Montana State University
Rice
Bobcat Women Rally but Fall Short to Rice in Overtime
11/12/2010 6:08:18 PM | Women's Basketball
Despite rallying from a 17-point second half deficit, the Montana State women’s basketball team dropped its season-opener to Rice 86-83 in overtime on Friday night at the World Vision Invitational in Waco, Texas.
Despite rallying from a 17-point second half deficit, the Montana State women's basketball team dropped its season-opener to Rice 86-83 in overtime on Friday night at the World Vision Invitational in Waco, Texas.
Montana State freshman Emily Allen converted both ends of a one-and-one with 1.8-seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime to cap a second half comeback as the Bobcats outscored the Owls 53-36 in the final stanza.
MSU (0-1) saw both starting guards (Ally Schmitt, Katie Bussey) foul out as Rice (1-0) held on as the Bobcats couldn't get off a final shot to force a second overtime period.
“We'll take a lot of positives away from this game,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “We are still adapting to the loss of Ashley (Albert, who is out for the year with an ACL tear).”
The Bobcats were led in the loss by senior Lyndi Seidensticker, who poured in a career-high 26 points. Also in double-digits for Montana State were Bussey 18, and Sarah Balian 13.
Montana State got off to a slow start in the first half, committing 11 turnovers to trail 39-23 at intermission.
Rice held a 50-33 advantage at the 17:06 mark of the second half, but MSU chipped away to reduce the margin to 54-49 with 11:26 remaining following a Bussey layup.
The Owls responded to the Bobcat run and pushed its advantage to 66-51 at the 6:20 mark. Montana State again mounted a comeback with a 24-9 run down the stretch- capped by Allen's free throws to force overtime.
“Give Rice credit,” Binford said. “I thought their pressure got to us in the first half. However, once we settled into our dribble-drive we started to click on the offensive end.
“It's a hard one to take because we didn't finish it off in overtime,” Binford said. “However, it's a long season and we learned a lot about ourselves.”
For the game, MSU shot 41 percent from the field, including an impressive 56 percent in the second half.
Rice held a narrow 37-36 advantage in rebounding. MSU was led under the glass by Balian with eight rebounds and Seidensticker with six.
The Owls were paced by Brianna Hypolite with 28 points and four rebounds.
MSU will play No. 2-ranked Baylor on Saturday at 11 a.m. (MST).
