Nordgaard, Hot-Shooting Cats Pillage Vikings

Saturday, January 21

BOZEMAN

2 p.m.

Montana State University

13-5, 6-2BSC

Portland State

10-9, 4-3BSC

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Portland State	16	16	20	24	76
Montana State	22	14	19	28	83

Bobcat freshman Oliana Squires

Photo by: Kelly Gorham

1/21/2017 5:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

“We knew they were going to come out in a 2-3,” Nordgaard said. “We have a lot of talented three-point shooters, so we had confidence going in. I thought we had great ball movement and when I got an open look I said to myself ‘I’m shooting it up.’”

By: Phillip Catlin\MSU Sports Information

Senior Riley Nordgaard followed up a career-high 26 points on Thursday night with a 25-point performance to lift Montana State to an 83-76 win over Portland State, Saturday afternoon in front of a season-high 2,284 spectators.

Nordgaard, a native of Canby, Minn., came out hot, hitting her first three 3-point attempts. She finished the first quarter with 13. The 5-10 forward helped Montana State (13-5, 6-2) to its 20^th straight victory in Worthington Arena – the sixth longest streak in the nation.

"We knew they were going to come out in a 2-3," Nordgaard said. "We have a lot of talented three-point shooters, so we had confidence going in. I thought we had great ball movement and when I got an open look I said to myself 'I'm shooting it up.'"

Portland State (10-9, 4-3) hit two 3's to open the game and jump to an 8-2 lead, which would turn out to be their biggest of the game. The Cats fought back, thanks in large to Nordgaard's first quarter outburst to take an 11-point lead midway through the second frame. The Vikings wouldn't go away. PSU used an 11-0 run to tie the game with 2:10 left. MSU closed out the stanza on a Hannah Caudill triple to take a 36-32 advantage at intermission.

MSU built a nine-point lead in the third quarter, before the Vikings evened the score at 41-all at the 6:02 mark. An Oliana Squire's 3-pointer with 1:44 left in the period pushed the Bobcat lead to six points. MSU finished the third quarter with a 55-52 advantage.

Three-point shooting was the story for the Cats. MSU made a season-best 13 from behind the arc, including four in the fourth quarter, all coming from different sources to keep the Vikings at bay.

With the contest knotted at 60 with 6:17 remaining, senior Margreet Barhoum hit a triple from the top. A trey by Delany Junkermier with 3:40 left gave MSU a six-point cushion and Caudill's second 3-pointer pushed the margin to nine points with 2:46 remaining. The Bobcats closed out the game hitting four-of-six free throws down the stretch to secure the win.

"Portland State is super talented and we obviously had our hands full," said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. "I'm really proud of our ability to remain resilient and make the plays when we needed too.

"It was an amazing atmosphere and was super electric, especially when it went came down to the wire," Binford added. "We want people to come and support the players for what they're doing. They're fun to watch and they play really hard."

Nordgaard finished connecting on eight-of-15 from the field, which included a career-high six-of-11 effort from long distance. Also in double-figures were Peyton Ferris 17 and Junkermier 11. Ferris, who is MSU's leading scorer, went 5-of-16 from the floor through three-quarters, but didn't miss in the final period. Caudill matched a career-high 11 assists. MSU was paced under the boards by Nordgaard and Ferris with nine and eight rebounds, respectively.

Ashley Bolston scored a game-high 29 points for Portland State.

MSU will travel to Idaho on Thursday night.