As the Western Bulldogs tried fruitlessly to penetrate against Montana State’s defense with the shot clock winding down, MSU head coach Tricia Binford yelled, “Finish it.”
MSU’s 11th-year skipper surely meant the possession and her Bobcats would notch a steal with two seconds left on the 30-second shot clock, the 19th Western turnover of the evening. But Binford might as well have been talking about the game. Montana State converted the turnover into a layup on the other end and the Bobcats assumed a 29-point lead. Almost eight minutes remained in the third quarter.
Western’s defense would tighten slightly thereafter — MSU shot 31.4 percent in the second half after shooting 55 percent in the first — but the game was out of reach since a 10-2 MSU run to open the game and an 18-5 first quarter Bobcat advantage. Three Bobcats scored in double figures as Montana State earned a 74-36 win over Montana Western in front of 984 on Tuesday night.
“We absolutely get better in games like this because it gives us an opportunity to work on some things that maybe in a tighter game, you are not going to test the waters with,” Binford said after her team moved to 6-3 with the non-conference win.
The game counted as an exhibition for the Bulldogs, who featured nine Montana natives on their roster. Western is 9-6 this season, having already played Top 25 Frontier Conference members No. 3 Montana State Northern, No. 6 Carroll College and No. 20 Rocky Mountain College.
Western struggled on Tuesday, shooting 23.6 percent from the field, including 22 percent after halftime. Aniese Palmore hit 3-of-7 3-point shots to lead the Dawgs with 14 points.
“We practiced this morning so we could put some stuff in tonight against the best team we will play all year,” Western fourth-year head coach Lindsay Woolley said. “At least we put it on video. We try not to be too hard on our kids. They love coming to play here and it’s fun for them.”
MSU junior Peyton Ferris swooped into the lane and earned a steal, drove the length of the court and finished with her right hand while being fouled. Her old-fashioned 3-point play gave her 16 points, put the Bobcats up 71-31 with 4:25 to play and finished the Twin Bridges product’s evening against the school from Dillon, just up the road from her home town.
When junior guard Margreet Barhoum swatted a block in transition, a smattering of fans gave a nice cheer as the lead had swelled to 42, the largest of the evening. Brandy Bookout’s banked 3-pointer for Western with 1:25 left cut the lead under 40, 73-36.
Montana State senior center Jasmine Hommes converted 6-of-10 from the field for 15 points and junior Riley Nordgaard hit half of her eight field goal attempts for 12 points.
Montana State forced 28 Bulldog turnovers and converted the miscues into 32 points. Led by Nordgaard’s six steals, the Bobcats had 16 steals wo go along with 12 blocked shots, including three by Hommes. The Bobcats earned a 45-40 advantage on the glass. Ferris led the way with six rebounds. MSU dished out 19 assists on 29 made field goals.
“Nine days off, you are going to be a little rusty and our biggest concern is we didn’t want to take steps backward on a conditioning level,” Binford said. “We came out flat after halftime but we responded really well after we had to get on them a little bit and defensively, a lot of good things.”
Western employed a 2-3 zone for most of the game. The Bobcats used deft ball movement and crisp shooting to slice the zone early. MSU hit 18-of-29 shots in the first half, including half of its 12 attempts from beyond the arc in building a 44-19 lead at intermission.
“When you play Division Is, you have to find a way you can neutralize their superior talent and we felt like if we mixed and matched the zones, that would give us the best opportunity and they shot well,” Woolley said. “They made 15, 16, 17 footers, they made 3s. We rebounded ok, which I was pleasantly surprised with. You roll the dice and pick a strategy and hope it works.”
Western’s zone in the second half gave MSU some resistance as the Bobcats outscored the Bulldogs 13-10 in the third quarter. IN the fourth quarter, MSU resumed its slashing defense to close the win.
“We were preparing for zone and I feel we have one of the best passing teams in the Big Sky,” Binford said. “We have great passers and I have one of the best teachers of passing on our bench (MSU assistant and NBA Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton). I feel like this team this year, we really share the ball well and we keep the passes simple. Not a lot of teams have zoned us so I was excited we had a chance to go against it.”
