Baird's 20 Points Leads Lady Griz Past Eastern Washington
2/8/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Sophomore Crystal Baird scored a career-high 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the University of Montana to a 72-57 victory over Eastern Washington University Saturday night in front of 4,037 fans at Dahlberg Arena.
Baird connected on 9 of 14 shots from the field and was 2-for-3 from the free throw line to lead the Lady Griz (14-6, 5-2 Big Sky), who matched their longest winning streak of the season at four games. UM opened the season 4-0.
Baird, a center from Chino, Calif., scored 10 points in each half. Her 10 second-half points all came in the first 10 minutes of the period as the Lady Griz opened up a 14-point lead. Leading 31-28 at halftime, Montana outscored Eastern Washington (12-8, 3-4 Big Sky) 9-5 to start the half and take a 40-33 lead. Baird sank two baskets, while fellow post player Hollie Tyler had a basket and three free throws during the stretch.
After EWU cut it to 40-35, Montana scored nine straight points, six from Baird, to take its largest lead of the game at 49-35 with 10:20 to play in the game.
The Eagles countered with back-to-back 3-pointers from Stephanie Ulmer to pull within eight points at 49-41, but Katie Edwards answered with a trey of her own to push the lead back to 11 at 52-41 with 9 minutes left.
Moments later, EWU's Michelle Demetruk was whistled for a foul and then a technical foul on UM's Lynsey Monaco. Edwards made both technical free throws, and Jill Henkel made the two personal foul shots for Monaco, who was shaken up on the play. That gave Montana a 56-43 lead with 8:20 remaining.
Eastern Washington made one final run. Trailining 58-45, the Eagles ran off five straight points to close the gap to 58-50, but Tyler knocked down a pair of jumpers and Brooklynn Lorenzen added two free throws to push the lead back to 14, 64-50, with 2:22 on the clock.
"It was a hard-fought battle," UM head coach Robin Selvig said. "Their pressure and physical defense caused a lot of turnovers in the first half, but we did a much better job in the second half just being strong with the basketball."
Selvig also praised the Lady Griz defense, which held an opponent to less than 60 points for the fourth straight game and the sixth time in seven outings.
"I thought we defended well the whole game," Selvig said. "We got up on them, but then Ulmer hits those back-to-back threes. Fortunately we were scoring pretty well ourselves at the time."
Edwards and Tyler joined Baird in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. Tyler also grabbed seven rebounds and had five blocks, moving her into 11th place on the career blocked shots chart with 92.
Montana will be on the road next week for two critical league games. The Lady Griz will be at Weber State on Thursday before traveling to Idaho State on Saturday.
Baird connected on 9 of 14 shots from the field and was 2-for-3 from the free throw line to lead the Lady Griz (14-6, 5-2 Big Sky), who matched their longest winning streak of the season at four games. UM opened the season 4-0.
Baird, a center from Chino, Calif., scored 10 points in each half. Her 10 second-half points all came in the first 10 minutes of the period as the Lady Griz opened up a 14-point lead. Leading 31-28 at halftime, Montana outscored Eastern Washington (12-8, 3-4 Big Sky) 9-5 to start the half and take a 40-33 lead. Baird sank two baskets, while fellow post player Hollie Tyler had a basket and three free throws during the stretch.
After EWU cut it to 40-35, Montana scored nine straight points, six from Baird, to take its largest lead of the game at 49-35 with 10:20 to play in the game.
The Eagles countered with back-to-back 3-pointers from Stephanie Ulmer to pull within eight points at 49-41, but Katie Edwards answered with a trey of her own to push the lead back to 11 at 52-41 with 9 minutes left.
Moments later, EWU's Michelle Demetruk was whistled for a foul and then a technical foul on UM's Lynsey Monaco. Edwards made both technical free throws, and Jill Henkel made the two personal foul shots for Monaco, who was shaken up on the play. That gave Montana a 56-43 lead with 8:20 remaining.
Eastern Washington made one final run. Trailining 58-45, the Eagles ran off five straight points to close the gap to 58-50, but Tyler knocked down a pair of jumpers and Brooklynn Lorenzen added two free throws to push the lead back to 14, 64-50, with 2:22 on the clock.
"It was a hard-fought battle," UM head coach Robin Selvig said. "Their pressure and physical defense caused a lot of turnovers in the first half, but we did a much better job in the second half just being strong with the basketball."
Selvig also praised the Lady Griz defense, which held an opponent to less than 60 points for the fourth straight game and the sixth time in seven outings.
"I thought we defended well the whole game," Selvig said. "We got up on them, but then Ulmer hits those back-to-back threes. Fortunately we were scoring pretty well ourselves at the time."
Edwards and Tyler joined Baird in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. Tyler also grabbed seven rebounds and had five blocks, moving her into 11th place on the career blocked shots chart with 92.
Montana will be on the road next week for two critical league games. The Lady Griz will be at Weber State on Thursday before traveling to Idaho State on Saturday.
Thursday, June 04
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