Montana
Gonzaga
Bulldogs hand Lady Griz third straight loss
12/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 11, 2011
Box score
Kayla Standish had 12 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks to lead Gonzaga to a 70-54 victory over Montana Sunday afternoon at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, Wash. The loss was the third straight for the Lady Griz, who dropped to 4-6, and the fifth straight time they've lost to the Zags.
Junior Kenzie De Boer had a game-high 17 points, six rebounds and six steals to lead Montana.
In what is becoming a common refrain in the early part of the season, the Lady Griz played well but did not give themselves a chance to win because of poor shooting. Montana shot 31.3 percent and hit just 2 of 15 attempts from 3-point range.
Montana has shot 33 percent or worse in seven of its 10 games this season and has shot 31.1 percent on its current three-game skid.
That level of production wasn't nearly enough to stay with the high-scoring Bulldogs (7-2), who entered the game averaging almost 78 points per game. Montana missed 16 of its first 20 shots, and Gonzaga went up by 16 points, 28-12, before the game was 14 minutes old, delighting the crowd of 5,433.
The Lady Griz trimmed the lead to 34-25 at the half and cut the margin to seven, 47-40, on a basket by redshirt freshman Carly Selvig with 13:19 to play in the second half, but a three by Meghan Winters put the Zags up 52-40, and they would lead by double digits the rest of the game.
Montana had fewer turnovers than Gonzaga, got to the line twice as often and nearly matched the Bulldogs on the boards, trailing 47-44.
"We battled like crazy and did a lot of good things in this game, but once again we didn't make enough shots to give ourselves a chance to win," UM coach Robin Selvig said.
"We were kind of always in range, but it never felt like we were going to get them."
Like CSU Bakersfield did Thursday, Gonzaga hurt Montana from the 3-point line. The Bulldogs went 9 for 23 (.391), offsetting any advantage the Lady Griz would have had from the free throw line had they shot better than 12 for 22.
Gonzaga got a big lift from its bench. The Zags' reserves scored 31 points, with Haiden Palmer leading the team with 14 points. Winters, also a reserve, went 3 for 5 from 3-point range and added 11 points.
All five of Montana's starters struggled shooting the ball. De Boer was 5 for 15 but scored 17 points because her aggressive play put her on the line seven times. Her 17 points were a season high and the most she's scored since late in her freshman season.
De Boer has pulled down 20 rebounds the last two games and has picked off 15 steals the last three games.
"Kenzie is something," Selvig said. "She's just relentless." Junior Katie Baker scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds, and sophomore Torry Hill finished with six points and five assists.
Montana plays just once over the next 17 days. The Lady Griz will host Montana-Western on Monday, Dec. 19, then host the 31st Lady Griz Holiday Classic Dec. 29-30.
Those tournament games against Southern Mississippi and North Dakota will be Montana's final games before Big Sky Conference play begins in early January.
