Montana
Northern Colorado
Bears break through against Lady Griz
1/6/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2011
Box Score |
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Northern Colorado outscored Montana 40-28 in the second half to rally for a 65-56 victory over the Lady Griz Thursday night at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula, Mont., in the Big Sky Conference opener for both teams. The win was the Bears' first over Montana in nine tries since UNC joined the Big Sky Conference in 2006-07.
Lauren Oosdyke led Northern Colorado (6-8, 1-0 BSC) with 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Kim Lockridge came off the bench to score 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
Katie Baker led Montana (5-9, 0-1 BSC) with 18 points and eight rebounds. She went 10 for 10 from the free throw line.
Sarah Ena scored 12 points to move within 15 of 1,000 for her career, and Kenzie De Boer added 10, going 8 for 10 from the free throw line.
Montana scored just seven points in the game's opening 12 minutes to fall behind by 12 early but rallied from the free throw line - going 12 for 13 in the first half - to take a 28-25 lead to the locker room.
"I had to pinch myself that we were up three at the half because we got out to such a horrible start," UM coach Robin Selvig said.
Ena and Alyssa Smith hit jumpers early in the second half to give Montana a 32-25 lead. That's when the Big Sky Conference's top defensive team put the Lady Griz in lockdown.
Montana scored just two points and turned the ball over six times the next six and a half minutes.
Northern Colorado scored 17 points during that stretch, turning its seven-point deficit into an eight-point lead.
Montana, which ranks last in the Big Sky Conference in field goal percentage and shot 34.8 percent Thursday night, would not get closer than five points the final 12 minutes of the game.
"The key part of the game was early in the second half when we got a lead with momentum and they came back and pressed and got fired up a little bit," Selvig said. "Their pressure hurt us and had us scrambling.
"We weren't composed when we had to be, and they are very good defensively. Nothing's easy against them."
Northern Colorado scored 16 of its second-half points from the line. Oosdyke went 7 for 9 from the line in the second half, and Lockridge, a freshman from Littleton, Colo., completed her 6-for-8 performance from the field all in the second half.
The Bears scored 32 points in the paint and scored 20 from the free throw line, accounting for 52 of their 65 points.
"They hurt us inside," Selvig said. "They posted us tough. That freshman posted our socks off.
"And it seemed like we had them at the foul line the whole second half."
Montana actually out-scored Northern Colorado from the free throw line, going 23 for 27 (.852) in a game with 47 fouls, but the Lady Griz could not overcome another sub-35-percent shooting night and 18 turnovers.
Montana hosts Sacramento State (3-11, 0-1 BSC) Saturday at 2 p.m. The Hornets, who rank last out of 333 NCAA Division I teams in points allowed at 91.1 per game, lost at Montana State (7-8, 1-0 BSC) Thursday night, 106-55.
In Thursday's other Big Sky game, Idaho State (10-4, 1-0 BSC) won at home over Northern Arizona (5-9, 0-1 BSC), 64-54.
