Montana
Portland State
Lady Griz rally, take over first place
1/31/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2013
Box Score | Video
Take a three-game road-trip sweep last week, add a second-half rally from an eight-point deficit Thursday night and throw in a favorable turn of events around the league and what do you get? Montana riding a season-high four-game winning streak and sitting alone atop the Big Sky Conference.
Trailing Portland State by eight with 14 minutes to play Thursday, Montana stormed back to win, closing the game on a 33-14 run to defeat the Vikings 72-61 before an enthusiastic crowd of 3,611 at Dahlberg Arena.
Montana (15-5, 9-2 BSC) got 15 points from senior Katie Baker and 12 more from Kenzie De Boer, but they both struggled to 4-of-12 shooting nights, so this game needed a spark off the bench, and sophomore Kellie Cole, who had been mired in a lengthy slump, provided it.
Cole hit 6-of-9 shots and matched a season high with 14 points while adding seven rebounds, four steals and three assists. Ten of Cole's points came in the second half, as Montana won for the third time this season when trailing at the break.
"We were looking for someone to give us a lift, and tonight it was Kellie," UM coach Robin Selvig said. "She may have been struggling a little bit for a couple of games, but she was big time tonight. She was huge for us."
A loss would have been disheartening considering what took place in Bozeman Thursday. Eastern Washington (12-8, 8-3 BSC) put 45 points on Montana State in the second half to rally back from a nine-point deficit and hand the Bobcats (14-6, 8-3 BSC) their second straight loss, 68-59.
That sets up a juicy matchup at Dahlberg Arena Saturday, when Eastern Washington, which is on a five-game winning streak, pays a visit. The Eagles won the teams' first meeting in Cheney, Wash., 58-56.
Portland State had lost six of eight going into Thursday's game, but the Vikings were almost flawless in the opening half.
PSU did not turn it over a single time in the first half, went 7 for 11 from 3-point range and had a 36-31 lead at the break. The Vikings also hustled their way to nine first-half offensive rebounds.
"We took a pretty good one on the chin that first half," Selvig said. "They didn't turn it over once, and they shot it well from 3-point range.
"I wouldn't say we didn't play hard, but we weren't intense in the first half. They were getting all the loose balls and all the second shots, and we weren't guarding the ball tough. And the result was zero turnovers for them."
Portland State was on its way to a seven-point halftime lead, but the heady Baker tipped in senior Ali Hurley's missed three attempt with a tenth of a second left on the clock to make it 36-31.
"That was a little momentum boost for us going into half," Selvig said. "We didn't have a whole lot going the first half. They did a pretty good job on us defensively."
Montana twice cut its deficit to one in the opening minutes of the second half, but PSU's nonpareil Courtney VanBrocklin and Mikaela Rivard, who would finish the game 4 for 6 from 3-point range, pushed the lead back to eight, 47-39.
The Lady Griz did not put together a big surge to take control of the game. Instead the comeback was deliberate, and it was relentless. And it afforded the most vocal crowd of the season an opportunity to voice its excitement.
A 3-pointer from junior Torry Hill at the 7:30 mark gave Montana just its second lead of the game, 54-53, and a pair of Baker free throws a few minutes later started an 11-0 run that closed the door on the Vikings.
The big play in the run came from -- who else? -- Cole, who swiped a cross-court pass with just over four minutes to play and went in for the layup at the other end while being fouled.
She hit the free throw, Hill scored four straight points, and Cole drained a 17-foot jumper from the left baseline to put Montana up double-digits for the first time with 2:31 to go.
Two clear indicators showed early in the second half. On Montana's first possession, the Lady Griz missed twice, but they grabbed two offensive rebounds before De Boer scored on a putback. That was 40 percent of Montana's first-half number of offensive rebounds.
On the other end, Portland State had turnovers on its first two possessions. The Vikings would finish the game with 12, all coming in the second half.
A new tone had been set.
"Our defense in the second half was a lot better. We picked up the intensity, and the result was 12 turnovers for them," Selvig said. "We rebounded better in the second half, and they didn't run down every loose ball."
Montana finished with a 43-35 rebounding advantage and got to the line 26 times, where it made 22 (.846). The Lady Griz had six turnovers in the first half and just four more in the second half.
The win completed the season sweep of Portland State. Montana won at PSU earlier this month, 70-55, a win that came much more easily than Thursday's did.
"That's how these games are going to be," Selvig said. "Just because you beat somebody someplace the first time doesn't have anything to do with the next one. It was a dog fight, and it was a good win for us.
"Every game we win is a good one because everybody is capable of beating each other. We need to be at our absolute best, particularly on the defensive end.
"That's what makes us good, and it took us a while to get that going tonight."
In other league games Thursday, Northern Colorado pulled the upset by winning at Idaho State 50-49, North Dakota kept Weber State winless on the season with a 56-51 road win, and Sacramento State won at home over Northern Arizona 73-67.
Big Sky Conference standings:
Montana (9-2 BSC/15-5)
Montana State (8-3/14-6)
Eastern Washington (8-3/12-8)
Northern Colorado (7-3/10-9)
Sacramento State (6-4/11-8)
Idaho State (6-5/11-9)
Southern Utah (4-5/10-9)
North Dakota (4-7/9-11)
Northern Arizona (3-7/4-15)
Portland State (3-8/9-11)
Weber State (0-11/0-20)
