Cats Close Out Road Trip with Win over Northern Arizona

Saturday, February 12

Flagstaff, AZ

12 p.m. (MT)

Montana State University

16-9,11-3Big Sky

Northern Arizona

11-11,8-6Big Sky

Montana St.

Northern Ariz.

Senior Gabby Mocchi

2/12/2022 6:02:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

The Montana State women’s basketball team put an exclamation on its three-game, six-day road swing that covered six states and over 2,700 miles with an 83-77 victory over Northern Arizona on Saturday afternoon in the Walkup Skydome.

By: Tom Schulz

The Montana State women's basketball team put an exclamation on its three-game, six-day road swing that covered six states and over 2,700 miles with an 83-77 victory over Northern Arizona on Saturday afternoon in the Walkup Skydome.

Coupled with Southern Utah's loss to Sacramento State, the Bobcats sit alone in second place in the Big Sky Conference standings behind Idaho State (12-3).

"That's the way you want to close out a road trip, especially one that has kept us away from home for over a week," said Ellen Kreighbaum Women's Head Coach Tricia Binford. "I felt we got into a pretty good rhythm offensively in the second and third quarters, and we made the plays we needed to in the fourth quarter to come away with the win."

It took Montana State (16-9, 11-3) a quarter to get its legs under them, before back-to-back three-pointers by Leia Beattie jump started the Bobcat offense giving MSU a 30-20 advantage with 5:05 remaining in the half. Montana State pushed the margin to 39-25 at intermission.

Katelynn Limardo's triple to open the second half gave MSU a 17-point cushion. The Bobcats maintained its lead at the 6:12 mark of the third quarter following back-to-back triples via Gabby Mocchi. Northern Arizona (11-11, 8-6) cut the margin to nine points heading into the final frame.

Ava Ranson connected on two free throws at the 7:50 mark of the fourth quarter giving MSU a 67-54 lead, but the Lumberjacks responded with nine straight points to chip the deficit to four.

A pair of Limardo free throws with 2:14 left gave the Cats an eight-point advantage, but NAU's Nina Radford was fouled on a three-point attempt with 13-seconds left and her three consecutive free throws reduced the Bobcats lead to three.

In the final eight seconds, Bobcat point-guard Darian White and Limardo each netted two charity tosses to secure the win.

"Once again it took contributions from everyone for us to come out on top," Binford said. "We got a good spark off the bench from Lexi Deden, Madison Jackson, Ava Ranson, and others. And Gabby, being one of our seniors, really came up clutch and hit some big shots."

MSU had five players in double-figures led by Mocchi 15, Beattie 13, Bad Bear 12, White 11 and Limardo 10. MSU shot 46.6% from the field, made nine of 22 from long distance and went 20 of 25 at the line.

NAU's Lauren Orndoff led all scorers with 24 points.

The Lumberjacks held a 36-32 edge in rebounding. The Cats were led under the glass by Bead Bear with six.

MSU hosts Eastern Washington on Thursday night in Worthington Arena. The game is MSU women's basketball's designated Pack the Place in Pink night, with all fans encouraged to wear pink to support breast cancer.