MSU Women to Face Eastern Washington in Semi-Final Friday Night
3/12/2010 11:02:46 AM | Women's Basketball
Today in Bobcat Women's Basketball:
March 11-13, 2010 @ Big Sky Tourney in Cheney, Washington
Fri., March 12 (6) Montana State vs (1) Eastern Washington University
Venue/Tip Reese Court, Cheney, WA, (5,000), 7:00 pm (MST)
Sat., March 13 If Win: (6) MSU vs. TBA, 3:05 pm
Live Radio: My 103.5 FM (www.my1035.com)
Live Stats: www.goeags.com
Twitter Feed: follow “msubobcats”
Live Webcast: ............................... www.B2TV.com
Live Television Championship on Saturday - Altitude TV
Next Up:
The Montana State women's basketball team will face the number one seed and host of the tournament Eastern Washington on Friday. In the other semi-final game on Friday, number two seed Montana will play number five seed Portland State at 4:30 p.m.(MST). The Big Sky Conference championship game is slated for Saturday afternoon at 3:05 p.m. (MST) and will be aired on Altitude. Montana State enters Friday's game with a 17-13 overall mark, after finishing 9-7 in Big Sky Conference action. The Bobcats went 6-2 in league play in the second half of the season and have won seven-of-their-last-nine contests, including a 5-1 record away from Worthington Arena.
Last Night's Win:
Last night's win over Sacramento State gave the cats a 15-14 record overall in conference tournament play. The win also gives Coach Binford a winning record in BSC tourney play at 4-3.
Junior Sarah Strand reached 1000 career points with her 14 from last night's game. Her three blocks in the game also placed her in the number one spot in career blocks at MSU (111), passing Alaina Bauer who held the spot with 110. Katie Bussey's five three-pointers placed her fourth on career three-points makes with 112, passing Julie Brown who was fourth with 110. Erica Perry's two assists put her at fourth on the MSU career assists list with 416, passing Anna Wherry.
A Look at the #1 Eastern Washington vs. #6 Montana State:
Eastern Washington earned the right to host the Big Sky Conference tourney after finishing the season with a 12-4 conference record. They were 12-2 at home on Reese Court this season, and are 5-3 on their last eight games. They are second in the conference in game defense, holding opponents to an average of 63 points per game. The Cats are 35-32 overall against the Eagles.
The Cats have lost twice this season to EWU by a total of 13 points. MSU and EWU have met only once in post-season play—in 1988, EWU beat MSU in the first round of the tournament, 81-65. EWU's overall record in post season conference play is 3-10. Head coach Wendy Schuller, this year's BSC Coach of the Year, is responsible for all three of those wins and has a 3-5 record in BSC tourney play. The Eagles are led in scoring by Julie Piper, the BSC Most Valuable Player of the Year and unanimous first team all-conference selection. Piper averages 12 points per game to lead the Eagles. Junior Kyla Evans is EWU's second leading scorer averaging nine points per game.
Post Game Quotes With Coach Binford:
What was the difference in getting out ahead of Sac State so far in the second half:
In the first half, we really took care of the ball well…I think we only had seven turnovers in the first half. When you're not turning the ball over, you're not giving Sac those opportunities to get open threes and when you're rebounding well, you're not giving them open looks at three's off the offensive boards. I just thought our defense really stepped up as a team today.
On Sarah Strand:
I just think her performance was unbelievable. She had a great first half—we were able to save her legs a little in the second half, but I think her first half catapulted everybody defensively—she's blocking shots, she's rebounding. I thought defensively she was really being aggressive at the basket—just a complete first half for her. The second half she stepped up that defense to get us started again—I thought we came out a little flat and she got us going on that effort.
On Janette Jackson:
Janette is just starting to get going. This is a kid that took off almost the whole year last year with mono. She's getting a lot more confident on the floor—she's the Energizer bunny. We were trying to save legs in the second half and she was the one with the most minutes and the most energy. She is just a rebounding machine, she plays hard and she is infectious with her energy out there.
On the game plan against Sac:
You know we stayed kind of consistent with our game plan. From the last two games we wanted to make sure that we matched appropriately in transition. We prepared a lot this week for the press and how to attack that. I felt like we made good decisions on breaking that. And once we broke the press we didn't slow things down—I thought that was the big factor for us in the first half is that we went and attacked that and Janette was a big piece of that, Ally hit some threes against that. We need to make sure we continue to feed off our defense.
On defending Chadray Hunt:
I think my highlight of the game was when Katie Bussey took that charge—that might have been her fourth foul. Our team really attacked her when she penetrated..she's a kid you cannot defend with one person—she's too good of a player, too good of an athlete. She just had an unbelievable year. I felt like our team gave her the respect that she is due and when she put that ball on the floor we wanted to make sure we stood our ground and took the charge.
