Montana, Pittsburgh to meet in NCAAs
3/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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The University of Montana was awarded a No. 13 seed and will face No. 4 University of Pittsburgh Saturday in Seattle, Wash., in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Women???s Basketball Championship. The teams will tip off at 6 p.m. (MT) at the University of Washington???s Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
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Montana and Pittsburgh are part of the Oklahoma City Region. No. 5 Xavier and No. 12 Gonzaga will meet at the same site 30 minutes following the Lady Griz-Panthers game on Saturday night. The two winners from Saturday night???s games will meet Monday at 7:30 p.m. (MT).
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How they got here: Montana (28-4) earned the Big Sky Conference???s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by winning the Big Sky tournament title at Missoula, Mont., last weekend with a 70-56 semifinal victory over Idaho State and a 69-62 championship game victory over Portland State.
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Pittsburgh (23-7) earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Panthers went 12-4 to finish third in the Big East Conference, then lost in the semifinals of the Big East tournament to Louisville, 69-63.
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Media: The Montana-Pittsburgh game will be one of a handful of games being broadcast on ESPN2 during that time slot Saturday night. ESPN and ESPN2 will broadcast all 48 games of the first and second rounds in a whip-around format, while allowing for home market protection.
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Dave Pasch will handle play-by-play duties for the ESPN2 broadcast. Krista Blunk will provide the color commentary.
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The game will be aired locally on KENR 107.5 FM, with Tom Stage and Dick Slater on the broadcast. The game will also be streamed through the station???s website (energy1075.com).
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Tournament resumes: Montana is making its 18th NCAA tournament appearance and second straight. The Lady Griz have gone 6-17 in their previous 17 NCAA appearances.
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Montana, as a No. 12 seed, upset No. 5 San Diego State, 57-46, in San Diego, Calif., in a first-round game at the 1995 tournament. The Lady Griz fell to No. 4 Purdue, 62-51, in the second round that tournament, and have dropped seven straight first-round games since while being seeded from No. 9 to No. 16.
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No. 13 Montana lost to No. 4 Vanderbilt last year, 75-47, in a first-round game in Albuquerque, N.M.
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Pittsburgh, which is ranked No. 16 in this week???s USA Today/ESPN coaches??? poll, is making its third NCAA appearance, all coming in the last three years.
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The Panthers went 1-1 at the 2007 tournament as a No. 8 seed, then made it to the round of 16 as a No. 6 seed last year, with first- and second-round victories over No. 11 Wyoming, 63-58, and No. 3 Baylor, 67-59. Pitt fell in the region semifinals to No. 2 Stanford, 72-53.
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Headliners: Montana is coached by Robin Selvig, who is in his 31st season with the Lady Griz. He has a career record of 725-203 (.781) and has taken Montana to all 18 of its NCAA tournaments. In 31 years he has 27 20-win seasons and 22 regular-season conference championships.
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Lady Griz senior Mandy Morales, a three-time honorable mention WBCA All-American and four-time first team All-Big Sky Conference selection, averages 17.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. She led the Big Sky Conference in scoring and ranked in the top 10 in six other categories. Earlier this season Morales became the first player in Big Sky Conference history to amass 1,500 career points and 500 career assists.
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Pittsburgh coach Agnus Berenato is in her sixth season with the Panthers after spending 15 seasons at Georgia Tech. She has a record of 112-73 at Pittsburgh and a career record of 395-337. Berenato has coached Pitt to four straight national tournaments: the WNIT in 2005-06, followed by the last three NCAA tournaments and four straight 20-win seasons.
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Senior guard Shavonte Zellous leads Pittsburgh and ranks seventh nationally at 22.5 points per game, having scored more than twice as many points as any other Panther player. She leads the team in assists (3.0/g), has made 54 3-pointers and has attempted 235 free throws, an average of nearly eight attempts per game. The three-time first team All-Big East selection has scored 2,178 career points.
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Quality losses: Montana and Pittsburgh have combined to lose 11 games this season. Nine of those losses came to teams playing in the NCAA tournament, while one loss came to a WNIT selection.
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Three of the four teams the Lady Griz lost to this season are in the tournament. Maryland, which defeated Montana 71-58 in Cancun, Mexico, is the No. 1 seed in the Raleigh Region. South Dakota State, which topped the Lady Griz 64-59, also in Cancun, is the No. 7 seed in the Raleigh Region. Gonzaga, which handed Montana its only home loss of the season, 69-63, is the No. 12 seed in the Oklahoma City Region.
