Montana State rallies past Sac State, ends first half in first place

THE MATCHUP

Montana State assumed first place all alone with a win over Portland State Thursday while Sacramento State aided that ascent by surrendering a 14-point lead in an 81-77 loss at Montana on Thursday afternoon. Saturday in Bozeman, the teams with the two top records in Big Sky Conference women’s hoops for the first half of the league slate squared off.

THE RESULT

Sac State jolted to a 19-2 lead over the first seven and a half minutes of the game thanks to hot shooting by Solape Amusan. The former Illinois transfer came into this week’s road swing through the Treasure State with seven made 3-pointers and 31 total points all season. With Katie Peneuta, Sac’s primary sharp shooter, sidelines with an injury, Amusan hit her first four 3-point attempts and six triples overall for Sac State against Montana. And on Saturday, she again found the mark, drilling four 3-pointers in the first half to help the Hornets to a 36-23 lead.

But for the second game in a row, MSU senior Kola Bad Bear came alive after halftime, pouring in 11 of her team-best 17 points and converting five of seven attempts from the floor. Her bucket through contact with 2:35 remaining put MSU up 61-59 and Montana State’s last-possession stop lifted the ‘Cats to a 61-60 victory.

THE STANDOUTS

Bad Bear, a power forward from Billings, Montana, finished 7-of-11 from the floor and also grabbed six rebounds as the Bobcats moved to 8-2 in Big Sky play by securing their sixth straight victory. The reigning Big Sky Tournament champions also got 13 points, five rebounds and four assists from All-Big Sky point guard Darian White, like Bad Bear, also a senior.

Sac State hit eight of its first 10 3-point attempts in building a 16-point lead late in the second quarter and entering halftime up 13. Asuman went 4-of-6 from deep in the first half and finished 6-of-10 from beyond the arc overall on the way to 18 points.

Kahlaijah Dean, who has won four Big Sky Player of the Weeks this season and averaged 29 points on the way to the award last week, finished with a game-high 28 points. It took her 23 shots to get there as MSU concentrated hard to limit her penetration. Dean hit four of Sac’s 12 3-pointers and shot nine of the Hornets’ 30 attempts from beyond the arc. Dean also chipped in six rebounds and five of assists.

QUOTABLE

“In that last timeout I told our kids they needed one stop. “We needed to really contest the shot and make it as tough as possible. When Dean penetrated our kids did an outstanding job plugging things up and we got the stop we needed.”

Montana State head coach Tricia Binford

“Sacramento State did a great job capitalizing on our mistakes in the first half. At halftime, we talked about cutting done on our errors and controlling the controllables. We changed up our defense in the second half and focused on chipping away at the lead and increasing our ball pressure.

Binford

“The crowd did a great job giving us the energy we needed down the stretch. I hope they saw the toughness this team possesses. I am proud of our second half effort.”

Binford

WHAT’S NEXT

Montana State is at Northern Arizona on Thursday and at Northern Colorado on Saturday to begin the second half of Big Sky Conference play.

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