Lady Griz in Bethlehem for two-game tournament

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The Montana women's basketball team will play its first road games of the season this weekend when the Lady Griz compete in Lehigh's Christmas City Classic at Bethlehem, Pa.

Montana will face Lehigh at 2:30 p.m. (MT) on Saturday, then either Villanova or Drexel at 10 a.m. (MT) on Sunday.

Coverage: The games this weekend will air locally on KMPT 930 AM, with Tom Stage and Dick Slater calling the action. Lehigh is providing free video of the tournament games as well as live stats. The Montana broadcast will be used to supplement Sunday's video coverage, no matter the opponent.

Where they stand: Montana is 3-1 and on a three-game winning streak since losing its season opener to Seattle on Nov. 15. The Lady Griz have victories over MSU Northern, Pacific and Portland.

Lehigh is 5-0 and off to a fast start in 2015-16. The Mountain Hawks are averaging more than 80 points per game and have an average margin of victory of 26.2 through five games.

Villanova and Drexel both have played just three games entering the tournament. Both are 2-1. The Wildcats opened their season with a 70-64 loss at North Carolina State, then bounced back with victories over Loyola (Md.) and Saint Joseph's. The Dragons have double-digit wins over Dartmouth and St. Bonaventure and a 15-point loss at No. 19 South Florida.

Last year ... this year: Montana went 24-9 a year ago, won the Big Sky Conference with a 14-4 league record and won the Big Sky postseason tournament to make its 21st NCAA tournament appearance. Montana lost in the opening round to Notre Dame, which would advance to the national championship game against Connecticut. ... The Lady Griz were picked atop this season's preseason coaches' poll, collecting 10 of 12 first-place votes. ... Senior guard McCalle Feller and junior forward Kayleigh Valley were both named preseason All-Big Sky.

Lehigh won 19 games last season and advanced to the championship game of the Patriot League tournament, where the Mountain Hawks, who finished sixth in the regular-season standings with a 9-9 league record, lost 66-50 at American. ... Lehigh was picked third in the Patriot League preseason poll, earning more first-place votes than any team outside of preseason favorite Army. ... Junior forward Lexi Martins, who had 18 double-doubles last season to rank 18th in the nation, was named to the five-player preseason All-Patriot League team.

Villanova went 22-14 last season and advanced out of the Big East to the WNIT. The Wildcats won home tournament games over Maine, Old Dominion and St. John's before falling in the quarterfinals, 75-70 in overtime at West Virginia. ... Villanova, which finished third behind Seton Hall and DePaul in the Big East last season with a 12-6 league record, was picked third this year, behind DePaul and St. John's. ... Senior guard Caroline Coyer, who led Villanova last season in scoring, assists, 3-pointers, steals and minutes, and finished second in rebounds, was a unanimous preseason All-Big East pick.

Drexel won 20 games last season for just the fifth time in program history and finished second in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 14-4 record behind 17-1 James Madison. The Dragons were upset by Delaware in the quarterfinals of the CAA tournament but were selected to the WNIT. Drexel lost 45-42 at home to Hampton in the opening round. ... Drexel was picked second in the CAA's preseason poll behind James Madison. ... Junior forward Sarah Curran, first-team All-CAA last season after leading the team in scoring (12.1/g), was named preseason first team all-league.

Montana-Lehigh storylines:

1. Which team is hotter, Montana or Lehigh? The eyeball test says the Mountain Hawks, since they have not lost this season and they've won their last four games by no fewer than 28 points. But Lehigh has yet to be tested by a quality opponent. The Mountain Hawks beat 1-2 Monmouth in overtime, they defeated NCAA Division II Kutztown, and their last three wins have come against teams with a combined record of 2-12.

Montana's schedule hasn't been loaded in the early going either, not with MSU Northern, Seattle and Portland visiting Missoula, but the Lady Griz did post an impressive 64-54 win over Pacific, a team that won 66-63 at North Carolina on Wednesday.

Still, Lehigh hasn't lost this season. Advantage: Mountain Hawks.

2. How will Montana handle 6-foot forward Lexi Martins, who is putting up Chamberlain-like numbers through five games: 20.2 points and 16.4 rebounds per game on 65-percent shooting. She is even shooting 85 percent from the free throw line (which is un-Chamberlain-like).

She has five double-doubles through five games, with a 21-point, 20-rebound performance against Monmouth and a 19-point, 23-rebound effort against New Jersey Institute of Technology.

3. Coach Sue Troyan is in her 21st season at Lehigh. And Saturday will be the second time she has gone up against 38th-year Montana coach Robin Selvig. Then in her second year with the Mountain Hawks, Troyan brought her team to Missoula for the Western States Showdown in late December of the 1996-97 season. Montana, behind 17 points from Greta Koss, won 86-56. It was the only other meeting between the two programs.

Fun possible Sunday storyline: Robin Selvig was hired to coach at Montana prior to the 1978-79 season. Harry Perretta was hired at the same time to coach Villanova. That makes them the longest-tenured Division I women's basketball coaches in the nation.

The only active NCAA women's basketball coaches with more experience at their schools: Connie Tilley, at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wis., and Andy Yosinoff, at Emmanuel College in Boston. Both are in their 39th years at their Division III schools.

History: Montana lost 74-49 to Villanova in November 2012 in the championship game of the UNLV Lady Rebel Round-Up. Montana and Drexel have never met.

What we've learned about Montana:

1. Maybe this team can shoot it after all. That would have been a hard claim to make after Montana's season-opening 58-44 home loss to Seattle, when the Lady Griz shot 24.6 percent, their lowest percentage since 2009. Montana missed 30 of its final 36 shots in that game.

