BILLINGS, Mont.—Outscoring the home team 34-15 in the fourth quarter, Western Oregon University defeated Montana State Billings, 77-65, in GNAC women's basketball action on Saturday night.

With the win, Western Oregon improved to 11-13 on the season and 7-11 in GNAC play to jump into a three-way tie for seventh place in the conference standings. MSU Billings fell to 18-10 overall and 11-7 in league contests.

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Wolves remain one game back of the sixth and final GNAC Tournament playoff spot. Resting in fourth place in the conference standings, MSUB has clinched a position in the postseason tournament.

"I'm really proud of our team tonight, especially the seniors. They played with a sense of urgency.  This is a great win for them but also our program. When we lock in like we did tonight, we can play with anyone," WOU head coach Holli Howard-Carpenter said. "Billings is a solid team that doesn't make a lot of mistakes and they made us earn everything tonight. (Alisha) Breen and (Rylee) Kane are extremely talented senior leaders and they competed hard tonight."

WOU will close out the regular season at Seattle Pacific on Thursday, Feb. 22 and at Saint Martin's on Saturday, Feb. 24.

The Wolves carried a slim lead for the majority of the first half before the Yellowjackets got hot to start the third quarter. Once down by as many as nine points in the first half, MSUB outscored the Wolves 20-11 in the third quarter to erase the deficit.

WOU, however, owned the final quarter. After a Savanah Heugly layup, Sydny Azorr connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to help the Wolves regain the lead less than 90 seconds into the final period.

Playing once again with the lead, WOU used aggressive attacks to earn trips to the free throw line. Converting 14-of-15 from the stripe in the fourth, the tactic allowed the lead to swell to double digits (64-54) with 2:09 remaining before closing out the 12-point win.  

WOU's Shelby Snook ended the night with 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Snook added 3-of-6 from distance and was a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. Azorr finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds for a 'double-double'. The rebound total was one shy of a career high for Azorr.

Despite not scoring, Kaylie Boschma, made a significant impact on the game as the junior landed a career-high and game-high 12 rebounds.

WOU received additional scoring from Keyonna Jones (7 points), Jasmine Miller (7 points), Natalie DeLonge (6 points) and Taisha Thomas (4 points).

"With a short bench, we needed every single person to step up and be solid and they did just that. Shelby was aggressive to the rim, Syd knocked down some key 3s that really gave us some momentum in the third quarter," Howard-Carpenter said. "Sav and Jas got on the glass offensively while Kaylie cleaned up on the defensive end. It was also nice to Have Nat back in the line-up, her and Tai gave us some good minutes as well."