Sports

Buchanan's 28 points helps UAA women's basketball team take down Billings

Jenna Buchanan's hot hand cooled off Montana State-Billings in a battle for conference supremacy Saturday night.

The UAA women's basketball team, ranked second in NCAA Division II, rode Buchanan's 28 points to an 85-73 win in a showdown between league leaders in Billings.

With the win, the Seawolves (24-1 overall, 11-1 conference) took sole ownership of first place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Billings (14-6, 10-2) slipped to second place.

Buchanan equaled her career-high by burying 6 of 9 shots from 3-point range and 7 of 15 overall. She was 8 of 8 from the foul line.

The 5-foot-8 senior guard from Galena hit two huge 3-pointers with less than six minutes left to diffuse a Yellowjackets rally.

Down by as many as 15 points in the second half, Billings cut the deficit to three, 61-58, with 5:53 remaining.

The Seawolves responded with five quick points, starting with a Megan Mullings layup. Mullings was fouled on the shot, missed the free throws, and Alysha Devine came down with the rebound. The Seawolves got the ball to Buchanan, who drilled a triple for a 66-58 lead.

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Twenty seconds and a Billings free throw later, Buchanan struck again to make it 69-59.

"Jenna hit some very timely 3s for us tonight so that was big, because Billings is a hard place to win," UAA coach Ryan McCarthy said. "When she gets confident, she's one of those players who can get in a zone and put up a bunch of points in a hurry.

"I thought her teammates did a good job of carrying out possessions until she got open."

Mullings scored 19 points despite spending several minutes on the bench with foul trouble and Devine was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field for 17 points to go with a team-high nine rebounds. Buchanan added seven rebounds and Mullings had six rebounds and four blocks. Kiki Robertson chipped in seven points, six assists and six rebounds.

Five players scored in double figures for the Yellowjackets, a group led by Marissa Van Atta, who had team highs of 17 points and seven rebounds.

The Seawolves sank 21 of 29 free throws, including 12 of 15 in the final 3:03. Buchanan knocked down 6 of 6 free throws during that stretch.

UAA is back on the road this week for two conference games – Thursday at Concordia and Saturday at Western Oregon.

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