Big Sky Conference

Caudill, Hommes pace Bobcats past North Dakota

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The frustration was painted across Hannah Caudill’s face. Rather than fold, Caudill buried a pair of daggers to lift her Bobcats in crunch time.

In a game filled with physicality and contact, the Montana State sophomore drew questionable foul calls trying to fight underneath high ball screens on two different occasions in a the span of a minute. Rather than let her emotions get the best of her, the Spokane native instead continued to torch the net.

At one point, Montana State led North Dakota by 16 points but with seven minutes, 48 seconds to play in the game, the Bobcats clung to a 52-44 lead. Caudill drilled a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 11. UND answered with a Samantha Roscoe jumper in the lane to again cut the lead to 10. After her second debatable foul call, Caudill hit a step-back 3-pointer to give Montana State a 60-47 lead with less than five minutes to play.

Senior Jasmine Hommes scored twice in the lane as the MSU lead grew to 66-52 with 2:24 to play. Hommes scored 20 points, Caudill netted 17 as Montana State shot 57 percent in the fourth quarter hold on for a 69-61 victory to remain unbeaten in Big Sky Conference play.

MSU guard Hannah Caudill rips through a UND screen

MSU guard Hannah Caudill rips through a UND screen

“I just knew we were playing great defense and no matter what the refs did, we had to come back and stay in our own heads and beat them our own way,” Caudill said. “We couldn’t let the refs stand in our way. Mindset for me was the same. I thought I played great defense and next play. You have to move on and continue playing your game.”

Caudill, the Big Sky’s leader in assists with 6.2 dimes per game off the MSU bench, showed her smooth shooting stroke throughout the evening on Thursday. Caudill hit all three of her 3-point attempts in the first half and 5-of-7 from deep overall in scoring a season-high point total. She also added three assists as MSU dished out 19 helpers on 26 converted field goals. She had three of MSU’s nine steals as MSU forced 18 turnovers.

“We are such a good defensive team this year, and that allows you to settle down and offensively, you don’t get mad,” Caudill said. “If you have a couple of turnovers, you just go have fun on defense.”

Caudill has been red-hot from beyond the 3-point arc all season, particularly during league play. She drilled a 3-pointer from the corner with six seconds to play to lift MSU to an 80-79 win at Sacramento State a week ago. She hit all four of her 3-point attempts in a 106-59 win at Portland State. Caudill is 11-of-15 from downtown during Montana State’s last three games and 15-of-24 (62.5 percent) during MSU’s 5-0 start in league play. Caudill is shooting 44.7 percent from beyond the arc overall.

“Confidence. That Sac State game, I was lucky to put up 4-for-4 and I got my confidence up and I’ve been just been shooting it and releasing more now,” Caudill said. “My team is giving me good opportunities.”

MSU forward Riley Norgaard handles inthe half court

MSU forward Riley Norgaard handles in the half court

Caudill wasn’t the only Bobcat who battled through adversity. Junior Riley Nordgaard, MSU’s third-leading scorer (11.7 points per game), shook off an 0-of-7 shooting night to dominate the game on the defensive end. She earned credit for four steals and deflected at least as many other passes. The 5-foot-10 forward also grabbed eight rebounds and played stellar defense against preseason Big Sky Player of the Year Mia Loyd, holding the bruising UND forward to seven points. Sophomore Delany Junkermier drew Makailah Dyer, UND’s leading scorer (12.8 ppg) and held her to nine points on 3-of-11 shooting.

“Our kids have a characteristic of competing and having a lot of fight about that and she responded in the right way,” MSU head coach Tricia Binford said. “We talk about responding and controlling the things you can control and what she could control was how to respond to that. Riley struggles on offense and she turns it on on the defensive end. Delany Junkermier didn’t show a lot on the offensive end but she had a tough assignment on (Makailah) Dyer and that was Delany’s best defense all season.”

Hommes battled in the post most of the evening with 6-foot-6 UND junior Stephanie Smith and managed to have her way more often than not. The reigning Big Sky Player of the Week stepped out to hit a pair of 3-pointers — she was 3-of-21 from deep entering the game — and used an array of hook shots and jump shots to lead MSU in scoring for a fourth straight game and eighth overall. She finished 9-of-16 from the floor.

MSU struggled for the first half of the first quarter in a game that looked destined to be a slugfest. The Bobcats did not score until four minutes into the game. Then Hommes scored her first bucket, Caudill hit her first 3-pointer and MSU went on a 21-5 run.

MSU guard Lindsey Stockton fights for a loose ball with UND guard Leah Szabla

MSU guard Lindsey Stockton fights for a loose ball with UND guard Leah Szabla

“At the timeout, we talked about defense and defense wins ball games,” Caudill said. “We knew we had to make stops, play our game. Our identity is team play, helping each other out, defense and offense.”

Behind 15 points from Leah Szabla, a 19-16 advantage in the third quarter and a 3-pointer by Kanani Asuncion, the Fighting Hawks hung around all night. But Montana State is clicking on all cylinders behind a pickpocket defense and an unselfish, fluid offense. The Bobcats, 12-4 overall, enter Saturday’s game against Northern Colorado winners of six in a row.

Following Thursday’s victory, Binford walked to the scorer’s table and grabbed the public address microphone. She thanked the 1,284 in attendance, closing by challenging each one to bring a new fan to Saturday’s matinee against the Bears.

“We’ve been trying to put a lot of focus on our in game atmosphere and we have always had supportive fans so we are trying to get this place a little more full,” Binford said. “It’s why we changed up our intros with the band and our spirit squad with us during warmups and just try to get them more involved. This can be fun for all of us. We feel like they can be such an influence, which the fans were against Northern Arizona (a comeback 86-77 overtime win). They were again today. We are trying to encourage them to keep bringing extra people to this gym because I think these ladies are worth watching. They are fun to watch and our fans are great.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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