Bussey Paces Bobcats as Montana State Pillages Vikings

Saturday, December 31

Portland, OR

2:05 p.m.

Montana State University

PORTLAND STATE

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

12/31/2011 5:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Montana State senior Katie Bussey scored a team-high 26 points, including six 3-pointers to lift the Bobcats to a 94-83 win over Portland State, Saturday afternoon in the Stott Center. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak to the Vikings and was MSU’s first win in the Rose City since the 2009 Big Sky campaign.

By: Tom Schulz

PSU-MSU-BOXSCORE (pdf)

Montana State senior Katie Bussey scored a team-high 26 points, including six 3-pointers to lift the Bobcats to a 94-83 win over Portland State, Saturday afternoon in the Stott Center. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak to the Vikings and was MSU's first win in the Rose City since the 2009 Big Sky campaign.

“Katie really showed great leadership,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “She was disappointed with her play at Eastern Washington and really did an outstanding job bouncing back and leading us to a win in a place where we haven't had a lot of success, recently.”

In all, four Montana State (9-5, 1-1) players reached double-figures. Also pacing the Bobcats over Portland State (8-5, 0-1) - the league's preseason pick to win the league- where Rachel Semansky and Chelsea Banis with 19 points, apiece, while Ashley Albert chipped in 15.

MSU's inside duo of Semansky and Banis connected on 17-of-22 from the field.

“One of our goals was to establish our inside presence,” Binford said. “Our perimeter players did a great job getting the ball inside and Rachel and Chelsea did a nice job finishing.”

MSU's Latisha Adams scored the first basket of the game 13-seconds in and it was a lead the Bobcats would never relinquish. The Bobcats built a 16-point cushion in the opening stanza and entered intermission with a 53-39 advantage.

The Bobcats took its largest lead of the game at 64-48 with 16:29 remaining on a Bussey triple. The Vikings chipped away at the margin to pull to within four-points at the 6:47 mark, but MSU responded with a 13-2 run to secure the victory.

“We were fortunate to get a nice lead at halftime,” Binford said. “It was a game where we had to outscore them. We need to get back on the practice floor and look at the defense. I thought we gave up a lot of points this weekend.”

For the game, MSU shot 49 percent from the field and committed eight turnovers just two days after coughing the ball up 28 times in its loss at Eastern Washington. PSU ended the game shooting 42 percent from the floor. The Vikings also held a slim 45-44 rebounding edge.

Semansky led MSU under the glass with a game-high 14 rebounds, while Albert added eight.

PSU was led by Kate Lanz with 27 points and 13 rebounds.

MSU will host Idaho State, Thursday night at 7:05 p.m., in Worthington Arena.