AZUSA, Calif. >> Hawaii Pacific’s inadvertent formula for success in women’s basketball this season — fall behind early, then rally behind defense late — became insufficient in Friday’s first round of the NCAA Division II West Regionals.

A 12-point deficit in the second quarter proved too large for the second-seeded Sharks to surmount, so seventh-seeded Montana State-Billings advanced to today’s semifinals with a 76-65 victory at Azusa Pacific’s Felix Events Center.

Samantha Lambrigtsen led all scorers with a career-high 22 points as HPU (26-4) finished with school records for victories and winning percentage, and received its best national ranking ever in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association poll, 19th this week.

But the pain of an unfulfilled quest brought Lambrigtsen to tears.

“Our preseason is nothing like I’ve ever experienced — beach workouts at 6 a.m., mile runs,” said Lambrigtsen, a redshirt junior from Loyola of Chicago. “We said at the beginning that’s we wanted…”

Lambrigtsen’s emotions prevented her from continuing, so teammate Spencer Gray finished her thought.

“We wanted to make a run,” said Gray, who had nine points, nine rebounds and four assists. “We worked hard to get in this situation. We learned that it’s mental. You can get through anything.”

Montana State-Billings (23-11), which finished fourth at 12-8 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, earned its fifth consecutive win. The Yellowjackets defeated three teams in three days — including co-champion Northwest Nazarene — last weekend to win the GNAC tournament and qualify automatically for the NCAA tournament.

“We had a lot of momentum from last week,” Billings coach Kevin Woodin said, “and we’re playing with a lot of confidence.”

The last four victories in that streak came against teams who won all five of their previous meetings this season against the Yellowjackets.

“I think when we lose to teams like that, it just gives us motivation,” Billings guard Rylee Kane said. “I think that’s actually helped us out. Our mind-set is just to be the aggressor and to show that we’re better than maybe (opponents) think we are.”

That mind-set enabled the Yellowjackets to take early control. After HPU’s Gabriella Fotu scored the game’s first basket, Kane scored six points during an 8-2 spree that put Montana State-Billings ahead, 8-4, with 3:40 gone.

“Billings started off super strong against us,” Lambrigtsen said. “They were attacking us every chance they got. They were going hard to the rim, going through us. They didn’t care about contact or anything.”

The teams were tied 14-all after the first quarter but the Yellowjackets moved ahead, 20-14, when Vanessa Stavish and Taylor Cunningham made a pair of 3-point shots within 41 seconds to begin the second quarter. Montana State-Billings hit five of eight shots from beyond the arc in that period.

Meanwhile, the Yellowjackets held HPU to only four points — and one basket — in the first 5:16 of the second quarter before building a 32-20 advantage with 3:50 before halftime.

But in the third period, the Sharks ignited their defense. HPU forced Billings to miss 10 of 15 shots from the floor and to commit eight turnovers that the Sharks turned into eight points. As a result, HPU drew within four points on four occasions, the last time at 46-42 with 2:23 left in the quarter.

Then the sleeping giant awoke.

Alisha Breen, the GNAC’s player of the year and the nation’s 10th-leading scorer at 21.3 points who had just two points in the first 27 minutes, accumulated 16 points in the final quarter. She finished with 21 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Kane added 19 points.

When the teams first met Dec. 19 in Honolulu, HPU emerged with a 79-52 rout.

“That was the third game in four days in Hawaii,” Woodin said. “It was at 8 a.m. — and we had to get our luau in. It looked like we were still at the luau that morning. That was really hard to watch for us as coaches and players.”

“They have a bunch of seniors and they played like they wanted to keep going,” HPU coach Reid Takatsuka said. “They just played with a sense of urgency. They didn’t want their season to end.”