Lady Griz hoping to continue late-season roll
3/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Coming off a two-game road sweep that earned the Lady Griz a second-place tie in the final regular-season Big Sky Conference standings, the University of Montana women???s basketball team will take the No. 2 seed and a bye to the semifinal round into this week???s six-team Big Sky Conference tournament.
The three-day tournament, which is being hosted by regular-season champion Eastern Washington in Cheney, Wash., will open Thursday with a pair of quarterfinal games. Semifinal games follow on Friday, with the championship game Saturday.
Tournament schedule (all times Pacific):
Thursday, March 11
3:30 p.m. :: No. 3 Sacramento State (15-14, 10-6 BSC) vs. No. 6 Montana State (16-13, 9-7 BSC)
6:00 p.m. :: No. 4 Idaho State (15-14, 10-6 BSC) vs. No. 5 Portland State (15-14, 9-7 BSC)
Friday, March 12
3:30 p.m. :: No. 2 Montana (15-13, 10-6 BSC) vs. highest remaining seed
6:00 p.m. :: No. 1 Eastern Washington (19-10, 12-4 BSC) vs. lowest remaining seed
Saturday, March 13
2:00 p.m. :: Championship game
Wide-open tournament field: At 12-4 in Big Sky Conference games, Eastern Washington finished clear of the field by two games. The other five teams in the tournament all finished either 10-6 or 9-7.
How topsy-turvy were the standings? The No. 6 seed, Montana State, swept the No. 3 seed, Sacramento State, during the regular season. The No. 5 seed, Portland State, the preseason favorite which could have earned the No. 2 seed with a win Saturday at Eastern Washington, swept the No. 2 seed, Montana.
Eastern Washington was the only team in the tournament field that was not swept by a Big Sky opponent during the regular season, which went a long way toward giving the Eagles the outright title and home-court advantage for the tournament.
???With almost everyone seeming to have a win over everyone else in the league, I don???t know how anyone wouldn???t be looking at it as having a good shot (at winning the tournament),??? Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig said.
???And not only were there not a lot of differences in wins and losses between the teams, there were a ton of close games. Almost every team could look at it and pick about four games and wonder what could have been if they???d pulled them out.
???That???s where you have to give credit to Eastern, because they did pull them out.???
How they got there: At 12-4 Eastern Washington won the regular-season title by two games and earned hosting rights.
Montana, Sacramento State and Idaho State all went 10-6 in league, but the Lady Griz earned the No. 2 seed by going 3-1 against the Hornets and Bengals. Sac State went 2-2 against the tied teams to earn the No. 3 seed, while ISU went 1-3 and gets the No. 4 seed.
Portland State and Montana State both went 9-7 and both won their head-to-head meetings on their home courts. The Vikings got the No. 5 seed and the Bobcats the No. 6 seed due to PSU???s series split with Eastern Washington and MSU???s 0-2 record against the Eagles.
Media: All five games at this week???s tournament will be available free of charge on Big Sky TV (b2tv.com). Live stats for all five games will be available through Eastern Washington???s athletics website (goeags.com).
Saturday???s championship game will be aired on Altitude Sports and Entertainment, with Jeff Friedman and Jaynee Nadolski on the broadcast.
Montana???s semifinal game Friday and potential championship game Saturday will be broadcast in the Missoula area on KENR 107.5 FM with Tom Stage and Dick Slater. The audio broadcast is streamed through the station???s website (energy1075.com) for fans outside of listening range.
What???s next: The winner of this week???s Big Sky Conference tournament will earn the league???s automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA tournament. That???s the good news. The not-so-good news: ESPN.com is projecting the Big Sky tournament champion to earn a No. 16 seed in the NCAA tournament and be forced to play No. 1 seed (and No. 2 nationally ranked) Stanford, at Stanford, in an opening-round game.
The Big Sky Conference is also guaranteed a spot in the Women???s NIT. Games in that tournament will begin as early as next Wednesday. Eastern Washington, as the Big Sky???s regular-season champion, will be the league???s representative in the WNIT if the Eagles fail to win the tournament this weekend.
If Eastern Washington does win the tournament title, Montana, as the league???s second-place team (the WNIT recognizes conferences??? tiebreakers), will be extended an invitation to play in the WNIT. Facility conflicts at the Adams Center will not allow the Lady Griz to host an early-round WNIT game.
Why the Eagles should feel good about their chances: In the first 21 Big Sky Conference tournaments (the Big Sky added women???s basketball in 1988-89), the home team has won the title 18 times.
Why the other seeds should be hopeful: Two of the three times a non-host has won in the first 21 tournaments have come in the last four years, which is enough evidence to support the possible start of a trend. At least seeds two through six would argue for that point.
Northern Arizona won the 2006 title at Pocatello, Idaho, as the No. 3 seed, and Idaho State won the 2007 title at Missoula as the No. 2 seed.
The only other non-host to win the tournament was Montana???s title at Boise, Idaho, in 1992.
Why it???s really good to get the bye: Since the tournament expanded from four teams to six in 1995-96, only one team has come out of the quarterfinal round to win three games over three days and take the title. At the 2006 tournament in Pocatello, Northern Arizona, seeded third, topped No. 6 Portland State, 80-68, in the quarterfinals, knocked off No. 2 Montana, 73-66, in the semifinals and beat No. 5 Weber State, 74-59, in the championship, a day after the Wildcats had upset host and No. 1 seed Idaho State, 71-70, in the semifinals.
