Battlin’ Bears in town on Wednesday

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The Montana women's basketball team will play its final nonconference game and its final game before taking a short Christmas break on Wednesday night when Rocky Mountain comes calling.

The Lady Griz and Battlin' Bears will tip off at 7 p.m. at Dahlberg Arena.

Montana will open its Big Sky Conference schedule next week when it hosts Northern Arizona on Thursday, Dec. 28, and Southern Utah on Saturday, Dec. 30.

Coverage: Wednesday's game can be viewed at WatchBigSky.com or on Pluto TV (channel 237). The game will air in Missoula on KGVO (AM 1290, FM 98.3), with Tom Stage and Dick Slater on the call.

Opening tips (Montana):

* The Lady Griz will enter Wednesday's game with a record of 3-7.

* Montana has lost two straight games, falling 61-58 at Fresno State after building a 15-point halftime lead and 78-64 last Wednesday to Seattle, in part due to a 14-0 run by the Redhawks early in the fourth quarter that turned a two-point deficit into a 12-point lead in less than four minutes.

* Jace Henderson had career highs in both scoring (15) and rebounding (13) against Seattle to record her first career double-double. She also added three assists and two blocks while shooting 7 for 12 for an efficiency rating of 27, the best by a Montana player this season.

* McKenzie Johnston added 12 points, six rebounds and five assists. She leads the team in scoring (10.9/g) and assists (4.4/g), and ranks second in rebounding (5.9/g).

* Johnston's streak of 12 straight makes from the free throw line came to an end in the fourth quarter against Seattle. She is still 30 for 35 (.857) for the season to rank fifth in the Big Sky.

* Henderson ranks fourth in the Big Sky in rebounding (8.1/g) and sixth in field goal percentage (.493), Johnston ranks fourth in assists (4.4/g), and Madi Schoening ranks fourth in free throw percentage (.862).

* Montana went 8 for 13 (.615) from the line against Seattle, the first time since returning from Cancun that the Lady Griz have not shot better than 72 percent. Montana is still shooting 71.6 percent for the season, the third-best percentage in the Big Sky.

* Seattle averaged 1.19 points per possession last Wednesday, the highest allowed by Montana this season.

* Three-point shooting continues to hold back the Lady Griz, who went 6 for 23 (.261) against the Redhawks. That actually raised their season percentage to .239, which ranks 333rd nationally out of 345 Division I teams. Montana ranks 278th in overall field goal percentage at .369.

* What used to be a holiday tradition -- taking a big win into the short Christmas break -- isn't so much a trend anymore. Montana is 4-4 the last eight seasons in its final pre-Christmas game.

* Jace Henderson has shot 40 percent or better every game this season. ... McKenzie Johnston is 11 for 25 (.444) from 3-point range the last six games, with a 3-for-5 effort on Wednesday against Seattle.

* The 45.6 percent shooting allowed against Seattle was the second-highest allowed this season by Montana's defense. Marquette shot 49.3 percent down in Cancun. The Redhawks shot nearly as well from beyond the arc (.444) as they did inside it (.469).

* Montana's bench production the last five games (146 points) is more than double that of its opponents' reserves (56) in those games.

* Montana's Rocky Mountain connection (No. 1): Brian Henderson coached the women's basketball team at Rocky Mountain for 13 seasons before stepping down in 2014. He is the father of Lady Griz redshirt junior Jace Henderson.

* Montana's Rocky Mountain connection (No. 2): Jason Petrino is the head coach of Rocky's football team. He is assisted by Jared Petrino. Their brother is Mike Petrino, second-year Lady Griz assistant coach.

Opening tips (Rocky Mountain):

* At 9-1, the Battlin' Bears are surging, with a scoring differential of nearly 30 points per game. Their only loss of the season was on the road at Providence (formerly known as Great Falls) by eight.

* Rocky Mountain has lost three other games this season, at Minot State and twice to MSU Billings, but those were all exhibition games. Wednesday's game will be an exhibition as well.

* The Bears have built their 9-1 record while playing only one game at home. They are 7-1 in road games, 8-1 away from home overall, with one neutral-site victory.

* Rocky Mountain is 1-1 in Frontier Conference play. Before falling to Providence, the Battlin' Bears knocked off No. 21 MSU Northern on the road, 69-54.

* Rocky Mountain was picked fifth out of eight teams in the Frontier preseason poll, behind Lewis-Clark State, Montana-Western, MSU Northern and Carroll.

* Junior Brooke Jones, a 5-foot-11 junior from Manhattan, leads the team in both scoring (14.3/g) and rebounding (7.0/g).

* The Battlin' Bears are on a three-game winning streak, all coming last week in Arizona. They won at Ottawa, 63-50, won a neutral-site game over Benedictine Mesa, 64-53, then won 64-63 at Arizona Christian on a Jones basket with 4.9 seconds remaining.

* Coach Wes Keller is in his fourth year.

Series history: Montana is 6-0 against Rocky Mountain, 4-0 in games played in Missoula. The teams' first five games were decided by an average of more than 34 points per game. Last December in Missoula, the Battlin' Bears led by six early in the fourth quarter before Montana rallied for a 64-56 victory.

Game-day preview:

Three days after Christmas, during the 1988-89 season, Montana crushed Rocky Mountain 82-23 at Dahlberg Arena, the fewest points ever allowed in a game by the Lady Griz, who forced 36 turnovers and held the Bears to 23 percent shooting.

Junior Jean McNulty had 12 points and eight rebounds in 13 minutes, senior Lisa McLeod finished with 10 points, six rebounds and six steals in just nine minutes, and freshman Shannon Cate added nine points.

