Bobcats Start Fast, Hold Off San Francisco

Wednesday, November 24

7:05 PM

Montana State University

San Francisco

Bobby Howard enjoyed a big game Wednesday night

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

11/24/2010 10:20:30 PM | Men's Basketball

Bobby Howard's big night leads MSU

By: Bill Lamberty

Montana State senior Bobby Howard scored his 1,000^th point early in and never looked back, leading the Bobcats with 24 points in MSU's 76-59 win over San Francisco on Wednesday in Bozeman.

Howard became the 34^th Bobcat to reach that plateau. “It's really special to do it with my Mom (Kathleen) and Dad (Bob), who are both Bobcats, and my little brother, who will hopefully be a Bobcat some day, here,” Howard said. “I'm not going to catch my Mom (who is the all-time leading scorer in the history of MSU women's basketball program), but this is the second-best thing.”

Howard and fellow senior Erik Rush, who scored 23 points, carried a considerable part of the scoring load for the Bobcats, but MSU coach Brad Huse liked his squad's effort. “You can win basketball games in a lot of different ways,” he said, “but for us tonight it was a good start and a good finish. It was an overall team effort.”

Howard keyed MSU's fast start with a quick layup, but by the time the Bobcats had raced to a 22-12 lead five different Bobcats had scored. San Francisco, 2-2 after Wednesday's loss but fresh off a home win over Colorado, cut the Bobcat lead to five at 29-24 with 3:48 to play in the half, but that was as close as the Dons would get the rest of the way. MSU closed the half on a 10-2 run, capped by Howard's three-pointer 44 seconds before the intermission.

“I thought it was a great start,” Huse said. “I'd like to see us sustain it a little better, but they picked up their defensive intensity.”

San Francisco cut the lead into single digits twice in the second half, but MSU answered with scoring runs keyed by Rush on each occasion. He hit a three-pointer to start a 7-0 run after USF cut the lead to eight at the 6:30 mark, then scored four straight when the Dons got within 66-57 with 2:34 to play. MSU closed the game by making 10 of its 12 free throw tries after USF cut the deficit to nine.

While Howard and Rush were the only double digit scorers for MSU, several others made strong contributions. Danny Piepoli scored eight points with eight rebounds, and guard Rod Singleton added seven points, six boards, four assists, and two steals.

The Dons out-rebounded MSU 41 to 35, but the Bobcats turned the ball over only seven times while forcing 15 by the visitors. MSU also buried 10 three-pointers to San Francisco's two.

Montana State, 5-1, is off to its best start since a 6-1 start in 1997-98. The team's current five-game winning streak is its longest since the 2003-04 season.