Montana State University’s women’s basketball team secured a 61-54 victory over Sacramento State on Saturday in Sacramento. The Bobcats maintained their lead for nearly the entire game, with sophomore forward Addison Harris contributing 22 points and an assist. Harris made eight of her 14 field goal attempts, including two three-pointers.
“The biggest thing is that we found a way to go 1-0 today,” said MSU head coach Tricia Binford. “Addi (Harris) was fantastic, the team was focused, and they stepped up to get stops at the end.”
Montana State led by at least eight points in each quarter and held double-digit leads during the final three periods. A run by Montana State that extended from late in the third quarter into the fourth helped push their advantage to 13 points after a three-pointer from Harris and a free throw by Issy Bunyan.
Sacramento State responded with a scoring run of their own, narrowing the gap to 50-47 with just over six minutes remaining. From that point forward, Montana State’s defense limited Sacramento State to only one field goal in six attempts for the rest of the game. Four of Sacramento State’s last seven points came from Benthe Versteeg’s free throws; Natalie Picton added a three-pointer.
Rubi Gray led Sacramento State with 19 points on eight-for-19 shooting. Fatoumata Jaiteh recorded a game-high ten rebounds. Both teams were even on rebounding with 35 boards each, while turnovers slightly favored Sacramento State as they forced 15 from Montana State but committed 13 themselves.
Taylee Chirrick supported Harris’ performance with 14 points and eight rebounds for Montana State. Kadynce Couture collected five rebounds and Brooke Fatupaito added four more for the Bobcats, who shot 42 percent from the floor.
Despite difficulties at the free throw line—making only half of their foul shots across two games—Montana State converted four out of six free throws in the final two minutes against Sacramento State. Harris sealed the win by making two free throws with less than half a minute left.
With this result, Montana State improves its overall record to 22 wins and six losses, holding a conference record of 15-2 in Big Sky play. The Bobcats remain one game behind Idaho in conference standings and will need both a win against Northern Arizona at home on Monday night and an Idaho loss to Eastern Washington to share first place in regular season standings. Sacramento State drops to an overall record of 13-17 and stands at 7-10 within league play.
