Lady Griz survive, win fourth straight
1/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The University of Montana women???s basketball team won its fourth straight game Saturday night, pulling out tight 54-48 decision over Northern Arizona at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula, Mont. Held to 38 points through the game???s first 34 minutes by an aggressive Lumberjacks defense, the Lady Griz closed the game on a 16-5 run in the final six minutes to win for the 59th time at Dahlberg Arena in 62 games since the start of the 2006-07 season.
The win moved Montana to 11-9 overall and put the Lady Griz a game out of first place in the Big Sky Conference standings at 6-2 at the midway point of the conference schedule.
Eastern Washington, which lost its first league game at Portland State Saturday afternoon, 67-60, is 7-1 in Big Sky play, 13-7 overall. Montana and PSU (12-9, 6-2 BSC), the preseason favorites, lurk a game back.
Every other team in the conference has at least four losses at the midway point.
Junior Sarah Ena led Montana in scoring for the second straight night with 17 points.
Senior Lauren Beck played all 40 minutes and seemed to be involved in the game???s every play. She finished with 15 points, six rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocked shots.
With Montana???s other three starters adding just six points, the Lady Griz got 18 important points off the bench.
Senior Shadra Robison scored seven points, all in the second half, and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.
Freshman Kenzie De Boer added six points on a pair of 3-pointers and six rebounds. De Boer???s second 3-pointer put Montana up four, 47-43, with 2:50 to play, the team???s largest lead of the game to that point, and capped a 9-0 run that sprung the Lady Griz to victory.
Amy Patton, the Big Sky Conference???s leading scorer and rebounder, led Northern Arizona with 17 points and six rebounds but shot just 7-for-21 from the field and 3-for-12 from 3-point range.
Patton scored 13 points in the first half, including five in the opening four minutes that gave the Lumberjacks an early 7-0 lead.
The Lady Griz missed their first five shots but found enough offense to take their first lead of the game, 10-9, on De Boer???s other 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 11:18 mark.
Neither team held more than a two-point lead over the next 10 minutes until Caty Huntington and Patton connected on 3-pointers in the final 1:37 to send the Lumberjacks to the locker room with a 27-21 lead.
It was the fifth time in eight conference games Montana has trailed at the break.
Northern Arizona maintained its lead through the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Robison rattled in the second 3-point shot of her career from the top of the key at the 9:51 mark to tie the score at 36, but Huntington knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Lumberjacks the lead back.
A steal by Patton and her driving transition layup at the 6:16 mark put Northern Arizona up five, 43-38.
The Lumberjacks would only score five more points, going 2-for-11 from the field the final five and a half minutes.
Junior Jessa Loman Linford and Ena knocked down jumpers in the paint, both off of Beck assists, and Beck gave Montana the lead for good when she hit her own mid-range jumper at the 3:37 mark to make it 44-43.
After Patton missed on the other end, De Boer hit her 3-pointer from the right corner that made it 47-43.
Montana scored its last seven points from the line in the final two minutes as the Lumberjacks struggled to get good looks on the offensive end with the upset still within reach.
The Lady Griz attempted just 48 shots, their second-lowest total of the season, but used their physical play to get to the line 14 times, where they out-scored NAU by 10.
Montana shot 45.8 percent in the second half after shooting 33.3 percent in the first half to finish at 39.6 percent for the game.
Northern Arizona, which was forced to rely heavily on the 3-point shot against a tough Montana defense, finished at 31.7 percent. The Lumberjacks took exactly half their shots from beyond the arc, going 8-for-30 (.267) from 3-point range.
Montana begins the second half of its Big Sky Conference schedule, which will have the Lady Griz playing on the road five times in eight games, next weekend at Weber State and Idaho State. Montana will face the Wildcats (7-14, 1-7 BSC) Friday at 7 p.m. in Ogden, Utah, and the Bengals (9-12, 4-4 BSC) Saturday at 7 p.m. in Pocatello, Idaho.
