Montana
Montana State
Montana rallies, stuns Montana State in Bozeman
1/29/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 29, 2011
Box score
This time they rallied ... and finished it with a win.
Last Saturday Montana came all the way back from a 17-point, second-half deficit only to come up three points short in a 72-69 loss to Montana State in Missoula.
Saturday afternoon in Bozeman, the Lady Griz found themselves trailing the Bobcats - winners of 10 straight games - by 18 points in the first half and 40-30 with 13 minutes to play, but Montana went on a 26-10 run down the stretch and pulled out a dramatic 56-55 win in front of 4,006 shocked fans at Worthington Arena to hand Montana State its first league loss of the season.
The Lady Griz (9-11, 4-3 BSC) did it with sophomore Katie Baker - the team's leading scorer and rebounder - watching from home in Missoula and by holding a team averaging over 82 points per game in Big Sky Conference play to 27 points below its average on its home floor.
"I'm really proud of our effort today," UM coach Robin Selvig said.
"We lose somebody, and we come over here and everybody pulls together. It's a nice feeling as a coach to see that you've got ladies that are tough like that."
The first half was characterized by big runs for each team.
Montana State's, which was fueled by its balanced scoring, put the Bobcats up 27-9 14 minutes in.
MSU (12-9, 6-1 BSC) took a tight 9-7 early lead and made it 27-9 with an 18-2 run, getting scoring from all five of its starters.
Montana's run, which was sparked by its defense, allowed the Lady Griz to cut the lead to 27-22 by the half.
UM scored 13 straight points over the final 6:08 of the half, not exactly a display of offensive fireworks, but the team's defense forced Montana State to close the first half missing its final eight shots and turning the ball over four times.
Eight different players scored for the Lady Griz in the first half, with no player scoring more than four points.
Montana pulled within two, 30-28, early in the second half on a 3-pointer from sophomore Kenzie De Boer, but a quick spurt by the Bobcats - started with a 3-pointer from Katie Bussey and finished with a 3-pointer from Latisha Adams - pushed the lead to 40-30 with 13 minutes remaining.
The Lady Griz, who shot 45.2 percent in the second half with just five turnovers, kept hanging around and chipping away at the lead and finally went ahead when De Boer hit a jumper with 4:42 to play.
Rachel Semansky, who terrorized Montana last Saturday at Missoula with 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting, answered De Boer's basket, but freshman Torry Hill responded with a 3-pointer with 4:06 remaining that put Montana up for good, 50-48.
Sophomore Alexandra Hurley, who moved to the four in Baker's absence and who played 21 minutes, 11 more than her season average, scored twice inside, her second basket making it 56-50 with 2:27 remaining.
Bussey hit a three with 2:15 to play, then scored inside with 38 seconds remaining to make it 56-55.
Hill was fouled on the inbounds play, and she put the Bobcats in position to win the game when she missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Montana State worked the game clock under 10 seconds and tried to lob the ball into Sarah Balian in the post, but the swarming Montana defense was there to strip her of the ball, and De Boer was fouled with 5.1 seconds remaining.
She missed the front end of her one-and-one, but MSU point guard Ausha Cole's full-court drive ran out of time before the Bobcats could get off the potential game-winning shot.
"We just had a lot of kids battle today, and we had a bunch of different kids hit shots," Selvig said.
"We played pretty well in the first half, but we couldn't hit any shots, and we dug ourselves quite a hole.
"Finally, as we're capable of doing, we hit a stretch where we made shots."
Senior Sarah Ena led Montana with 12 points, De Boer finished with 11, and seven players scored five or more points.
Senior Jessa Loman Linford, who got her first start of the season in place of Baker, had six points, four steals and two blocked shots in 21 minutes.
Hurley finished with five points and five rebounds, and freshman Jordan Sullivan, who shifted positions as well, totaled six points and five boards.
"Ali did well moving to the four, as did Jordy moving to the five," Selvig said. "Those two are a little out of position.
"And I thought Jessa was great. I don't know how many points we got out of her, but they were all big ones in 21 good minutes.
"That was a key. We had to get good minutes out of Jessa with the loss of Katie."
Semansky and Balian both went 6 for 12 from the field to lead Montana State with 13 and 12 points, respectively. The rest of the Bobcats combined to go 12 for 35.
"They are hard to guard, and we just played so hard," Selvig said.
"The girls played smarter than last (Saturday). We didn't give them so many `100-percent shots,' as we call them.
"That's a really good win for us, because they are really good and they'd won a bunch in a row."
Montana will host Weber State (5-13, 1-5 BSC) next Thursday at 7 p.m. and Northern Arizona (7-13, 2-5 BSC) next Saturday at 2 p.m.
