Bobcat Women Clinch Tournament Berth with Offensive Explosion

Thursday, March 6

Bozeman, MT

7 p.m.

Montana State University

9-1014-14/ BSC

Northern Arizona University

6-139-19/ BSC

Team	1	2	F
Northern Arizona	39	46	85
Montana State	58	41	99

Alexca Dawkins posted a career-high 17 points as the Bocbats defeated Northern Arizona 99-85 Thursday night.

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

Bobcat Women Clinch Tournament Berth with Offensive Explosion

3/6/2014 10:11:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

The Montana State women’s basketball team had its best offensive game of the season, en route to clinching a Big Sky Conference Tournament berth with a 99-85 win over Northern Arizona, Thursday night in Worthington Arena.

By: Tom Schulz

The Montana State women's basketball team had its best offensive game of the season, en route to clinching a Big Sky Conference Tournament berth with a 99-85 win over Northern Arizona, Thursday night in Worthington Arena.

Montana State (14-14, 9-10) entered the game averaging just 64.8 points per game in its last five outings, but put 58 first-half points on the board against Northern Arizona (9-19, 6-13), while shooting 53 percent from the field.

In all, five Bobcat players reached double-figures, including a career-high 17 points from Alexa Dawkins. Also in double-digits were Jasmine Hommes 17, Kayla DeWit 16, Ashley Brumwell 14, and Kalli Durham 12. MSU's post players racked-up 64 points in the victory.

"I felt we were in control the whole game," MSU head coach Tricia Binford said. "We played good team basketball and did a nice job sharing the ball. We had good practices this week and I really feel our energy has picked-up in the past few weeks."

Up by two points at the 11:58 mark of the opening stanza, MSU rattled off a 31-13 run over the next six-minutes to secure an 18-point advantage at intermission.

The Bobcats held its largest lead of the contest at 93-67 with 7-minutes left following a Jasmine Hommes jumper. MSU finished the game shooting 51 percent from the floor, while dishing out a season-high 27 assists.

MSU also won the battle of the boards, out-rebounding the Lumberjacks 46-30. Brumwell led the Bobcats under the glass with eight rebounds, while Jackie Elliott added seven.

Northern Arizona was paced by the Big Sky's leading scorer Amanda Frost, who registered a career-high 38 points connecting on 15-27 from the field.

Montana State will close out the regular-season on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m., when it hosts Sacramento State. MSU will also celebrate its lone senor Ashley Brumwell, as well.

NOTES: With Montana's win over Sacramento State on Thursday night, it ensured the Big Sky Conference Tournament will be hosted by North Dakota, next Thurs – Sat. in Grand Forks. The seven teams competing will be UND, Southern Utah, UM, Eastern Washington, Sacramento State, Idaho State and MSU.