BURNABY, B.C. — The Simon Fraser women's basketball team came out on the short end of the score against the best team in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference on Thursday night.
 
Yet on an evening in which the host Red Leafs (10-11, 2-6 GNAC) dropped a 74-60 decision to the undefeated, nationally-ranked Montana State Billings Yellowjackets (17-3, 8-0 GNAC), SFU may have revealed a silver lining substantial enough to give them traction and help them turn the corner on what has thus far been a frustrating first half to its conference season.
 
It's been the case all season where the Yellowjackets, ranked Nos. 6 and 7 respectively in the current NCAA Div. II national coaches and media polls, have been able to magnify the shortcomings of its opposition.
 
That's to be expected when you come into the game sitting in the top three of 19 of the GNAC's 21 individual team categories.
 
Yet any time the Red Leafs were showing their best side to the home crowd at the West Gym, they were doing it through their aggressive pressing schemes. In fact, SFU was effective enough on a few occasions to fluster the normally-composed Yellowjackets, forcing them to turn the ball over at a season-high pace.
 
"On a positive note, they don't turn the ball over and we turned them over 25 times," said SFU head coach Bruce Langford of a Billings' team which ranks in the top five nationally and came into play Thursday leading the GNAC at a stingy 11.0 turnovers per game.
 
Trailing 19-11 early in the second quarter, the Red Leafs went into a frenetic full-court press and it paid instant dividends with a three-point bucket by Myrlaine Shelvey (Langley, B.C.).
 
Then, within the chaos it was creating, Simon Fraser went on a 9-2 run over a span of just over five minutes to pull within 22-21.
 

Billings kept re-padding their cushion, but just before the half, a trey by Coquitlam, B.C.'s Grace Killins got it back to two points at 25-23. Much to the chagrin of the Red Leafs fans, however, the Jackets regained their balance and went on a 10-2 half-closing run to lead 35-25.
 
"The game had some momentum switches in the first half," admitted Billings' head coach Kevin Woodin. "But I thought after they got it to two late second quarter, we had a run to get it to 10 and that was a big part of it."
 
The Red Leafs couldn't get the deficit down to single digits in the second half until a Sophia Wisotzki (Langley, B.C.) three-pointer with 4:33 remaining made it 63-55 MSUB.
 
"They are a really good team," said the younger of the two Wisotzki sisters who kept her squad within shouting distance by scoring 11 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter.
 
"I think at times, when we were pressing, we brought a lot of energy and forced a lot of turnovers which was good," she continued. "We had those moments of greatness, but it was hard to keep those moments."
 
But measured against the GNAC's best offensive team and its best defensive team all rolled into one?
 
"That is a very good team, a wonderful team, and they have all the pieces," said Langford of MSUB, which was led by the 20 points and nine rebounds of Div. 1 Montana State transfer forward Kola Bad Bear.
 
"You leave them open and they hit shots (25-of-53, 47.2 per cent overall)," Langford continued.
 
"We want to be there at the end of games, but there are a lot of variables that took us away. They are bigger and they are solid, and so they board and they block out. (MSUB) had a dozen kids going to the boards hard.
 
"They had one-two-three-four-five-six kids that had three or more rebounds tonight," added Langford as Simon Fraser was out-rebounded 45-19 on the game.
 
"We have a good team, a lot of experience and obviously we added Kola," Jackets head coach Woodin said of the 6-foot-2 senior transfer, who will lead her Jackets into a battle of the GNAC's top two teams Saturday in Bellingham, after Western Washington (7-1) topped visiting Seattle Pacific 73-61. "We have high expectations, but we have to keep on playing."
 
Dyauni Boyce added 13 for the winners, whose balanced attack also included 11 from Kortney Nelson, nine each from Shayla Montague and Chloe Williams and eight from Danielle Zahn.
 
The Red Leafs got 17 points from Jessica Wisotzki (Langley, B.C.), and eight points, six rebounds and two steals from Gemma Cutler (North Vancouver, B.C.).
 
Simon Fraser hosts Seattle Pacific (3-5) in a 7 p.m. tip at the West Gym as the conference season reaches its midway mark. Listen to Langford and it's an understatement to call it a huge game. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/681863039707
 
"We're in trouble, we're in serious trouble," he said. "We need to put together some wins. The time is running out. This wasn't a game we were supposed to win, but we lost two games that we should have won."
 
SFU's two toughest defeats of the season were a 61-60 loss to Northwest Nazarene (4-4) and a 59-55 loss to Saint Martin's (2-6).
 
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