BILLINGS, Mont. – The 12th-ranked Rocky Mountain College women's basketball team went cold down the stretch and suffered a 50-42 loss to No. 15 Montana Western on Thursday night in the Fortin Education Center.
 
Rocky (21-6, 11-6 Frontier) went just 2 of 11 over the final 6:22 and was outscored 13-4. Montana Western (22-7, 12-5) trailed 32-24 with 1:45 to play in the third quarter before using a 10-0 run to take the lead with 8:11 to play.
 
Neither team found much success at the offensive end as they each shot below 30 percent on the night. The Battlin' Bears ended the night at 28.6 percent and just 2 of 9 from beyond the arc. They allowed 46 rebounds while grabbing 39 after holding the Bulldogs to 29.1 percent shooting.
 
Mikayla Jones scored 13 points and had four steals to lead Rocky. Brooke Jones added 10 points and Markaela Francis had seven points and 11 rebounds.
 
Rocky recorded nine assists – four from Hailee Farstveet – and committed nine turnovers. Western turned it over 13 points. The Battlin' Bears had a 24-18 edge in points in the paint while Western got 23 points off the bench.
 
Alexa Welch led the Bulldogs with 13 points. Britt Cooper had 10 points and 13 rebounds.
 
The win means Rocky is locked into the No. 3 seed for the Frontier Conference Tournament and they will host No. 6-seed Montana Tech in the Fortin Center on February 28. The Battlin' Bears can finish tied for second with a win on Saturday and a Montana Western loss at Carroll, but UMW holds the tiebreaker for tournament seeding.
 
Rocky will close the regular season on Saturday with a 5:30 p.m. game against Lewis-Clark State College.