Box Score HONOLULU, HI (November 25, 2014) – The Hawai'i Pacific Women's Basketball Team (3-1) beat up Montana State-Billings (3-2) by the score of 82-59 in an unofficial crossover game between the GNAC and PacWest on Tuesday night at Moanalua High School.
Both teams started off the game in a polar vortex by shooting under 30% by the first media timeout. Soon, HPU snapped out of it, but the visitors never really did. MSUB earned its biggest lead of the night at 10-5 with 14:57 to play in the opening half. Back-to-back triples from
Chenise Peone and
Veanne Navarro gave the lead back to the Sharks, a lead HPU did not relinquish.
With 4:26 left in the first half,
Morganne Comstock sunk a foul shot to give HPU its biggest lead of the half at 35-23. By the break, HPU's lead was 10 (43-33).
The Yellow Jackets came out with spunk in the second half and trimmed the deficit to five at 49-44 with 15:38 to play. However, HPU countered with a 9-2 run to regain control, capped by a three-pointer by
Kylie Huerta. HPU's lead didn't dip below double-figures the rest of the night.
Dayanara Armenta's three ball stretched the lead to 21 by the 6:09 mark. A little more than three minutes later, the lead reached 27 on a pair of foul shot hits by
Taylor Blake.
The HPU defense was stifling, holding MSUB to 18-68 (26.5%) from the floor and 5-29 (17.2%) from deep. Conversely, HPU hit 43.3% (29-67) from the field and 40% (10-25) from three-point land.
Huerta again stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, seven assists, and five rebounds. Most notably, she exited the game for the first time this season after crashing in the scorer's table going for a loose ball in the second half. She appeared to be OK, but sat for the rest of the night with the game no longer in doubt.
Four other Sharks scored in double-digits, Peone (13), Navarro (12), Comstock (11), and Armenta (11). Comstock and Peone led the way on the glass with 13 and eight boards.
HPU returns to the floor on Thanksgiving Day to take on Saint Thomas Aquinas College (a Division II school from the ECAC) at 3:00 pm at McKinley High School as a part of the Oahu Classic.
