Lady Griz back home for pair of games

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The Montana women's basketball team, atop the Big Sky Conference standings at the midpoint of the league schedule, opens the back half this week with home games against Northern Colorado and North Dakota, the teams picked first and second in both the media and coaches' preseason polls.

The Lady Griz (11-9, 7-2 BSC) will host the Bears (14-6, 6-3 BSC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. and the Fighting Hawks (10-10, 3-6 BSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

For starters: Montana, historically speaking, is in a familiar place as the calendar flips to February on Thursday: in first place in the Big Sky Conference standings.

Except this team was picked third in the preseason coaches' poll, fifth by the media, and that was with the assumption that both Kayleigh Valley and Alycia Harris would be at full strength. Both were medical casualties by mid-October.

So, yes, it's a bit of a surprise the Lady Griz are where they are, but not when more of a big-picture view is taken, one that dates back to last season, when Montana went 7-23 overall, 4-14 in league, but showed well toward the end of the season.

"It was encouraging the way we finished last year, and I felt the girls were ready to go this year," said second-year coach Shannon Schweyen, who had almost everyone back this season. "They took everything we learned and the hard knocks, and they moved forward and took off with that."

The Lady Griz overcame a 21-point, third-quarter deficit in their Big Sky opener against Northern Arizona on Dec. 28, snapped a 20-game road losing streak with a win at North Dakota on Jan. 4 and swept a two-game road trip last week for the first time in nearly two years.

"It's been encouraging to see these guys knock off all the things we've needed to accomplish. A road win. A road sweep. Shooting the ball better and defending people well. It's rewarding to see them have that success," said Schweyen.

Now the back half of the Big Sky schedule arrives, and it will be decidedly tougher than was the first half for Montana.

After playing at Portland State and Sacramento State next week, the Lady Griz are home for first-time opponents Eastern Washington and red-hot Idaho, then home for Montana State, which handled Montana easily in Bozeman back on Jan. 20.

Finally, first-time meetings with Weber State, which is tied with Montana atop the league standings in the loss column, and Idaho State, which is typically a team that is playing its best basketball of the season going into March. Both of those come on the road, the week before Reno.

And the margin for error is pretty slim. The top six teams in the Big Sky have either two or three losses. One bad week can be the difference between first place and middle of the pack.

"It feels great (to be in first place)," said Schweyen. "We'll celebrate that, but we're also aware that one more loss and we're back here. Two more and we're back in this big mess of teams.

"We're just preparing for each game and trying to take care of things at home and hope to get some road wins here and there. Then at the end we'll see where it falls. But I like that there is still a lot of room for us to continue to get better."

Part of the reason for Montana's January surge has been the emergence of Sophia Stiles, a fantastic defender from the opening day of practice who has come on as a scorer, and the addition of Caitlin Lonergan, who was finally cleared to play in late December after practicing with the team since January.

"With Caitlin coming on board and Sophie starting to emerge as she's gotten more comfortable with what we're doing, our shooting statistics have started to climb," said Schweyen, and that's good because Montana is now 9-0 this season when outshooting its opponent.

"It's just nice having some options when you look down the bench and see different people sitting there who you feel could go in there and give us a boost. Having options has been healthy in terms of making things competitive for us."

First up this week for Montana is Northern Colorado, this season's league favorite but a team that's lost three of its last five games. The Bears defeated the Lady Griz 68-50 in Greeley on Jan. 6, thanks largely to a 15-1 start to the game that Montana never recovered from.

Two days later it will be North Dakota, the team Montana defeated 54-43 on Jan. 4 to snap its 20-game road losing streak. The Lady Griz won despite shooting 31.7 percent. They out-rebounded the Fighting Hawks by nine and came up with 19 offensive rebounds, which led to 14 more shots than UND took.

Coverage: This week's games will air on KMPT AM 930 in the Missoula area, with Tom Stage and Dick Slater. Video coverage is available through WatchBigSky.com and Pluto TV.

Montana notes:

* The Lady Griz swept the Southern Utah-Northern Arizona trip last week, their first road sweep since defeating those same two teams in February 2016.

