FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Evan O’Kelly Director of Communications O: (406) 657-2130 E: evan.okelly@msubillings.edu Tuesday, January 31, 2017 Preview: Men’s basketball starts four-game road trip this week
MSUB’s men’s basketball team hits the road for four games over the next two weeks, entering a crucial stretch of the season in the upper-half of a crowded GNAC standings board. BILLINGS, Mont. – With eight games remaining on the 2016-17 regular-season schedule, the Montana State University Billings men’s basketball team prepares for a crucial stretch of four road games as the race towards the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships heats up. The Yellowjackets (12-8, 7-5 GNAC) are currently tied for fourth place in the GNAC standings with Central Washington University (12-6, 7-5 GNAC), the team they’ll face on Saturday in Ellensburg, Wash. First, MSUB will travel to Nampa, Idaho to take on Northwest Nazarene University (9-9, 6-6 GNAC), which sits one game behind the Yellowjackets in sixth place. Both games this week will feature live video with play-by-play commentary, as well as live statistics available through MSUB’s Stretch Internet portal here.
“It is going to be a great stretch run, and I don’t remember the league being this even top-to-bottom,” said MSUB head coach Jamie Stevens. “Both games here against these teams were close, and it is going to come down to which team is finding its stride on each given night. Right now our sole focus is on Thursday against Northwest Nazarene.” MSUB remains a frontrunner for one of the six berths into the conference tournament, which will run March 1-4 at Marcus Pavilion in Lacey, Wash. The Yellowjackets are one game behind third-place Western Oregon, and just two games behind second-place Alaska Anchorage, as seeding for the championships is still much too close to call. The ’Jackets will then travel to Alaska the following weekend, to take on the second-place Seawolves (15-5, 9-3 GNAC), and the Nanooks of Alaska (9-12, 4-8 GNAC), who are just two games out of a tournament berth despite sitting in a tie for ninth place in the GNAC entering the week.
Sophomore Preston Beverly is No. 4 in the GNAC with 19.1 points per game and No. 5 in rebounding with 8.3 boards per game.
MSUB is coming off a split at home last week, as the ‘Jackets fell to No. 15 Western Washington 81-68 last Thursday before snapping a three-game losing streak with a 93-86 win over Simon Fraser last Saturday.
BEVERLY’S BEST YET: Producing arguably the best individual weekend in all of the GNAC this season, sophomore Preston Beverly scored 27 points against the Vikings before taking off for a career-high 35 against the Clan. Beverly also notched his fifth double-double of the year with 10 boards against WWU, before setting career highs with 10 made field goals and a dozen made foul shots against SFU. The big weekend kept Beverly among the conference leaders in several categories including points per game with 19.1 (fourth) and rebounds per game with 8.3 (fifth). The sophomore also had five blocks last week, moving him to No. 5 in the league with 1.6 denials per game. Beverly’s 62 points last week marked just the eighth time this season a GNAC player has scored 60 or more points in a given week of play, and just the sixth time a player has achieved the feat in two games during a week. Among those eight performances, Beverly’s per-game efficiency of 28.0 ranks the highest of the group.
2016-17 GNAC Men’s Basketball | Individual Player 60-Point Weeks (Sorted by Per-Game Efficiency)
MATTHEWS UP TO NO. 15: Moving up to No. 15 in MSUB career scoring was senior guard Marc Matthews, who totaled 32 points in last week’s split at home. Matthews now sits at 1,174 career points, and needs 14 more to move up one spot on the list. The senior pushed his streak of double-digit scoring games to 13, and continued to up his career-best single-season scoring average of 15.9 points per game. Matthews also knocked down eight more threes, making him just the seventh player in Yellowjacket history to reach 200. He currently sits at No. 7 with 201 in his career, and needs 22 more to pass No. 6 Danny Phillips (222). MSUB Men’s Basketball All-Time Scoring Leaders Rk. Name Points 1. Roy McPipe 1883 2. Cameron Munoz 1879 3. Les Heins 1726 4. Jim Soft 1558 5. Bart Bauer 1547 6. Markus Hallgrimson 1470 7. Titus Warmsley 1467 8. Mark Hamilton 1463 9. Reece Gliko 1388 10. Buddy Windy Boy 1278 11. Chris Herriford 1252 12. Jerett Skrifvars 1240 13. Fred Johnston 1215 14. Bill Drumm 1188 15. Marc Matthews 1174
Senior Marc Matthews moved up to No. 15 on the MSUB career scoring charts last week.
ANDERSON BACK IN POINTS COLUMN: After being held to just eight total points in the previous week, senior guard Jace Anderson scored in double figures in both games last week with 18 against the Vikings and 10 more against the Clan. Anderson made 6 of 12 threes and all eight of his free throws, and he has now made his last 17 attempts from the foul line dating back to New Year’s Eve. Having made 34 treys this season, Anderson now has 109 in his career and needs just 12 more to break into the top-15 in MSUB history in that category. His current career 3-point percentage of 40.5 ranks him No. 8 in MSUB history.
