Cats Rebound with Win at Portland State

Saturday, January 11

Portland, OR

3 p.m.

Montana State University

9-6,5-1Big Sky

Portland State

8-7,2-3Big Sky

Montana St.

Portland St.

Freshman Darian White

Photo by: R. Dean Hendrickson

1/11/2020 5:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

After suffering a disappointing double overtime loss to Idaho on Thursday night – its first in Big Sky play – the Montana State women’s basketball team rebounded with a 73-62 victory over Portland State on Saturday afternoon in Viking Pavilion.

By: Tom Schulz

PORTLAND, Ore. – After suffering a disappointing double overtime loss to Idaho on Thursday night – its first in Big Sky play – the Montana State women's basketball team rebounded with a 73-62 victory over Portland State on Saturday afternoon in Viking Pavilion.

Montana State (9-6, 5-1) led from wire-to-wire as Fallyn Freije's baseline jumper opened the scoring. The Bobcats held a 15-6 advantage after the first 10-minutes and pushed the margin to 37-18 at intermission. MSU took its largest lead at 43-22 with six-minutes, 26-seconds left in the third quarter on a Martha Kuderer layup.

Portland State (8-7, 2-3) whittled the lead down to 64-55 with one-minute, 10-seconds remaining, but a Kuderer free throw followed by her third three-pointer put the game out of reach.

"I think Thursday's game got our attention," said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. "We had good effort against Idaho, but I thought today we were very focused on what we needed to do. We established ourselves in the paint and our guards knocked down some shots. I felt our defense got after them pretty good in the first half and we showed some resiliency playing without one of our top seniors. Everyone really stepped-up."

Freshman Darian White, who struggled from the field against Idaho, finished with a game and career-high 19 points, connecting on nine-of-12 from the field. The Boise product also added six rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Also in double-figures for MSU were Martha Kuderer 18 and Tori Martell 13. Martell, who filled in for Oliana Squires in the starting line-up, ended the contest shooting five-of-ten from the floor, including three 3-pointers. Kuderer went five-of-nine from the field and connected on all three 3-point attempts.

The Bobcats held a 41-38 advantage under the glass as Blaire Braxton and Freije paced MSU with nine rebounds, apiece. The MSU defense limited PSU to 32.8% from the field and an icy 13.6% (3-22) from beyond the arc. The Vikings entered the game shooting 39.7% from long distance.

MSU shot 49.1% from the field and converted seven-of-13 from beyond the arc. The Bobcats underachieved at the free throw line shooting just 43.5% (10-23) for the game.

PSU was led by Jordan Stotler with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Montana State will play at Eastern Washington on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 3 p.m. (MT) in Cheney.