Lady Griz seeking redemption

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The Montana women's basketball team, back from a road trip only to head out for another, will play games this week at Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.

The Lady Griz will face the Thunderbirds at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Cedar City and the Lumberjacks at 5 p.m. on Saturday in Flagstaff.

Synopsis: Montana lost its only game last week, falling 81-64 in a disappointing performance at Montana State, but the Lady Griz still enter week No. 5 of 10 of the league schedule tied for first place with Weber State, Northern Colorado and Eastern Washington at 5-2.

This week Montana (9-9, 5-2 BSC) will face the teams the Lady Griz opened their Big Sky schedule with at home in late December.

Montana rallied from down 21 in the third quarter to Northern Arizona to win 70-62 in overtime, then two days later shot 50 percent and scored a season-high number of points in an 81-71 victory over Southern Utah.

On Thursday Montana will face a Southern Utah team that is 3-15 but has picked up two of those wins in its last five games, with a home win over Idaho State and a road win at Northern Arizona.

Southern Utah (3-15, 2-5 BSC) was swept on the road last week, falling 74-51 at Idaho and 58-41 at Eastern Washington, shooting 26.4 percent in the two losses.

Montana will then travel on to Northern Arizona, which will take a four-game losing streak into its home game on Thursday against Montana State.

The Lumberjacks (4-14, 1-6 BSC) got roughed up on the road last week as well, giving up 57 points to Delaney Hodgins and Violet Kapri Morrow in an 82-62 loss at Eastern Washington on Thursday and 33 points to Mikayla Ferenz on Saturday in an 83-68 loss at Idaho.

The games will wrap up Montana's January schedule. The Lady Griz will play five of their first seven games in February at home before closing the regular season at Weber State and Idaho State on their way to Reno.

Coverage: The games this week can be viewed at WatchBigSky.com or on Pluto TV, channel 236 on Thursday, channel 239 on Saturday. The games will air locally on KMPT (930 AM), with Tom Stage and Dick Slater.

Montana notes:

* Montana lost at Montana State on Saturday, 81-64. It was the Bobcats' fourth consecutive win over the Lady Griz in Bozeman and their fifth win in the teams' last six meetings overall.

* The 81 points allowed marked the second time this season a team has reached 80 against Montana. Marquette scored 87 on the Lady Griz in Cancun in late November.

* Since snapping its 20-game road losing streak with a 54-43 victory at North Dakota on Jan. 4, Montana has lost by 18 at Northern Colorado and by 17 at Montana State.

* The Bobcats grabbed 12 offensive rebounds against the Lady Griz on Saturday, which is far from the most Montana has given up this season, but those extra touches led to 19 second-chance points, the most allowed since giving up 25 on 23 offensive rebounds in a 70-55 loss to Gonzaga on Nov. 18.

* Montana State knocked down 11 3-pointers, matching the number Seattle hit on Dec. 13 in its 78-64 win at Dahlberg Arena. Marquette connected on 13 3-pointers against Montana in Cancun.

* Montana was 3 for 16 from the arc against Montana State, the fifth consecutive game the Lady Griz have made five or fewer since going 10 for 24 against Southern Utah. It dropped the team's season 3-point percentage to .250, which ranks last in the Big Sky and 333rd nationally out of 349 teams.

* McKenzie Johnston led Montana with 13 points and seven assists against the Bobcats, the eighth time in the last nine games she has reached double digits. Sophia Stiles came off the bench to match her season high with 11 points grab a season-high nine rebounds.

* Montana forced just six turnovers in Saturday's loss, the fewest the Lady Griz defense has created this season.

* Montana State had four of its five starters scoring in double figures. Johnston was the only starter to do that for Montana.

* Led by Stiles' 11 points and 13 combined by Hailey Nicholson and Caitlin Lonergan on 6-of-11 shooting, Montana's bench outscored Montana State's 28-19. It was the 10th time in 11 games Montana's reserves have outscored the opponent's.

* The 25 third-quarter points allowed by Montana on Saturday were the most given up in a period since Seattle put up 27 in the fourth back on Dec. 13.

* Montana's last lead on Saturday came at the 3:57 mark of the first quarter, when Stiles hit a jumper to put the Lady Griz up 10-9.

* Montana State scored 1.20 points per possession on Saturday, the most allowed by Montana this season.

* Mekayla Isaak's six points on Saturday -- on 2-of-3 shooting from the field, 2-of-2 shooting from the line -- were a season high.

* McKenzie Johnston is shooting 53.5 percent from the floor in league play, is averaging more than two steals per game (2.3/g) and has a 2.1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The state of Montana:

After sweeping Sacramento State and Portland State at home last week to improve to 5-1 in league, Montana was riding high. Then the Lady Griz traveled to Bozeman last week and had their momentum stolen by the Bobcats.