KD KEEPS THE BALL: Entering the week with a team-high 62 assists, junior guard Kendall Denham also ranks No. 3 in all of the GNAC in assist-turnover ratio at plus-2.4. His average of 3.1 assists per game is the 10th-best mark in the league, and his 1.3 turnovers per game are the fewest by any player who qualifies in the assist-turnover ratio category. A big seven-assist game against the Clan pushed Denham’s career total to 222, as he is now just 12 assists away from moving into the top-15 in MSUB history in that category. KAMAL’S CAREER GAME: Kamal Tall put forth a career-best 17 points against the Clan on Saturday, easily surpassing his previous high of 11 points in a game. He also added seven rebounds and had a steal and an assist, while playing a careerhigh 29 minutes. Tall has started all 20 games this season, and is averaging 6.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game as the team’s center. HIGH-POWERED OFFENSE: Entering the week, MSUB ranks No. 3 in the GNAC in scoring offense with 81.7 points per game. The ‘Jackets allow 80.8 points per game, and are seventh overall in the GNAC in scoring margin at plus-0.9. Though MSUB ranks eighth in field-goal percentage at 44.5, the team is No. 3 in 3-point field-goal percentage at 37.7 and No. 2 in free-throw percentage at 75.4. MSUB is also in the upper half of the league in rebounding, out-boarding the opposition 37.0-35.8. Thursday, February 2 – at Northwest Nazarene University Crusaders – 7 PM Johnson Sports Center | Nampa, ID 2016-17 Record: 9-9, 6-6 GNAC (6th place) Head Coach: Scott Flemming, 2nd Season Last Meeting: MSUB 77, NNU 72 (Jan. 7, 2017 at Billings, MT) The Crusaders have split their last four conference games, and enter the week just one game behind the ‘Jackets in sixth place in the conference standings. NNU will play host to Central Washington University on Tuesday night, before welcoming the Yellowjackets on Thursday. The ‘Saders are led by three double-figure scorers, headed up by Maurice Jones who averages 16.0 points per game. Jones is also the team’s leading rebounder at 8.9 boards per game, which puts him at No. 3 in the GNAC. Bouna N’Diaye is one of the team’s top perimeter shooters, converting from the arc at a clip of 40.5 percent and averaging a team second-best 15.9 points per game. N’Diaye also ranks No. 3 on the team with 5.1 rebounds per game. Kaileb Rodriguez is NNU’s other double-figure scorer, averaging 13.2 points per game while shooting a team-best 54.3 percent from the field. Rodriguez also ranks second on the squad behind Jones with 6.3 rebounds per game. Jayden Bezzant is another threat from long range, as he is shooting 43.1 percent from 3-point range this season. The Series: MSUB holds an 18-16 record against NNU all-time, and is 6-9 in games played in Nampa. MSUB has won two in-a-row with the victory earlier this year, but is 2-5 in the last seven meetings overall. Last Time Out: Matthews led the ‘Jackets with 22 points and Beverly put up an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double in the home win for MSUB. Jones led a quartet of double-figure scorers for NNU with 16 points and a dozen rebounds.
Saturday, February 4 – at Central Washington University Wildcats – 8 PM MTN Nicholson Pavilion | Ellensburg, WA 2016-17 Record: 12-6, 7-5 GNAC (4th place) Head Coach: Greg Sparling, 22nd Season Last Meeting: CWU 81, MSUB 77 (Jan. 5, 2017 at Billings, MT) A six-game winning streak to ring in the new year has been squandered by CWU over the last two weeks, as the Wildcats have lost their last three conference games. Last week, CWU fell to Concordia 95-90 in a shootout at home, before an 85-68 loss to Western Oregon two evenings later. CWU will look to get back on track Tuesday, as they travel to NNU to face the Crusaders before Saturday’s matchup against the ‘Jackets at home. Senior Dom Hunter continues to lead the GNAC with 25.2 points per game, but was held to less than 10 points for the first time this season with just nine against the Wolves last Saturday. Hunter has posted six 30-point games this season, while shooting 45.6 percent from the field, 41.4 percent from 3-point range, and 83.3 percent from the free-throw line. Naim Ladd is the team’s second-leading scorer at 16.4 points per game, but missed his first game of the year as he sat out against the Wolves. Jawan Stepney is CWU’s other double-figure scorer with 13.3 points per game, and he is third on the team with a fieldgoal percentage of 48.2. Fuquan Niles is one of the premier defensive players in the GNAC, leading the league with 60 blocks and an average of 3.3 per game. Niles is also scoring 9.6 points per game and is leading the ‘Cats with 7.6 rebounds. As a squad CWU ranks No. 4 in the GNAC with a scoring margin of plus-3.5, as the ‘Cats are No. 2 in scoring offense at 88.4 points per game and No. 10 in scoring defense at 84.9 points allowed. CWU is No. 5 in field-goal percentage (46.6), No. 2 in 3-point field-goal percentage (39.2), and No. 6 in free-throw percentage (71.3). The Wildcats also hold the eighth-best rebounding margin in the league at minus-3.1, as they are outrebounded by the opposition 39.7-36.6. The Series: MSUB is 5-19 all-time against the Wildcats, and is just 1-10 in games played at Nicholson Pavilion. The loss at home earlier this season made it six straight defeats for MSUB and 12 losses in the last 14 games overall against the Wildcats. Last Time Out: Cinco Durr scored a season-best 21 points, while Beverly added 16 and Matthews contributed 15 in the loss. Stepney lit up the stat sheet with 23 points, while Hunter posted a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double for the ‘Cats. --@MSUBSports | #JacketNation--