BILLINGS, Mont. – After 16 days without a game, the Seattle Pacific Falcons were more than eager to get back onto the court.
 
However, that wasn't nearly enough to put another tally mark into the win column..
 
Kaprice Boston and Rachel Berg scored nine points apiece on Saturday, but Montana State Billings racked up 29 points in the third quarter, pulling away for an 81-55 Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball victory in Alterowitz Gymnasium.
 
SPU hadn't played since a 66-64 overtime victory against Simon Fraser on Jan. 6 in Seattle. The home game against Western Washington on Jan. 8 and last week's road games at Saint Martin's and Western Oregon were all postponed for health and safety reasons.
 
"We don't want to make any excuses at all, but we had a long break where we didn't touch a basketball for a week," head coach Mike Simonson said. "It was really hard to knock the rust off."
 
The Falcons (7-8, 3-2 GNAC) were without the services of senior guard / forward Ashley Alter, who averages a team-high 12.1 points per game, along with 4.0 rebounds, and often draws one of the toughest defensive assignments. She was out with an illness.
 
Billings (11-8, 5-2 GNAC), coming off a 72-48 road rout of national No. 8-ranked Alaska Anchorage on Monday, now has won three straight and halted Seattle Pacific's winning streak at three. The Yellowjackets had the most points (81) and highest field goal shooting percentage (47.5 percent, 29 of 61) of any Falcons opponent this season.
 
"Playing defense that poorly will not win GNAC games," Simonson said. "Going into the game, we talked about how you must take your defense on the road in conference games. And we did not do that. We left our defense in Seattle."
 
BACK IN A BIG WAY
Senior guard Berg saw her first action since playing in the finale of last winter's abbreviated schedule on March 6. Recovered from an injury, she came into Saturday's game with 6:40 left in the first quarter. On her first shot, coming just 37 seconds later, she buried a 3-pointer to cap a 7-0 Falcons scoring run after the Yellowjackets scored the first five points of the game.
 
"I'm so proud of Rachel. To come back from a devastating injury six months ago and go shoot 3 for 5 from 3, and just one turnover, I'm proud of all the work she has put in," Simonson said. "And coming back and playing 26 minutes – wow."
 
That 7-5 score Seattle Pacific's first lead of the day. The Falcons went ahead once more, at 10-8 on a second-chance 3-pointer by sophomore Anna Eddy with 2:43 to go in the quarter. But in that final 2:43, Montana State Billings went on an 11-2 run to go up, 19-12.
 
SPU got as close as three at 28-25 late in the second quarter. The Jackets took a 34-29 lead into the locker room, then broke the game open in the first five minutes of the third. They hit their first five shots, one of which resulted in a four-point play by Shayla Montague (a made 3 and ensuing free throw) to take a double-digit advantage at 47-33 that gradually kept growing.
 
 

"First half, I did think we were scratching and clawing, and we were right there at halftime," Simonson said. "We felt good about the position we were in. Then the third quarter, it just did not go our way. Some of the 3s they had, they got a lot of great bounces, some banked-in 3s, and some runners at the end of the shot clock."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Rachel Berg's official playing time in her first game back was a team-leading 26 minutes, 36 seconds.
-- Kaprice Boston had a team-high eight rebounds to go along with her nine points.
-- SPU hit a season-low 32.8 percent from the field (19 of 58).
-- Billings' overall 47.5 accuracy from the field included 52 percent (13 of 25). That included perfect 3-of-3 days from Kortney Nelson and Aspen Giese.
-- Cariann Kunkel and Danielle Zahn led MSUB with 15 points each.
-- The Falcons and Yellowjackets are the top two teams in the GNAC at taking care of the ball, and Saturday was no exception. SPU had just 12 turnovers (its average was 15.9 coming in), and MSUB had just five (12.9). The Jackets didn't turn it over at all during the first half.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons return home for three games this coming week. Alaska Fairbanks visits on Thursday, Jan. 27, at 7:30 p.m. Then it's back-to-back contests against current No. 8-ranked Alaska Anchorage on Saturday the 29th and Sunday the 30th. Both tip of at 2:00 p.m. The Sunday game is a make-up of the contest that was originally scheduled for Dec. 30 in Anchorage, but was postponed for health and safety reasons.
 

RECORDS
Seattle Pacific 7-8, 3-2 GNAC
Montana State Billings 11-8, 5-2 GNAC