, 2-1) snapped a four game skid versus the Saints (11-4, 1-3) and remained perfect at home at 6-0.  MSUB was led by 18 points from Lasha Parghalava who went 6 of 12 from the field, 2 of 5 from deep and tallied seven rebounds.  Mike McCrary chipped in a double-double with 15 points and 10 huge rebounds, nine coming in the second half.  DaVell Jackson continued his hot start to conference play with 17 points, six rebounds and eight assists, while Brad Hodge had 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

The Saints were led by 17 points and 10 rebounds from Blake Poole, while Galen Squiers and Jeremy Green each had 12 points and Roger O’Neil had 10 points off the bench.

After shooting just 10 of 30 in the first half from the field, the Yellowjackets came out in the second half on fire, outscoring the Saints 16-5 over the first seven minutes of the second half to tie the game at 43 on a pair of Hodge free throws.  The half got started with a triple from Parghalava which was the Jackets’ first of the game after going 0 for 5 in the first half from range.  Parghalava tallied his second triple after a McCrary layup.

Parghalava gave MSUB its first lead of the game at the 12:15 mark on a driving layup for a 45-43 lead.  Chambers tallied a triple with 10:33 to put the Jackets up for good at 50-47.  MSUB then used a 15-7 run to build an eight point advantage with six minutes left.

The pesky Saints wouldn’t go away quietly as the triples began to drop.  SMU was just 3 of 11 from downtown in the first half and Brady Bomber hit the first four second half triples from the Saints with 5:30 left to keep the game close.

The Saints cut the deficit to one on a pair of Poole free throws with 37 seconds left, but MSUB went 6 of 6 in the final minute from the charity stripe to salt the game away.

In a tale of two halves, the Yellowjackets shot just 33 percent in the opening stanza.  They were 0 of 5 from deep and 7 of 10 from the charity stripe.  In contrast, the Saints were 13 of 30 from the field, 3 of 11 from beyond the arc and 9 of 15 from the line as MSUB had the Saints in the double bonus with 10 minutes left in the half. 

Through the first 15 minutes of the game, SMU pretty much scored at will and built a 32-16 lead.  However, the Yellowjackets kept fighting and ended the half on a 7-2 run from the 2:26 mark to cut the deficit to 38-27.

For the game, the Yellowjackets shot 48 percent from the field on 24 of 50, but were a blistering 14 of 20 from the field in the second half alone.  MSUB was just 3 of 12 from downtown for the game (25%) and were 23 of 28 from the charity stripe, including an impressive 16 of 18 in the second half.

The Saints found the shooting woes in the second half going just 10 of 28 for 26.3 percent.  For the game, SMU was 23 of 68 for 33 percent.  The Saints were 7 of 29 from downtown and 14 of 22 from the charity stripe.

MSUB won the battle of the boards and dominated the glass on the defensive end.  The Jackets owned a 40-37 advantage in rebounds and a 31-19 advantage in defensive rebounds. 

The Yellowjackets return to the road at Northwest Nazarene and at Seattle Pacific next week, before returning home to host Central Washington Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at Alterowitz Gymnasium.  Ken Adelblue will have the call on the internet at www.msubillings.edu/athletics.