Montana also lost to Portland State, which opens play in the WNIT Thursday.
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Pittsburgh has losses to Connecticut (a No. 1 seed), Texas A&M (2), Louisville twice (3), DePaul (7) and Florida (8). The Panthers??? other loss came to Providence, which finished the season 10-20.
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Montana does not have any wins over NCAA tournament-bound teams while Pittsburgh has five.
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What they???re good at: Montana ranks fifth nationally in field goal percentage defense (.344) and eighth in turnovers (13.6/g).
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Pittsburgh ranks seventh nationally in rebounding margin (+8.7/g) and 11th in blocked shots (5.7/g).
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More on the Panthers: Pittsburgh, which will enter the tournament coming off an 11-day break after last playing March 9, went 22-6 through the regular season and finished third in the Big East Conference at 12-4 behind Connecticut and Louisville. The Panthers defeated DePaul, which handed Pitt its only home loss of the season, 62-59 in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament before falling to Louisville for the second time in 10 days in the semifinals, 69-63.
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Pittsburgh is shooting 42.4 percent for the season and averaging 74.1 points per game. (Montana is allowing 34.4 percent shooting and 55.2 points per game.)
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Senior guard Xenia Stewart is Pitt???s other double-figure scorer at 11.1 points per game. Sophomore guard Shayla Scott averages a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game.
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In their lone common opponent with Montana, the Panthers handed Maryland one of its four losses on the season, 86-57 in early December at Pittsburgh.
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Morales caps career week: Mandy Morales was named the 2009 Big Sky Conference MVP last Tuesday after leading the Lady Griz to the Big Sky regular-season title with a 15-1 league mark. Morales was also voted the Big Sky MVP as a sophomore in 2006-07.
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Morales doubled up Saturday night when she was named the Big Sky Conference tournament MVP after leading the Lady Griz to their second straight tournament championship. She was also MVP of the 2008 Big Sky tournament.
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Valuing their opportunities: In last week???s Big Sky Conference tournament, Montana went 43-for-49 (.878) from the line and turned the ball over 17 times in two victories.
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Coming through down the stretch: In Montana???s victories over Idaho State and Portland State last weekend, the Lady Griz played their best basketball late in the contest to pull out two games that hung in the balance until the final minutes.
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Montana led the Bengals by two with less than three minutes to play but outscored ISU 18-6 down the stretch and went 12-for-12 from the foul line in the final two minutes.
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The Lady Griz trailed the Vikings by one with just over five minutes remaining, but Montana held PSU to two points over a critical three-minute stretch that allowed the Lady Griz to take an eight-point lead with two and a half minutes remaining. Portland State got no closer than two possessions the rest of the way.
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Morales close to 2,000: With 48 points in two Big Sky Conference tournament games, Mandy Morales upped her career scoring total to 1,948 to move within 52 of 2,000 for her career. Only four Montana collegiate players have scored at least 2,000 points in their careers: Montana-Western???s Bobbie Suhr (2,200 points from 1999-2003), Montana???s Shannon Cate (2,172 points from 1989-92), Carroll???s Jolene Fuzesy (2,062 points from 2004-07) and MSU Billings??? Alira Carpenter (2,000 points from 2006-09).
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Lady Griz notes: Of coach Robin Selvig???s 31 teams, his five best free throw shooting teams have been his last five: 2008, 77.6 percent; 2007, 76.5; 2006, 75.5; 2005, 75.2; 2009, 74.8. ... With 23 points last Saturday, Mandy Morales recorded her 100th double-figure scoring game in 112 career games played. ... Montana ???s 28 wins match the program record set by the 1987-88 Lady Griz team. ... Sonya Rogers will play in her 124th game against Pittsburgh, matching Marti Leibenguth???s program record for career games played. ... Morales and Rogers have played all but eight seconds of Montana???s last three games. ... Sarah Ena has recorded double-doubles in four of UM???s last five games. ... Montana???s 69 points in Saturday???s victory over Portland State broke a string of eight-straight 70-point games. ... The Lady Griz have grabbed 57 more rebounds than their opponents the last six games, an average of 9.5 per game. ... Montana has not been outscored by an opponent over its last 19 halves.