In their three wins since, the Lady Griz are shooting 47.1 percent, going 50.7 against MSU Northern, 43.3 against Pacific (North Carolina shot 29.7 against the Tigers in Wednesday's loss) and 46.9 against Portland.

It took Montana until early February last season before shooting 40 percent or better in three straight games.

"Part of basketball is making shots," said Selvig. "We didn't take bad shots against Seattle, we just shot poorly, and that can happen. It's just a lot easier game to coach and you're a lot better team if you make shots.

"This is a team that can shoot the ball. It won't be every night, but that's where defense has to win some games for you."

2. The Lady Griz might do well with an NBA-type schedule, which is what they had to open the season, with four games in eight days. Montana finished that stretch well, shooting 64.3 percent in the second half against Portland to outscore the Pilots 52-26 over the third and fourth quarters.

It also gave an inexperienced team some game action.

"This team needs games, but I don't know if we needed four in eight days," said Selvig, who makes his own schedule. "We came out all right at the end.

"We had a shaky start against Seattle. It was kind of scary to score only 44 points in your first home game against a team you think you have a chance to beat. We just kept plugging away. Though it was nice to have a few days off before we play again."

3. Montana has more scoring options than just McCalle Feller and Kayleigh Valley, the team's only returning starters.

Six players scored nine or more points against MSU Northern, Sierra Anderson scored 16 points off the bench against Pacific (a game Valley scored just two points after getting in early foul trouble), Haley Vining scored 15 points against Portland.

Feller (14.3/g), Valley (13.3/g) and Alycia Sims (9.5/g) lead Montana in scoring, and all are shooting better than 41 percent. Anderson is averaging 9.0, Hannah Doran 6.0 off the bench.

"We've got to have some balance to our scoring. It can't be just Kayleigh and McCalle," Selvig said. "We beat a very good Pacific team with Kayleigh scoring two points. That was not fun for Kayleigh, but it was encouraging to me.

"Alycia has shown signs of being a better and more consistent scorer. Sierra is a spark coming off the bench, and Hannah is another player who can score off the bench."

4. Maybe the best thing for this team is a two-headed point guard. People love to get behind the simplicity of a single point guard playing a bulk of the minutes and leading the team (see: Kellie Rubel last winter), but through four games Montana is doing just fine with Vining and Anderson sharing time.

Anderson had a huge game against Pacific, scoring 16 points while dishing out three assists, which seemed to give her the advantage. Vining, who opened the season going 2 for 18 through the team's first three games, scored a career-high 15 points on Sunday, going 4 for 6 from 3-point range. She also had six assist and no turnovers.

It may be that the players just split time this season, with someone getting 25 here or there when the situation calls for it.

"We need them both. We don't need to play tired there," said Selvig. "You need depth at the point, and they are both good players. They are different players, but they are both good in their own way.

5. Kayleigh Valley is back where she belongs: on the free throw line. Valley got to the line a team-high 152 times last season, but she went without an attempt through the team's first three games this season. On Sunday against Portland, who had no answer for her inside, she went 13 for 15 on her way to scoring a career-high 29 points.

6. The players may be mostly new, but the methods remain mostly the same. Montana ranks sixth nationally in turnovers, averaging just 11 per game, and 16th in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.48.

The Lady Griz also are holding their opponents to 33.6 percent shooting. Last season Montana finished at 34.8 to rank sixth in the nation.

7. There is life after Carly Selvig, who helped Montana block an average of 6.1 shots per game last season, the ninth-best mark in the nation. Selvig had 88 blocks as a junior, 78 more last season as a senior to earn her second straight Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year award and finish ranked No. 3 in Big Sky history with 258 career blocks.

Through four games, Montana is just off that pace with 24 and is doing it by committee. Mekayla Isaak has eight blocks, Sims six and Feller five. Six different players have at least one blocked shot this year.

Around the Big Sky Conference: The last of the unbeaten went down to defeat this week. Montana State lost at home on Tuesday to San Diego 62-49, and Idaho lost to Duke 74-68 in Cancun on Thursday, leaving Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Montana State and Weber State atop the league standings with 3-1 records. ... As for North Dakota, the Fighting Hawks need to get things figured out (though the schedule hasn't been kind). They defeated Nebraska-Omaha 67-52 at home but are 0-4 on the road, with double-digit losses in all four. UND plays at Oregon on Saturday. ... The Portland State reclamation project is going to take a while under first-year coach Lynn Kennedy. The Vikings, who dropped a home exhibition game to Oregon Tech by 12 points, are 0-4. That includes a 15-point loss to Cal State Fullerton, which lost to Weber State three games later by 20. Portland State lost 69-53 at home on Tuesday to Portland. ... Idaho State has played the Big Sky's most aggressive early schedule, and the Bengals are taking their lumps for it. They lost 73-36 at Northwestern, 79-60 at Michigan State and 79-64 at Texas Tech in the last eight days.

Upcoming: Montana hosts Cal State Fullerton (2-3) on Sunday, Dec. 6. The Titans play at SMU on Friday, then open their trip to the state with a game at Montana State next Thursday.

The Lady Griz follow that with a tough Mountain West Conference road trip to Colorado State (3-1) and Wyoming (2-1) Dec. 10 and 12 before coming home for the Lady Griz Classic Dec. 19-20.

Players Mentioned

Sierra Anderson

Hannah Doran

McCalle Feller

Alycia Harris

Mekayla Isaak

Kellie Rubel

Carly Selvig

Kayleigh Valley

Haley Vining

University of Montana Athletics