Montana State outdid Montana across the board: out-executed, out-hustled, out-fought. The result was a surprisingly one-sided game against a team that had lost three of its previous four.

"You have those games occasionally, when you just don't show up," said UM coach Shannon Schweyen. "It happens, and you just have to move on. That's what we're going to do with that one. We're going to put it behind us."

Montana State shot 11 for 26 (.423) from the arc, which wasn't surprising for a team that ranks in the top 10 nationally in 3-point shooting. What was surprising was that the Bobcats got to the basket at will off the dribble drive and out-performed the Lady Griz in the post.

MSU scored 33 points from the arc, another 38 in the paint.

"In our games prior to this, our girls really paid attention to the scouting report and abided by the things we challenged them to do," said Schweyen. "This girl only goes right, so let's make her beat us going left. Let's take away this player's favorite spin move.

"We absolutely did the opposite. That's what was frustrating to me. It's one thing to get beat, but when you give them their strengths over and over, it was frustrating that we couldn't adjust."

Montana was outrebounded by only one board, 41-40, but it felt like a dominating performance by Montana State. Maybe that's because of the game's first 19 second-chance points scored, the Bobcats came up with all of them.

It wasn't until the fourth quarter that Montana turned an offensive rebound into second-chance points. By that time the game was over.

"The lack of effort on box-outs was very disappointing," said Schweyen. "Watching the video, we had no effort in that department."

So Montana will try to make things right, starting Thursday night at Southern Utah, a team that couldn't keep the Lady Griz from scoring when they met in Missoula last month.

Of course the Thunderbirds had their way offensively as well, scoring 71 points, one of their highest outputs of the season.

Its games this week will feel like a long time coming for Southern Utah, which has played just two games at home since Dec. 5. One of those was a 76-70 win on Jan. 4 over Idaho State, which might be the league's hottest team.

"They haven't been home much, so they'll be fired up," said Schweyen. "I expect it to be a tough game."

In the teams' game at Dahlberg Arena last month, Hailey Nicholson was the difference. She hit her first seven shots and finished 8 of 9 to match her career high with 17 points.

Combined with 15 from both McKenzie Johnston and Madi Schoening, it was enough to overcome Southern Utah's Big 3.

Rebecca Cardenas, who got to the basket with regularity against Montana, scored 22 points while adding eight rebounds, five steals and four assists. Breanu Reid added 19 points and five steals, Whitney Johnson 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting and seven rebounds.

Montana shot 50 percent but also turned the ball over 20 times, which allowed Southern Utah to cut what had been a 22-point lead to single digits late in the fourth quarter.

"What Hailey did in that game was a bonus. I'm not sure we can count on someone doing that every day, so we've got to be ready to defend what they do, and it's on-ball city with those guys," said Schweyen.

"They have very athletic kids in Cardenas, Reid and Johnson and have been in some games. They haven't been blown out a ton."

On Saturday Montana will face the team against whom the Lady Griz maybe didn't save their season but certainly used to their advantage.

Playing its first game after struggling to put away Rocky Mountain right before Christmas, Montana had no answer for Northern Arizona in the early going on Dec. 28.

The Lumberjacks led 35-20 at the half and 50-29 late in the third quarter after Kenna McDavis connected on a jumper.

Montana had the lead down to 12, 52-40, by the end of the third quarter and finally caught up in the final minute of regulation, courtesy of a Stiles three-point play that put Montana up two.

Kenna McDavis hit a late shot to tie it, and the Lady Griz outscored the Lumberjacks 12-4 in overtime.

"Obviously when you're starting conference and you're at home, you want to win those games, so it was important for us to squeak that one out," said Schweyen.

"To come back like we did gave this team some confidence in the games we've played since. Knowing it's never over was a valuable lesson."

Montana shot just 20 percent in the first half, but it was the team's defense that stuck (stunk) out. Northern Arizona was getting layup after layup out of its half-court sets.

"I just remember thinking that we didn't give up easy ones like that against any of the teams we played earlier in the year," said Schweyen. "Our weak-side wasn't aware, so they were literally getting layups."

Montana not only shot better in the second half, it picked it up defensively as well, forcing 15 turnovers after halftime. Northern Arizona made just four baskets in the 15 minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime as the Lady Griz closed the game outscoring the Lumberjacks 41-12.

"We talked about it at halftime, and we did a much better job in the second half adjusting to what they were doing. And then our shots finally started falling," said Schweyen.

"And we created some tempo that was in our favor from some steals that led to fast-break opportunities. Those were huge."

