Cedar City, Utah - Despite an extremely close first quarter inside the Centrum Arena on Saturday night, the Lady T-Birds fell to the Montana State Bobcats 87-66. MSU currently sits on top of the Big Sky Conference.

Despite the loss, SUU head coach Chris Boettcher said the team did a lot of things better than they did on Thursday night.

“There was a lot better energy, effort and consistency than the Montana game in a lot of the key areas we focused on,” he said.  

The two teams went back and forth for the first ten minutes of play, as the up-tempo pace they were playing at led to a high scoring quarter with MSU ahead 21-20 at the break.

Boettcher said the gameplan was to run with the Bobcats, and hope they would be able to get some defensive stops.

In the second quarter the tides started to turn. A 12-0 run by the Bobcats got them going offensively, and the Thunderbirds went over five minutes without being able to put the ball in the basket.

MSU ended up outscoring SUU 20-12 in the second quarter.

The Bobcats kept on rolling in the third quarter, outscoring SUU 24-14 and extending their lead to as many as 21. Jessica Richardson, the Thunderbirds leading scorer, fouled out before before the third quarter concluded. Breanu Reid was also straddled with foul trouble for the majority of the game.

In the fourth quarter the Bobcats upped their lead to 29, but the Thunderbirds didn't stop fighting and were able to trim it down some before the final whistle blew, and the Bobcats walked away with a 87-66 victory.

Ashleigh Munns and Taylor Baird led the Thunderbirds in scoring, both putting 11 points on the board. Jessica Richardson and Jamie Smith both finished with nine, and Dari Frandsen finished with eight points and 11 rebounds for the Thunderbirds.

The Bobcats were led by Riley Nordgaard, who scored 17 points and pulled in nine rebounds. Jasmine Hommes scored 15 points for the Bobcats and Peyton Ferris put in 13.

SUU had a hard time keeping control of the ball on Saturday night, turning the ball over 26 times. However, Munns said some of that number was because of the team doing positive things.

“Some of them were good turnovers that came from hustle plays, came from transition plays that seemed to be okay,” she said. “But I think just taking care of the ball, executing what we need to do and making the safe pass, not trying to make the home run pass all time time is important.”

The Thunderbirds will head out on their final Big Sky road trip of the season next weekend, as they will take on Weber State and Idaho State on the road.