Cate, now Schweyen, was in her first year as Lady Griz coach last December when Hailee Farstveet hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the fourth quarter to give Rocky Mountain a 45-39 lead in a game Montana would have to rally to win 64-56.

Schweyen doesn't have any expectation that Wednesday will be a repeat of that game in 1988. And she can only hope it doesn't come with quite the drama that last year's game did.

"They played us tough and gave us a run for our money last year, so they'll have some confidence, but I'd like to think we're a lot better team this time around," she said. "Our girls certainly won't be overlooking them after last year.

"Hopefully we can come out with intensity and play like that for 40 minutes."

Brooke Jones started her career at Carroll and gives Rocky Mountain an added weapon the Bears didn't have in their game at Missoula last year.

Keisha Engelhardt scored a team-high 15 points in that game, with Farstveet adding 14 on 3-of-4 shooting from the arc.

Mikayla Jones, who had nine points, four rebounds and three assists in last year's game, is averaging 11.8 points this season, and 6-foot forward Markaela Francis is grabbing more than six rebounds per game.

"They are a good team. Brooke Jones is having a nice season, and they've got a big presence in the post between her and Markaela Francis. And they have a dynamic, quick guard in Mikayla Jones," said Schweyen.

"They are a good team. They've got size, they've got quickness, they have experience. Wes is doing a nice job with them."

It will be a game with special meaning for Jace Henderson, whose dad coached at Rocky Mountain prior to stepping down so he could do things like spend more time watching his daughter have a breakout season for the Lady Griz.

Henderson is averaging 9.5 points and 8.1 rebounds, and has just nine turnovers on the season while playing nearly 32 minutes per game. She is shooting a team-best 49.3 percent, leads the team with 10 blocks and is tied for the team lead with 12 steals.

"I pretty much grew up (in Rocky Mountain's gym)," said Henderson. "I remember looking up to those Rocky girls and wanting to become a college basketball player. I think that helped me get to where I am now."

Wednesday's game will wrap up the nonconference portion of Montana's schedule. The Lady Griz went 0-5 in November, got on a bit of a roll with consecutive home wins over Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State and Stephen F. Austin, then dropped their two most recent games, to Fresno State and Seattle.

Montana will take a sub-.500 record into the Christmas break for the second straight year.

"There are a couple of those games I would have liked to squeak out a win," said Schweyen, looking back at Indiana State and Fresno State in particular, plus Wednesday's loss to Seattle. "Those were games when we looked at the schedule that we felt we could be very competitive in.

"But as far as our preseason as a whole, I do think it made us a better team and prepared us for conference and for the postseason."

While it doesn't make it all better, it takes some of the sting off Wednesday's loss knowing that Seattle went to Idaho on Friday and came away with a 68-60 win. The Redhawks are legit.

"It always makes you feel a little better, but I knew they were a good basketball team," said Schweyen. "That just kind of reaffirmed it, because winning at Idaho is a tough thing to do."

No matter the result of Wednesday's game, the start of Big Sky play will come quickly. The team will have a practice on the evening of the 26th, another on the 27th, then host Northern Arizona on the 28th.

"I wouldn't say I'm happy with how we're playing, but I'm happy with where we're at," said Schweyen. "We need to clean up our shot selection a little bit and shoot the ball better. We've been lucky to be in ball games shooting 30 percent.

"If we're going to compete in conference, we're definitely going to have to shoot the ball better."

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* The GoGriz.com Big Sky Conference pre-league power poll will be coming out early next week.

* Weber State maintains the top spot in the league standings at 8-2 after a 91-70 win at Portland on Sunday. Big Sky Conference Player of the Week, at least she should be, Larryn Brooks scored 33 points, going 7 for 11 from the arc. The transfer is turning the Wildcats into a contender.

* Idaho State takes a 7-3 record into the Christmas break, and only two of those games have been at home. The Bengals shot 50.9 percent and out-rebounded Utah Valley by 13 to win on Saturday. If Brooks is the pre-Christmas Player of the Year, Seton Sobolewski is the Coach of the Year.

* North Dakota improved to 7-3 with an 85-62 home win over Division II Southwest Minnesota State on Monday night and plays at South Dakota on Thursday in a fun matchup. The Fighting Hawks' three losses this year have come at Oregon State, at South Dakota State and at Baylor. Those three teams are 26-6.

* Sacramento State is playing games this week in Puerto Rico, against Miami and Northern Illinois. Northern Colorado doesn't get quite the weather break. The Bears will face UMKC and Liberty in Kansas City.

* Idaho has a dynamic threesome in Geraldine McCorkell, Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce but not much scoring punch beyond that. That was proved in Monday's night's 77-33 loss at Arizona State. The Big 3 was held to 20 points on 29 percent shooting. Everyone else: 13 points on 20 percent shooting.

* Weber State plays at Fresno State on Wednesday in a game that should give a nice cross-comparison against a team Montana lost to 61-58.

* Montana State shuts down the Big Sky pre-Christmas schedule with a game at BYU on Friday afternoon. The Cougars have wins over Southern Utah, 75-67, and Eastern Washington, 73-69, and a loss at Northern Colorado, 79-74.

* League opens on Dec. 28 with some delightful non-Montana matchups. Preseason league favorite Northern Colorado plays at Eastern Washington and North Dakota faces Idaho in Moscow. League can't get here fast enough.

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Players Mentioned

Jace Henderson

McKenzie Johnston

Madi Schoening

University of Montana Athletics