Montana State Women down Valpo for Consolation Crown

Saturday, November 26

5 p.m.

Montana State University

VALPARAISO

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

11/26/2011 8:20:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Katie Bussey notched a game-high 21 points and Ashley Albert chipped in 18 as the Montana State women’s basketball team used a late second-half run to defeat Valparaiso 71-55, Saturday night in the consolation game at the Colorado-Omni Hotels Classic.

By: Tom Schulz

Click here for Valpo-MSU Boxscore (pdf)

Katie Bussey notched a game-high 21 points and Ashley Albert chipped in 18 as the Montana State women's basketball team used a late second-half run to defeat Valparaiso 71-55, Saturday night in the consolation game at the Colorado-Omni Hotels Classic.

Bussey, a native of Alamosa, Colo., connected on 8-of-12 from the field, including three 3-pointers. Eleven of Bussey's 21 points came in the closing minutes of the opening period to give Montana State (4-2) a 41-32 advantage at intermission.

Valparaiso (0-5) opened the second half with its own 11-2 run to knot the score at 43-all. The two teams saw the lead change 11 times throughout the contest before the Bobcats broke away with eight minutes remaining with a 20-4 run.

“Our legs were getting a little heavy, but we talked about picking up our energy down the stretch,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “We did a nice job responding and we were able to give ourselves a little breathing room. Our defense certainly sparked our offense.”

For the game, Montana State shot 43 percent from the field, while holding the Crusaders to 29 percent. Valpo held a 48-38 edge under the boards. MSU was led by Chelsea Banis with a team-high nine rebounds.

Also in double-figure scoring for the sixth consecutive game was Rachel Semansky, who finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds.
Ausha Cole paced MSU for the third straight game with five assists.

Valparaiso was led by Mallory Ladd with 16 points and nine rebounds.

Montana State will host Colorado State, Tuesday, Nov. 29 in Worthington Arena at 7 p.m.