Bobcats Snap Skid, Top Eagles in Cheney

Thursday, February 24

8:05 PM

Montana State University

at Eastern Washington

Bobby Howard led the Bobcats to a win at EWU Thursday.

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

2/24/2011 10:29:31 PM | Men's Basketball

Second-half spurt, Bobby Howard's free throw shooting lead Cats

By: Bill Lamberty

Montana State used a 17-2 second-half run to erase a double digit deficit, and Bobby Howard converted all six of his free throws in the final 98 seconds to lead Montana State to a 60-56 win over Eastern Washington in Cheney on Thursday.

MSU-EWU box score

Bobcat coach Brad Huse praised his team's mental makeup following its first win in 10 games. “We talk about character finding a way,” Huse said, “and that's what we showed tonight.”

Eastern Washington pushed its lead to double-digits with 12:44 remaining on a pair of free throws by Kevin Winford, but back-too-back layups by Erik Rush and Howard helped the Cats maintain contact. Trailing 47-46 with 9:20 to play, MSU scored six straight points, the final four by Rod Singleton, to grab a lead it wouldn't relinquish.

“The guys never lost composure,” Huse said of the team's second-half comeback. “That was the whole thing tonight. They hung in there. We got good production across the (board). We had some nice stops defensively.”

Montana State shot 47.5% for the game, the team's best shooting percentage since its last win, also over Eastern Washington, and MSU's first game shooting over 40% in the last seven. Bobby Howard converted 8-of-12 free throws and led all scorers with 15 points. Freshman Chris McCall added 12 points, while Cody Anderson scored 11. Laron Griffin and Glen Dean led the Eagles with 12 points.

The Bobcats raised their record to 6-8 in Big Sky play, 12-16 overall, with the win, while Eastern Washington falls to 5-9 in the league, 8-19 overall. MSU grabs the tie-breaker with Eastern by sweeping the Eagles in the season series.