Lady Griz unable to hang with Titans

Wednesday, November 30

Fullerton, Calif.

6:00 PM (MT)

Montana

2-4

Cal State Fullerton

2-4

Montana

Cal State Fullerton

11/30/2016 9:17:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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By: Montana Sports Information

Using an all-underclassman starting lineup, including four true or redshirt freshmen, the Montana women's basketball team fell on the road on Wednesday night, losing 72-56 at Cal State Fullerton.

The Lady Griz (2-4) trailed by just five at the half, 35-30, but the Titans (2-4) shot 51.6 percent in the second half to pull away for their first win over Montana in six tries.

Taylor Goligoski scored a team-high 17 points, and Maddie Keast, who was making her first career start in place of Mekayla Isaak, who is out with a broken hand, matched her career high with 11.

"It's hard to not get frustrated, but we have to remember what we have," said coach Shannon Schweyen. "We have to stay positive with them.

"Our goal is to keep getting better, so we have to take something away from every game. I feel like that's going to be our motto."

Both teams came out hot from the arc in the opening quarter. Fullerton went 4 for 8 from 3-point range, Montana 3 for 8, and the Titans led 17-15 after 10 minutes.

Goligoski had eight first-quarter points on perfect 3-of-3 shooting, with a pair of triples.

But the Lady Griz also had five turnovers in the first quarter, and that would prove to be a large part of their undoing. They had seven more in the second, giving them 12 for the half, just below their full-game average of 12.6.

"We kind of threw the ball all over the gym, and it didn't feel like very many of them were forced," Schweyen said. "We had way too many of those and gave them a few more possessions than they needed to get."

Montana was 6 for 11 from 3-point range in the first half, but turnovers put them in a five-point hole. The Lady Griz had just five second-half turnovers, but cold shooting and an inability to slow down the Titans, who are averaging 85 points at home this season, sent Montana to its second straight defeat.

"It was hard to find an answer to stop them. They're tough at home," said Schweyen. "Unfortunately we couldn't find a hot hand and get enough stops on D."

Iman Lathan scored 22 points, 17 in the second half, to lead Fullerton, which shot 48.3 percent, the second-highest percentage Montana has allowed this season.

The Titans went 9 for 20 from the arc, a threat which freed up 6-foot-3 center Daeja Smith to take advantage of an always smaller defender. She finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

"We were giving up a lot of size inside, and they isolated her pretty well," Schweyen said. "They had shooters on the wing, so it made it hard to get help in there. She was basically getting one-footers on us, and it was hard to get it stopped."

As it was on Sunday, when Utah State used a 22-9 surge to pull away for a 65-47 win in the Lady Griz Classic championship game, the third quarter proved to be the difference against Fullerton.

The Titans shot 8 for 19 in the quarter and held Montana to 25 percent shooting to build a 56-43 lead going into the fourth quarter. The Lady Griz would get no closer than 11 in the final period.

"It was one of those games when our point guards were having a hard time getting us into offense. It made it hard to get good shots," said Schweyen. "But they girls kept working hard and trying to hang in there."

Madi Schoening had her second good game in a row, finishing with nine points, four assists, two blocks and two steals, and Rachel Staudacher, the team's lone upperclassman until Isaak returns in a month, grabbed seven rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench.

McKenzie Johnston matched a season high with six assists, Hailey Nicholson grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, and the Lady Griz, behind a 3-for-3 effort from Keast and three more from Goligoski, drained a season-high 10 3-pointers on 38.5 percent shooting from the arc.

Fullerton had five players in double figures and had a 33-10 advantage in bench points.

Montana will play at Seattle (1-6) at 8 p.m. (MT) on Friday.