Billings, Mont. – Senior Alyssa Alvarez made the go-ahead layup with seventeen seconds to go, and the Firestorm women's basketball team won for the second time in as many games, and in the same fashion, using a dominant fourth quarter to come from behind and beat a top 25 team on the road.
 
Head Coach Rusty Rogers said, "Again, if felt like our experience really paid dividends tonight.  When we needed to make a play on either side of the court, we did it.  This group is battle-tested, and it shows!"
 
Unlike two nights before, the Firestorm Ladies came out in the first quarter firing on all cylinders.  Alvarez scored half of her twenty points in the first period including going 2-2 from three-point range.  Senior Graciela Roybal chipped in five points as well including a three pointer of her own, and the team ended the first quarter up by three points.  After the hot start though, both teams found the basket hard to find in the second quarter, and both shot under thirty percent.  By halftime Rocky Mountain had inched closer and narrowed the Firestorm lead to just two points.
 
While the Firestorm cold spell continued into the third quarter, Rocky Mountain found their shooting touch and outscored the Firestorm by seven points to take a five-point lead into the fourth quarter.  But just like their opener, the Firestorm proved to be at its best with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.  Eight different players scored, and the team proved particularly clutch at the free throw line, hitting 10-12 free throws in the period.
 
Bench points and points off turnovers proved to be telling statistics for the team.  Coming off the bench, Freshman Alana Washington chipped in seven points and two steals, Junior Lauren Gunn chipped in five points, and sophomore Shaylynn De Yager scored four points.  And while starting post Emily Till struggled from the field tonight, she still made winning plays throughout the game, pulling down twelve rebounds, making  three steals, a block, and four assists, including the assist which led to the game winning layup by Alvarez.
 
Off to a fast start, but with a lot of games yet to play, Head Coach Rogers praised his teams play on the road start off the season, "To come out to Montana and play two nationally ranked top-20 teams and go away 2-0 is pretty cool. This puts us in a really good position, but obviously, we are very from the finish line!"
 
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