Sunday, December 13
BOZEMAN
2 p.m.
Montana State University
vs
Yellowstone Christian
Photo by: Kelly Gorham
Montana State Opens Home Slate Sunday Versus Yellowstone Christian
12/11/2020 11:57:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Montana State makes its 2020-21 season home debut at 2 p.m. Sunday when the Bobcats host Yellowstone Christian College in Worthington Arena
| Montana State Bobcats (1-1) vs. Yellowstone Christian (0-4) | |
| Date and Time | Sunday, December 13 - 2 p.m. MDT |
| Location | Bozeman, Montana |
| Site | Worthington Arena |
| Television | Pluto TV (Channel 1057) |
| Radio | KMMS 1450 AM | Bobcat Sports Radio Network |
| Listen Live | TuneIn app |
| Stream | Pluto.TV & WatchBigSky.com |
| Live Stats | MSUBobcats.com (StatBroadcast) |
| Tickets | N/A |
| Montana State | Game Notes | Men's Basketball Home Page |
| Yellowstone Christian | Men's Basketball Home Page |
BOZEMAN, Mont. - Montana State makes its 2020-21 season home debut at 2 p.m. Sunday when the Bobcats host Yellowstone Christian College in Worthington Arena. MSU's matchup against Yellowstone Christian is set to be its lone home non-conference game, with the 'Cats set to travel to Washington State and Portland ahead of Big Sky Conference play.
The Bobcats' schedule featured a 16-day break between games before Sunday's contest versus Yellowstone Christian was put together this week.
"We definitely wanted to get some sort of game in there," Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle. "Thankful to Yellowstone Christian they're able to come play because they were the only one that could come play us here.
"I think it'll be good for our guys to play in our arena. Especially some of our new guys, even though there's no fans, just to be able to shoot and warmup in our own arena before we do it for the first time in conference when Southern Utah comes here at the end of the month."
MSU's matchup against Yellowstone Christian will serve as its latest home opener since the 1965-66 season. The Bobcats' latest home game in its Big Sky era came in 1963-64 when MSU hosted Minnesota-Duluth on Dec. 20 in its fifth game that year.
The Bobcats fell to 1-1 overall after a 74-70 defeat in overtime to Pacific on Dec. 2 in Stockton, California. It was the first time MSU played in an overtime since the 2017-18 season. The Bobcats rallied to force the OT period after being down six points with 70 seconds left in regulation behind four made free throws by Xavier Bishop and a Tyler Patterson 3-pointer.
Montana State opened the season on Nov. 25 with a 91-78 victory over UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center. The' Cats jumped out to a double-digit lead over UNLV midway through the first half of their season opener and never wavered. MSU went into halftime up 49-31 thanks to shooting over 60% from the field and 3-point range. MSU went up by as many as 22 in the second half led by Xavier Bishop's 16 points in the final 20 minutes.
The win was the Bobcats' first true road victory to begin a campaign since MSU defeated Washington in Seattle to start the 2002-03 season. The Bobcats' 91 points were the most by an MSU squad in a season opener since the 1997-98 team topped Simon Fraser 107-59 in its debut.
The offensive numbers stood out in the Montana State win at UNLV. The Bobcats' 55.6% clip from the field against the Runnin' Rebels would have been their third best overall shooting mark a season ago. MSU's same percentage from the 3-point line last week was its best since the 2017-18 season when the 'Cats went 15 of 26 (57.7%) from deep in a 109-81 victory against Montana Western on Nov. 15.
Xavier Bishop scored a team-high 22 points in MSU's season-opening victory and was rewarded as the Big Sky Men's Basketball Player of the Week on Monday. Bishop, who sat out as a redshirt a season ago, went 6 of 9 shooting and was 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. His appearance at Pacific was his 100th career game he played in at the college level. He also surpassed 300 career assists in the contest and his 1,092 points rank him 95th among all Division I active players.
The Bobcats and Centurions met in an exhibition contest a season ago with MSU earning a 94-43 win on October 30. Yellowstone Christian is led by a trio of double digit scorers in Christian Beeke, Devin Jones and Derrian Reed. The Centurions play at Montana Saturday prior to Saturday's contest in Bozeman.
"This is kind of our training camp right now," Sprinkle said of MSU's ongoing practices. "From the day Pacific got over until we kind of go to Washington State. We just haven't had physical practices, we haven't had the whole team together and we haven't had time. This is the period we have to get better. Once conference starts, we don't have any byes, so we have to make the most of this."
Sunday's game will be streamed on the Pluto TV app (channel 1057) and on WatchBigSky.com. All Bobcat basketball games are available to listen to as part of the Bobcat Sports Radio Network and airing locally on KMMS 1450 AM.
Players Mentioned
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