Shorthanded Lady Griz fall by two
1/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
The University of Montana women???s basketball team dropped its second tight game in as many nights Saturday, losing at Portland State in Portland, Ore., 49-47. The Lady Griz lost a 67-64 overtime decision at Eastern Washington Friday night.
Montana, which was playing without freshman Katie Baker, the team???s leading scorer and rebounder who was injured late in Friday???s game, took a 47-46 lead with 2:13 remaining on a three-point play by freshman Kenzie De Boer, but the Lady Griz would turn the ball over three times in the final 1:07.
PSU???s Erin Yankus hit a pair of free throws with 1:17 to play to give the Vikings the lead for good, then Kelly Marchant hit one of two free throws with seven seconds remaining for the final point of the game.
With a chance to tie or take the lead, Montana turned the ball for the 21st time in the game with two seconds remaining.
Montana fell to 7-9 overall and dropped to 2-2 in Big Sky Conference play.
Portland State remained atop the league standings with Eastern Washington at 3-0. The Vikings improved to 9-7 overall.
EWU (9-6, 3-0 BSC) also stayed perfect in Big Sky play with a 69-63 home-court victory over Montana State (8-9, 1-3 BSC) Saturday.
In other league action Saturday night, Northern Arizona (3-13, 1-2 BSC) won at the buzzer at Weber State (7-10, 1-3 BSC), 63-62, while Idaho State (8-9, 3-1 BSC) won at home over Northern Colorado (8-8, 1-2 BSC), 74-65.
The Lady Griz trailed by four at the break, 29-25, then limited the Vikings to 22.7 percent shooting in the second half, but turned the ball over 13 times in the second half, including five in the final four minutes.
???We???re missing one heck of a cog in our team, but the ladies picked up the slack in Katie???s absence,??? Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig said after the game on KENR 107.5 FM. ???It was a good effort. A lot of kids played well.
???We had another outstanding chance to win against a good team on the road. We just defended the heck out of them. We held them in the 40s at their place, so that???s a pretty good effort.
???We shot better tonight. The only statistical thing we didn???t do very well was we had too many turnovers, and some costly ones at the end when we didn???t get a shot up. You can???t rebound it and put it back up if you don???t shoot it.???
Despite being down to 10 available players, Montana didn???t let the pre-season Big Sky Conference favorites get out of reach.
The Vikings opened up a seven-point lead midway through the first half, 18-11, on a 3-pointer by Eryn Jones.
Montana responded with eight straight points, the last four by junior Sarah Ena, to retake the lead, 19-18, with 4:41 to play.
A jumper by Katy Wade in the final minute gave the Vikings their 29-25 halftime lead.
Jones, who would go 3-for-7 from 3-point range on the night, hit a trey early in the second half to put Portland State back up by seven, 38-31.
Again Montana answered, scoring 11 straight points to take its largest lead of the game, 42-38.
The Lady Griz held the Vikings scoreless for nearly nine minutes during the run, forcing PSU into five turnovers and 0-for-8 shooting.
Kelli Valentine, who would finish with 11 points before fouling out, scored the game???s next six points to put Portland State back on top, 44-42, with 4:34 to play.
With Montana trailing 46-44 with just over two minutes remaining, De Boer gave the Lady Griz their final lead of the game when she executed a change-of-pace move on PSU point guard Claire Faucher in transition. De Boer converted the layup and turned the Faucher foul into a three-point play, putting Montana up 47-46.
De Boer stripped Faucher on the Vikings??? next possession, but Montana missed an opportunity to extend its lead when junior Jessa Loman Linford missed a turnaround jumper in the paint with 1:40 remaining.
Yankus???s two free throws with 1:17 to play made it 48-47.
Montana turned the ball over on its next possession, but got the ball back when Kelly Marchant missed a jumper with 38 seconds left.
Senior Lauren Beck???s jumper with 15 seconds remaining was blocked out of bounds by Wade, and Montana could not get a shot off with the shot clock running down on the ensuing inbounds pass, giving the ball back to Portland State with nine seconds left.
Marchant was fouled and hit one of two free throws with seven seconds left. On Montana???s last rush up the court, Faucher stripped De Boer with two seconds left.
Faucher was immediately fouled. She missed both free throw attempts, but the Lady Griz could not get a final shot off after grabbing the rebound.
After going 1-for-11 at Eastern Washington Friday, Beck came up big Saturday, hitting 6-of-10 shots, grabbing a game-high seven rebounds and picking off three steals.
???Lauren bounced back with a big game after not being able to make a shot last night,??? Selvig said, ???so I was happy for her and happy for us. We need to have someone that can make some shots.???
Ena added 11 points. De Boer came off the bench to add eight points and three steals.
Valentine and Jones each had 11 points for the Vikings. Faucher, the team???s leading scorer, was limited to three points on 1-of-9 shooting, but added a game-high seven assists.
Montana shot better than 42 percent in both halves to finish at 43.6 percent for the game. The Lady Griz also finished with a 30-28 rebounding advantage, out-boarding PSU 21-12 in the second half.
After shooting 48.0 percent in the first half, Portland State scored just 20 second-half points on 5-of-22 shooting. The Vikings finished at 36.2 percent for the game.
Montana will host Sacramento State (4-10, 0-2 BSC) next Friday night at 7 p.m.
