By Danny Waldo
Explosive. Lethal. Eye-popping.
All superlatives that could be used to describe the Montana State women’s basketball team following their most recent victory, a 106-59 drubbing of Portland State. Not only did the final score show how explosive the Lady ‘Cats could be when they put it all together, it also kept MSU in the driver’s seat early in the conference season. MSU’s depth and well-balanced attack has been the main reason for their success to begin conference play, including the dismantling of the Vikings. “We received contributions from everyone,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “Once again, we got great play from our bench; the post players converted down low; and our guards did a nice job getting the ball inside.” Through their first four conference games, all wins, Montana State has had four or more players score in double figures, led by senior Jasmine Hommes (17 ppg) and junior Peyton Ferris (17.3 ppg). Riley Nordgaard has been a steady contributor, and guards Lindsay Stockton, Hannah Caudill and Margreet Barhoum have all taken their turns scoring in double-figures, as well. In the victory over Portland State, the Lady ‘Cats set a new school record for points in a road game, in addition to a new record for assists. The ‘Cats finished with 32 assists on the night. The road sweep was Montana State’s first since 2003 (The ‘Cats defeated Sacramento State 80-79 on 1/7), and puts the Bobcats ½ game ahead of Eastern Washington heading into the third weekend of conference play. MSU will return home for another pair of league games, vs. Northern Colorado (1/14) and North Dakota (1/16) before hitting the road at Eastern Washington (1/21) and Idaho (1/23). MSU closes out the month of January at home with the annual Brawl of the Wild contest vs. the Montana Grizzlies on January 30th.
For a complete schedule of all Montana State Lady Bobcat basketball games log on to www.msubobcats.com. •
