Montana State Hot Start Cooled-Off by Drought and Turnovers

Saturday, January 23

2:05 p.m.

Montana State University

Montana

Junior Lyndi Seidensticker had a career-high 21 points, including 19 in the second half, while also hitting five-of-seven 3-pointers, but it wasn't enough as MSU fell to rival Montana, Saturday afternoon.

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

Montana State Hot Start Cooled-Off by Drought and Turnovers

1/23/2010 5:40:23 PM | Women's Basketball

Montana State jumped out to an early nine point lead and held a 16-8 advantage at the 12:09 mark, before a six-minute scoring drought opened the door for Montana, and the Lady Griz never looked back in a 76-67 win over the Bobcats, Saturday afternoon in Worthington Arena.

By: Tom Schulz

Montana State-Montana Boxscore.pdf

Montana State jumped out to an early nine point lead and held a 16-8 advantage at the 12:09 mark, before a six-minute scoring drought opened the door for Montana, and the Lady Griz never looked back in a 76-67 win over the Bobcats, Saturday afternoon in Worthington Arena.

“It was exactly the start we wanted,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “However, turnovers, accompanied by putting Montana on the foul line and being complacent let them back into the game and we really never recovered.”

Montana State (9-10, 2-4) went without a field goal for almost eight minutes as Montana (9-9, 4-2) turned a nine-point deficit into a 30-19 advantage at halftime behind Kenzie DeBoer's three-pointer with five seconds left in the opening stanza.

“Montana really started stepping up their defensive pressure,” Binford said. “We certainly didn't do a good job taking care of the ball and our shot selection was poor.”

UM built its largest lead of the game at 52-38 with 7:57 remaining, following an Alexandra Hurley jumper.

MSU chipped away at the lead, sparked by Lyndi Seidensticker's 10 points over a four-minute span to pull the Bobcats to within 65-51.

Sarah Strand's trey cut the margin to 66-64 with 1:03 left, but the Lady Griz converted 10-of-12 free throws to secure the win down the stretch.

“We have been too up-and-down,” Binford said. “We need to find some consistency, especially with our toughness.”

MSU was paced in the loss by Seidensticker with a career-high 21 points, including 19 in the second half. The Spokane native also connected on five-of-seven three-point attempts in the final period, as well.

Also scoring in double-figures for the Bobcats were Strand 16, Rachel Semansky 11 and Katie Bussey 11.

MSU won the battle of the boards, out-rebounding UM. The Bobcats were led under the glass by Strand and Semansky with 11 and eight rebounds, respectively.

Montana ended the game shooting 39 percent from the field, while holding Montana State to 33 percent and forcing 21 turnovers.

UM wad paced in the win by Sarah Ena and Lauren Beck with 21 points, apiece.

The Bobcats will host Northern Arizona on Jan. 28 in Worthington Arena.