Southern Utah notes: Junior guard Breanu Reid leads the team in scoring (12.2/g) but has only led the Thunderbirds in scoring in six of their 18 games. ... Rebecca Cardenas ranks second in the Big Sky in steals (3.0/g) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8) and is tied for third in assists (4.4/g). ... SUU's latest scoring difficulties has the Thunderbirds ranked last in the Big Sky (60.6/g). ... The Thunderbirds are the league's worst shooting team (.349) and also rank last in free throw percentage (.624). ... Teams are averaging more than 72 points against Southern Utah on 43.4 percent shooting.

Series: Montana leads the series against Southern Utah 15-1 and has won the teams' last six meetings. The Lady Griz are 6-1 in Cedar City. The Thunderbirds' only win in the series came at home, 69-49 in 2013-14.

Northern Arizona notes: Kenna McDavis had 18 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks in the Lumberjacks' first game against Montana, while Olivia Lucero had 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds. ... Kaleigh Paplow added 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, nine rebounds and five assists but also had seven of her team's 24 turnovers. ... Lucero led NAU in scoring and rebounding in both of its road games last week. ... The Lumberjacks are 2-6 at home this season but have two quality wins, over Arizona and Weber State. ... Northern Arizona, which is allowing 75.4 points per game, is 1-6 in league, with four losses by 15 points or more.

Series: Montana leads the series against Northern Arizona 55-11 and has won the teams' last 10 matchups. The Lady Griz have won four consecutive games at Flagstaff and are 21-7 at NAU overall. Northern Arizona's last win was a 74-70 decision at home in 2011-12.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Eastern Washington is doing that thing again where the Eagles convince everybody they're not very good, then win four straight to move into a tie for first in the Big Sky. It's happened again thanks to Delaney Hodgins, who scored 47 points in two home wins last week.

* The Eagles were able to move up to first place after the three then leaders all lost on the road on Saturday. Montana lost at Montana State, Weber State fell at Portland State, and Northern Colorado lost at North Dakota, getting outscored 45-23 in the second half to lose a 14-point halftime lead.

* The top eight teams in the league are all within a game of one another in the standings. The four leaders are 5-2, the four closest followers are Idaho State, Portland State, Montana State and Idaho, all of which are 4-3.

* After this week's road trip, seven of Montana's final nine games come against the teams who are either 5-2 or 4-3.

* The Big Sky Conference has three of the nation's top 12 teams in 3-point shooting. Idaho (10.3/g) ranks third, Montana State (9.8/g) ranks sixth and Weber State (9.4/g) ranks 12th.

* Three-dot notes: In Weber State's 78-56 win at Sacramento State on Thursday, the Wildcats held the Hornets to scoring quarters of six and eight points on their home floor. ... In Idaho State's 88-59 win at Portland State the same night, the Bengals shot 61.2 percent and held Sidney Rielly and Ashley Bolston to 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting as PSU's five starters combined to score 21 points. ... In Eastern Washington's 58-41 victory over Southern Utah on Saturday, the Eagles led 19-3 after the first quarter. ... In Portland State's 77-64 home win over Weber State on Saturday, the Vikings outscored the Wildcats 19-6 in the fourth quarter to turn a tense game into a runaway. WSU hit 13 3-pointers but shot just 36.4 percent on shots inside the arc. ... In Idaho State's 85-71 win at Sacramento State on Saturday, ISU's Grace Kenyon scored 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting. She also grabbed 13 rebounds. ... On its two-game road swing to Portland State and Sacramento State last week, Idaho State had shooting halves of 57.7, 65.2, 51.7 and 54.2 percent. That's quality road work.

* Thursday games: UM at SUU, MSU at NAU, EWU at UND, UI at UNC

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Idaho at Northern Colorado. The Big Sky's leading scorer, Mikayla Ferenz (22.8/g), and the team that has made 61 3-pointers the last five games face the preseason league favorite. UNC won the first meeting 78-72 in Moscow. The Vandals were limited to 6-of-15 shooting from the arc.

* Saturday games: UM at NAU, MSU at SUU, UI at UND, EWU at UNC, ISU at WSU, PSU at SAC

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Idaho State at Weber State. The Bengals, who are red hot, travel to Ogden, where the Wildcats have won eight straight games. Weber State won the teams' first game in Pocatello 76-70, holding Idaho State to 39.1 percent shooting.

Upcoming: Montana will host Northern Colorado and North Dakota next week as the schedule reaches February.

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Players Mentioned

Mekayla Isaak

McKenzie Johnston

Caitlin Lonergan

Hailey Nicholson

Madi Schoening

Sophia Stiles

University of Montana Athletics