Turnovers Trip Up Yellowjackets, 85-63

Box Score

ANCHORAGE, Alaska. – Despite outshooting Alaska Anchorage and staying close in most statistical categories, the Montana State Billings women’s basketball squad turned the ball over a season-high 34 times, dropping an 85-63 decision to the 12th ranked Seawolves Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex. The loss drops the Yellowjackets to 8-5 on the season and 1-1 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play.  

“Anchorage is a very good and very deep team,” said Kevin Woodin, women’s head coach. “They like to apply a lot of pressure to the ball and that led to a lot of our turnovers tonight. The key to the game was just that, we made too many mistakes and didn’t have enough possessions to result in points. We were beaten by a very good team and now have to look to rebound against Fairbanks.” 

Junior, Kayla Ryan, led the way for the Yellowjackets, scoring 18 points and collecting six boards and a career-high six blocks. Fellow junior, Sarah McNamee, was the only other Jacket in double-digits, scoring 15 points, going 5-of-7 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. 

The Yellowjackets managed to keep the game close throughout the first half as Ryan hit a pair of freebies to tie the game at seven. The tie was broken by the Seawolves, as Nikki Aden connected on three of her game-high 20 points and sent UAA on a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to lead 16-7. 

MSUB managed to tie the game later in the half, 20-20, as Callie Kautzmann drained a pair of free throws. The Seawolves would close out the half on a 19-10 run to take a 39-30 lead into the half. 

The Seawolves came out of the locker room and went on a 23-8 run over the first eight minutes of the half to build a 24 point lead, 62-38. UAA used 17 points off of 19 second half turnovers to keep the Yellowjackets at bay. 

For the game, Anchorage (12-2, 2-1) had four players in double-figures, led by Aden’s 20, but got a double-double from Nicci Miller, scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 boards. They shot 38.0 percent from the floor, including 9-of-23 from deep and turned the ball over just eight times.

MSUB (8-5, 1-1) shot well from the field, hitting 47.6 percent of their shots, including going 12-of-23 (52.2%) in the second half. The Yellowjackets were 7-of-13 from beyond the arc and were 16-of-18 from the charity stripe. 

The two teams were even in rebounds, collecting 35 apiece, while both benches scored 16 points. UAA scored nearly half of their points off of turnovers, scoring 42 for the game. The Jackets were also out scored in the paint 36-22. 

The Yellowjackets continue their road trip through the Alaskan terrain this Saturday, Jan. 16, against the University of Alaska Fairbanks starting at 7 p.m. Saturday’s game can be viewed on the web by logging on to the Alaska Fairbanks website, http://alaskananooks.com/.