The Montana State men’s and women’s basketball teams split with former Big Sky Conference foe Nevada, albeit in different locations on Sunday afternoon.
In Honolulu, Hawaii at the Orerigger Resorts Rainbow Classic, the Montana State men used a nice surge to enter halftime down four points but shot just 19.3 percent after halftime in a 83-62 loss. MSU posted a 90-85 win over Division II Hawaii-Hilo on Saturday. The Bobcats opened their season with a 87-76 loss to host Hawaii on Friday night.
Marcus Colbert scored 22 points but Nevada shut down Montana State’s other scoring options. Colbert finished with just one assist as MSU converted just 17-of-57 front the florr. Two days after scoring 15 in his collegiate debut, freshman Tyler Hall shot just 2-of-12 and scored four points. Senior Danny Robison did not convert a field goal and earned all seven of his points at the free throw line. Nahjee Matlock (2-10) and Sarp Gobeglu (2-9) combined to shoot just 4-of-19 from the floor, 2-of-9 from beyond the arc off the bench. MSU shot 6-of-31 after intermission. Without Colbert’s 7-of-15 performance, MSU converted just 10-of-42 shots.
Nevada made half of its 60 field goal attempts as five players scored in double figures. Marqueze Coleman hit 6-of-13 from the floor and 8-of-10 from the stripe in scoring a game-high 20 points. AJ West notched a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds as the Wolfpack notched a 40-33 advantage on the glass. DJ Fenner scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds and Tyron Criswell scored 15 points and grabbed six boards off the bench to pace Nevada to its second win of the round-robin tournament.
The Bobcat women shot 52 percent and Jasmine Hommes hit a milestone in a 66-53 win in Reno. Alexa Dawkins scored 12 points to lead an attack that saw seven players score at least six points. Hommes’ field goal midway through the first quarter put the MSU senior at 1,000 points. She is the 21st women’s basketball player in MSU history to reach quadruple figures. She finished with eight points, five rebounds and a team-high three assists.
“I’m really happy for Jasmine breaking the 1,000-point milestone,” MSU head coach Tricia Binford said in an MSU press release. “She has been such a consistent performer over the course of her career.”
True freshman Annika Lai scored eight points for a second straight game. Junior Rile Nordgaard scored nine points and pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Junior Peyton Ferris scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds off the bench.
Montana State (2-0) took an 18-10 lead after the first stanza and held a 37-30 cushion as sophomore Hannah Caudill hit a three-pointer four-seconds prior to intermission.
MSU opened the third quarter with an 11-0 run and never looked back. Five different players scored during the stretch. The Bobcats built its largest lead at 59-39 in the final stanza.
“We had a very consistent performance from a team aspect and we played hard-fought defense,” Binford said. “It was a very physical game and Nevada challenged us on the glass. They did a great job forcing us on some decisions, so we will have to clean up on our rebounding and turnovers.”
Montana State’s women will host Portland in its home opener, Friday, November 20 at 5:30 p.m. The MSU men follow with its home opener against San Jose State at 8:05 p.m.
