Yellowjackets Sting Cougars with Buzzer-Beater in Season Opener, 72-70

Box Score

Photo Gallery

BILLINGS, Mont. – Senior DaVell Jackson’s layup with four seconds left lifted the Montana State Billings men’s basketball team to a thrilling 72-70 victory over visiting Colorado Christian Wednesday evening in the Yellowjackets’ season opener.  Jackson took the ball from half-court with 11 seconds left and dribbled the clock down to four seconds laying in a reverse layup over two defenders for the game-winning bucket.

“I thought we had a lot of different people make a lot of big plays tonight,” Yellowjacket head coach George Pfeifer said.  “Colorado Christian is a very good team and Neuhaus (Justin) is a load and we played him by committee with five players on him throughout the night.”

Jackson led four Yellowjackets in double figures as he was 6 of 9 from the floor and 5 of 7 from the charity stripe.  He had four rebounds with three assists and two steals in 32 minutes of action.  Senior Derrick Wright went a team-high 7 of 9 from the floor with three rebounds and 15 points.

“Obviously DaVell’s play at the end is what we expect from a senior of his stature,” Pfeifer added.  “It’s a great start to our season.”

CCU (0-2) was led by a game-high 19 points from Jobi Wall and Justin Neuhaus.  Neuhaus was 6 of 9 from the field and 7 of 9 from the line, while Wall was 5 of 13 from the field, 3 of 7 from deep and 6 of 6 from the line with seven rebounds.

In a game that saw three lead changes and six ties, the game was very even from the get go.  CCU held the early lead for the first 12 minutes as there were five ties during that span. A triple by Mike McCrary put the Yellowjackets up 19-17 with 8:01 left in the first half. 

MSUB used a 14-3 run to build a 29-20 lead with 5:49 left.  The Jackets built their biggest lead of the game at 10 points with a layup by Tyler Hentzen with two minutes remaining in the opening half.  A pair of free throws by Wall and a triple from Rye Olson cut the deficit to five as MSUB settled for a 41-35 lead at intermission.

The Jackets shot an even 50 percent for the first half on 12 of 24 from the field and were 4 of 10 from deep.  MSUB was 13 of 16 from the line in the first half.  Conversely, CCU was 11 of 26 from the field (42 percent) and was 5 of 15 from 3-point range.  The Cougars were 8 of 10 from the line.

MSUB led the majority of the second half and held a nine point advantage with 9:58 left on a Wright free throw.  CCU used a 10-5 run to cut the deficit with 6:15 left.  The Yellowjackets didn’t sweat as they built the lead back to seven on a triple as the shot clock was winding down by DeAndre Chambers at the 4:50 mark. 

Wall had a chance to cut the deficit to two with a long triple, but Wright came up with a pair of huge blocks in the final three minutes to hold the lead at five. 

Olson cut the deficit to two with a triple with 1:19 left, followed by a triple from Wall with 49 seconds left to cut the Yellowjacket lead to one.  Two free throws by McCrary pushed the lead back to three, but Wall had the answer again as he tied the game with 19 seconds left setting up Jackson’s game winner.

For the game, the Yellowjackets shot 24 of 51 from the field for 47.1 percent.  They were 7 of 17 from deep and 17 of 22 from the line for 77.3 percent.  CCU shot 42.6 percent from the field on 23 of 54.  The Cougars were 10 of 28 from downtown and 14 of 17 from the line.