Montana
Montana-Western
Lady Griz go into break with 70-50 victory
12/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 19, 2011
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Sophomore Jordan Sullivan had her first career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds to lead Montana to a 70-50 victory over Montana-Western Monday night at Dahlberg Arena. It was the Lady Griz' final game before the team's short Christmas break.
Montana will have six days off before regrouping back in Missoula next Monday for practice. The team will get in three practices prior to the four-team, two-day Lady Griz Holiday Classic, which will be held at Dahlberg Arena Thursday and Friday, Dec. 29-30.
The Lady Griz (5-6) reached 70 points for the second time this season -- both coming against in-state NAIA opponents -- and had five players with nine or more points.
Junior Katie Baker scored a team-high 12 points, Sullivan finished with 11, and redshirt freshman Kellie Cole came off the bench to add 10. Backcourt mates junior Kenzie De Boer and sophomore Torry Hill both finished with nine points and combined for eight of the team's 16 assists.
But the game was not the coming out party that it could have been. Montana entered the game shooting 35.2 percent for the season and only shot 41.3 Monday against a team with a decided height disadvantage.
Sullivan hit four of her six shots. Her post teammates went 8 for 25.
"I thought we did some things well, but we didn't exactly light it," UM coach Robin Selvig said. "We really could have hurt them inside had we shot a better percentage around the basket, because we had a lot of looks.
"We didn't miss them all, but we could have shot a little better inside."
Montana's height advantage did not exactly pay off at the offensive end, but it did defensively. The team had a program-record 15 blocked shots, with six coming from redshirt freshman Carly Selvig, three from freshman Maggie Rickman and two each from Sullivan and Baker.
What impressed Selvig about the young Selvig's blocks was what she didn't do. She finished with just a single foul in 19 minutes.
"They were aggressive with the way they were going into the lane and putting pressure on the defense, so we had to work not to foul," Selvig said. "Carly did a nice job with that.
"They were just kind of shooting into her long arms, and she's good at not getting too much arm swing and letting the ball come to her."
The Bulldogs, who were using the game as an exhibition, made just nine baskets inside the 3-point line but did better than last season's 91-45 drubbing when they turned the ball over 40 times. Western nearly cut its turnover total in half and went 9 for 20 from 3-point range.
The team's lone size player, 6-2 center Hayley Pettit, matched Sullivan's double-double with 12 points and 14 boards, as the Lady Griz finished with just a 49-46 rebounding advantage.
"I thought they played well and were definitely a worthy opponent," Selvig said. "They are well-coached, they run good things, and they shot threes well, something we're struggling to do.
"I can see why they are 9-2 right now."
Montana-Western used a conventional three-point play by Pettit and back-to-back threes by Sammi Bignell and Jenna Banks to take an early 9-6 lead.
Hill answered with one of her two 3-pointers to even the score at nine, and Selvig and Rickman scored the game's next eight points to give Montana a lead it would keep the rest of the game.
The lead was 39-24 at the half and at least 15 points the entire second half.
After shooting 44.4 percent in the first half, Montana shot 37.0 percent in the second half and only outscored the Bulldogs 31-26 over the final 20 minutes.
Montana-Western shot less than 27 percent both halves and finished at 26.1 percent for the game. Sammi Bignell, who went 2 for 5 from 3-point range, matched Pettit with 12 points.
