Montana State Women Upset Eagles

Thursday, February 26

BOZEMAN

7 p.m.

Montana State University

13-14, 7-9BSC

Eastern Washington University

17-9, 10-5BSC

Team	1	2	F
Eastern Washington	23	30	53
Montana State	32	31	63

Sophomore Peyton Ferris

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

2/26/2015 10:19:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

“The thing that jumps out is our positive assist-to-turnover ratio,” Binford said. “That allowed us to do what we wanted against their pressure defense. I thought we also did a nice job contesting shots, especially from beyond the three-point arc.”

By: Tom Schulz

Montana State head coach Tricia Binford challenged her starters to set the tone for the game, and her bench to be a factor when they entered the game, during her pregame speech. Her Bobcat squad responded, handing the tenth-year mentor a nice birthday present in the form of a 63-53 win over Eastern Washington – the Big Sky's hottest team, Thursday night in Worthington Arena.

The Montana State (13-14, 7-9) starters combined for 39 points, while the Bobcats bench out-scored Eastern Washington (17-9, 10-5) 24-5 to move into eighth place in the Big Sky standings and one step closer to securing a postseason tournament berth.

MSU opened up a 13-point advantage at the 6:16 mark of the opening period following a Peyton Ferris old-fashion three-point play. The Bobcats entered intermission with a 32-23 cushion.

In the second half, Montana State expanded its margin to 18-points on four occasions, the last coming with 8:41 remaining after a jumper via freshman Hannah Caudill. Eastern Washington rattled off a 16-2 run over the next six-minutes to pull to within 53-49 with 2:38 left.

The Bobcats then went seven-of-eight from the free throw line and received a rally-killing triple from Jackie Elliott with 36-seconds remaining to secure the win.

"The thing that jumps out is our positive assist-to-turnover ratio," Binford said. "That allowed us to do what we wanted against their pressure defense. I thought we also did a nice job contesting shots, especially from beyond the three-point arc."

Eastern Washington entered the game shooting a Big Sky Conference best 45 percent from the field. Montana State held the Eagles to 33 percent for the game, including an icy 16.7 percent from long distance.

Ferris, a product of Twin Bridges, guided the Bobcats with 16 points coming off the bench. Jasmine Hommes and Kallie Durham added nine points, apiece, while Alexa Dawkins and Elliott added eight and seven, respectively.

"I really liked our balance," Binford said. "When we get everyone involved, good things happen."

Also contributing to the Bobcat attack was point-guard Lindsay Stockton, who dished out a game-high nine assists, while adding three steals.

EWU won the battle of the boards, out-rebounding MSU by a slim 42-39 advantage. Ferris led the Bobcats under the glass with eight rebounds, while Elliott and Stockton chipped in six, each.

The Eagles were led by Hayley Hodgins with 22 points and nine rebounds.

Montana State will host Idaho on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Worthington Arena.