Cats Bust Broncs

Saturday, November 26

Stockton, CA

2 p.m.

Montana State University

3-3

Santa Clara

2-3

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Santa Clara	13	15	15	7	50
Montana State	17	19	22	19	77

Senior Riley Nordgaard

Photo by: Dean O'Driscoll

11/26/2016 5:28:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Tom Schulz

Montana State put its most complete game together to date shooting 53 percent from the field en route to a convincing 77-50 victory over Santa Clara, Saturday afternoon at the Tiger Turkey Tip-Off Classic hosted by the University of the Pacific.

Montana State (3-3) got out to a four-point cushion after the opening quarter and pushed its lead to 34-20 on a four-point play by junior Riley Nordgaard in the second stanza. Santa Clara (2-3) whittled the margin down to 36-28 at intermission.

"It was a great balanced team effort against a really efficient team," said MSU 12^th year head coach Tricia Binford. "Once again, we had a lot of people step-up, and we received great bench production."

The Bobcats came out of halftime with a 20-8 run to put the game away. MSU connected on 67 percent from the field in the third quarter, while holding the Broncos to 30 percent from the floor.

Nordgaard and Peyton Ferris paced the Bobcats with 17 points, apiece, while Oliana Squires and Hannah Caudill added 15 and ten points, respectively.

Montana State held a slight 34-32 advantage under the boards led by Blaire Braxton with seven rebounds. Caudill finished with a game-high five assists, while Nordgaard posted a game-high five steals.

"Riley was tenacious and really got us going defensively," Binford said. "Hannah had a very consistent and efficient weekend. We will continue to improve taking care of the ball. I thought we showed a great level of toughness to play that hard in back-to-back games."

Santa Clara was led by Morgan McGwire and Marie Bertholdt with 11 points, each.

The Bobcats will host Carroll College on Dec. 2 and will celebrate its 2015-16 Big Sky Conference regular-season championship prior to tip-off.