Why he???s in the big office with the windows: Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig, who enters the tournament with 740 career wins, has taken Montana to the postseason 32 times in his 32 years on the bench.
Who???s up next for the Lady Griz: Montana could play one of three teams in the semifinal round: No. 3 Sacramento State, No. 4 Idaho State or No. 5 Portland State. Since Eastern Washington will play the lowest remaining seed from Thursday???s quarterfinal games, the only team the Lady Griz are assured of not playing in the semifinals will be No. 6 Montana State. Which is good because the Bobcats beat Montana in Missoula two weekends ago.
Montana???s results from its two games against Sacramento State were at both ends of the spectrum. In the first meeting at Missoula, the Lady Griz limited the Hornets to just 61 points in a 77-61 win. Sac State???s point total was more than 20 below what they would end up averaging in their 16 Big Sky Conference games (81.9/g).
Whatever Montana bottled up in the first meeting didn???t get very well contained when the teams met again in Sacramento. The Hornets hit a program record 15 3-pointers and became the first team to score 100 points on a Robin Selvig-coached team in their 100-83 win.
Montana swept Idaho State with excellent defensive performances. The Lady Griz posted a 63-55 win at Missoula and a 67-53 win at Pocatello, holding the Bengals to 33.6 percent shooting in the two games.
Portland State swept the season series with Montana, winning 49-47 at Portland and 72-60 at Missoula. With their win at Dahlberg Arena, the Vikings became the first Big Sky Conference opponent in over four years to win a league game on Montana???s home court.
Montana???s tournament history: By making this year???s Big Sky Conference tournament, the Lady Griz have now played in all 22 of the league???s tournaments.
By earning a bye to the semifinal round, another impressive streak also continues. Montana has played in the semifinal round of all 22 tournaments (though the first seven tournaments had only four teams, which meant an automatic spot in the semifinals).
In their previous 21 appearances, the Lady Griz have gone 34-7, with 14 titles, including the last two. Only five times has Montana not advanced to at least the tournament championship game, the most recent being 2007 when No. 4 Northern Arizona upset the No. 1 Lady Griz, who were 27-2 at the time, 64-59.
Most recently: With its tournament spot secure but its seeding up in the air, Montana took care of what it could last weekend, sweeping Northern Arizona, 72-66, and Northern Colorado, 63-60, on the road. That the other games turned out like they did ??? Sac State losing at Idaho State and Portland State losing at Eastern Washington ??? allowed the Lady Griz to ascend to the No. 2 seed.
Last Thursday at NAU, Montana shot 52.2 percent in the first half but still led the Lumberjacks by just a point at the break, 37-36.
The Lady Griz fell behind by as many as seven points early in the second half but came back to take a five-point lead of their own.
With the score tied at 62 with under four minutes to play, Montana forced three straight Lumberjack turnovers, followed by two missed shots, to forge a six-point lead, 68-62, with just over a minute remaining.
NAU wouldn???t get closer than four in the final minute.
Freshman Kenzie De Boer came off the bench to score 20 points, going 11-for-15 from the line.
On Saturday at UNC, the Lady Griz and Bears played in a tight game that featured 13 ties and 15 lead changes. Neither team had a lead of more than two points in the final seven minutes until Montana junior Sarah Ena hit a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining for the game???s final points.
Northern Colorado went ahead, 60-59, on a Jayne Strand jumper inside with 28 seconds to go.
Not wasting any time or waiting for a last-second shot, senior Lauren Beck gave Montana the lead for good when she connected on a short jumper with 21 seconds to play.
UNC missed inside with eight seconds remaining, and Ena grabbed the rebound before being fouled.
The Bears??? last-second 3-point shot from five feet outside the arc was off the mark.
Junior Stephanie Stender was the lone Montana player in double figures with 13 points, but seven other players scored between six and eight points in a balanced offensive attack.
???Winning on the road like we did twice last week breeds confidence,??? Selvig said. ???And those wins came against two teams that had been extremely competitive in the league. There is just not that much difference between the teams that are in the tournament and those that aren???t.
???Those wins helped, first of all, because we won and got the two seed. Second, it shows me we???re performing well down the stretch and headed into the tournament.???
Very important Montana notes: The Lady Griz have shot better than 40 percent their last seven games. ... Three of Montana???s projected starters Friday ??? senior point guard Shaunte Nance-Johnson, junior guard Stephanie Stender and junior forward Jessa Loman Linford ??? will be starting their first career postseason games. ... In league play, Montana led the Big Sky in scoring defense (63.4/g), field goal percentage defense (.373) and free throw percentage (.758). ... Senior Lauren Beck played a league-high 37.1 minutes per game during Big Sky play. ... Beck has played in 123 career games. Marti Leibenguth (1984-88) and Sonya Rogers (2005-09) hold the program record of 124. ... Nance-Johnson has 20 assists and six turnovers the last four games. ... Senior Shadra Robison blocked eight shots in last week???s two-game road sweep, including a career-high five against Northern Arizona. ... Junior Sarah Ena had a season-high 12 rebounds at Northern Colorado, the ninth double-figure rebounding game of her career. ... Loman Linford has shot 50 percent or better the last four games and six of the last seven to up her season shooting percentage to 45.1 percent. ... Stender has gone 12 for 20 from 3-point range the last six games.
