BILLINGS, Mont. – Saint Martin's put their win streak and undefeated conference record on the line against the Yellowjackets, who were also on a win streak and undefeated in conference. MSUB kept their steak alive and remained undefeated in conference defeating the Saints, 72-61.
Two undefeated conference records clashed and Montana State Billings (13-4, 7-0) emerged victorious using a late 21-7 run to take the lead and down SMU (13-3, 5-1).
Tyke Thompson led SMU in scoring with 17 points, and was the only double digit scorer, to go along with his eight rebounds.
Kyle Greeley recorded eight points and eight rebounds in the contest, which ended his streak of double digit scoring performances at eight games.
Jaden Nielsen-Skinner recorded eight assists to go along with his eight point night.
Hunter Sipe (9) and
Champ Spencer (9) made solid contributions to the SMU point total as the pair accounted for half of the made three pointers for Saint Martin's.
The Saints went with the starting lineup of Nielsen-Skinner, Greeley,
Branden Bunn,
Nathaniel Stokes, and
Shakeem Alcindor. Alcindor scored the first basket of the game for Saint Martin's with a pump fake into a layup. The rest of the half was neck and neck until SMU ended the half on a 14-3 run to take the lead and put them ahead 36-28 at half.
Coming out of the break, the Yellowjackets whittled down the lead and with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game, the score was all tied up at 46-46. MSUB built on this momentum and jumped ahead of the Saints with an 18-7 run that proved too much and too late for Saint Martin's to overcome. Montana State Billings secured the victory, 72-61.
Head coach
Aaron Landon reflected on the loss with, "Give credit to MSUB, they were the better team in almost every category tonight. Coach Durham had their whole team well prepared and they did a great job executing on the defensive end. There's a lot we can learn from this loss."
The Saints will shake off this loss and prepare for their upcoming road matchup against Seattle Pacific on Saturday, January 14th at 2:00 PM. Live stats and video will be available on smusaints.com.