* Montana, which is shooting 38.8 percent for the season, shot 49.1 percent against Southern Utah, 42.6 percent against Northern Arizona. That was aided by some efficient work from the arc. The Lady Griz went 10 for 22 (.455) in the two games.

* In Montana's 74-65 win at Southern Utah on Thursday, freshman Sophia Stiles, whose previous season high was 11, scored 26 points on just 11 shots. She went 8 for 11 overall, 3 for 5 from the arc and a perfect 7 for 7 from the line.

* Stiles also added six rebounds, four assists and a block and a steal to record Montana's best efficiency rating (34) of the season. The team's previous best was Jace Henderson's rating of 30 in Montana's home win over Portland State.

* Stiles' 26 points came within one of the program's scoring record for a freshman. Mandy Morales and Taylor Goligoski, who were both redshirt freshmen at the time, share the record of 27.

* Caitlin Lonergan added a season-high 18 points against the Thunderbirds on 9-of-14 shooting to go along with a team-high nine rebounds.

* Montana fell behind 18-4 in the opening six and a half minutes of that game. As reserves off the bench and not responsible for much of that deficit, Stiles had a plus/minus of +28 when she was on the court. Lonergan was +26.

* Southern Utah averaged 1.24 points per possession in the first half and led 38-31 at the break. The Thunderbirds averaged 0.75 points per possession in the second half as Montana won its third game this season when trailing at the half.

* Montana averaged 1.13 points per possession against Southern Utah, the team's highest mark of the season, edging out Cal State Fullerton (1.11) and its first matchup against the Thunderbirds (1.11).

* In Saturday's 69-52 win at Northern Arizona, Montana led by just three at the break, 30-27, but took charge by scoring the first 17 points of the second half to build a 47-27 advantage.

* In her first career start, Stiles scored Montana's first seven points of the game and finished with eight, plus a team-high eight rebounds while playing a season-high 35 minutes.

* In Montana's most offensively balanced game in a while, seven players scored between seven and 13 points, the type of thing that has been a Lady Griz staple over the years.

* Taylor Goligoski led the way with 13 points. Her 5-of-11 shooting came two days after going 5 for 6 at Southern Utah. She went 4 for 6 from the arc in the two games.

* Speaking (or writing) of a nice two-game trip, McKenzie Johnston had 16 assists in the two games against only three turnovers. Her 2.7 assist-to-turnover ratio in league games has her ranked fourth in the Big Sky.

* Eight of Montana's 11 active players have led the team in scoring in a game this season. Same with rebounding.

* Montana has made its debut as the Big Sky representative in ESPN's Bracketology, which is no more scientific than the Worldwide Leader taking the top team from the league standings. It has Montana as a No. 16 seed playing a first-round game on the road at Louisville, a top seed along with Connecticut, Mississippi State and Notre Dame. Tough draw.

* Jace Henderson has 10 double-figure scoring games this season. She entered her redshirt junior year with one.

* Goligoski had back-to-back 13-point scoring games last week to match her season high.

* Montana's starting lineup at Northern Arizona (Henderson, Schoening, Goligoski, Stiles, Johnston) was the first one this season that did not include a senior.

* On Montana's road trip last week, the team's top three scorers, Sophia Stiles (.588), Caitlin Lonergan (.667) and Taylor Goligoski (.588) all shot better than 58 percent. Stiles averaged 17 points in the two games, Lonergan 14 points and 7.5 rebounds and Goligoski 13 points.

* Madi Schoening has twice been held scoreless in January. She rebounded from a scoreless game at Northern Colorado with 20 against Sacramento State. She also went without a point on Thursday at Southern Utah. Two days later: 10 points and seven rebounds, going 2 for 3 from the arc.

* Montana has won five straight at home and is 8-3 at Dahlberg Arena this season.

* Among Montana's nonconference opponents, Wyoming (14-5, 7-1) leads the Mountain West, Gonzaga (17-4, 10-0) leads the West Coast, Marquette (14-7, 8-2) is tied atop the Big East and Stephen F. Austin (16-3, 8-0) leads the Southland.

* Montana made 19 more field goals last week than did Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. ... The Lady Griz have had more assists than turnovers in each of their last four games.

* Montana's bench outscored Southern Utah's and Northern Arizona's 67-18 and has outscored the opponent's in 12 of the last 13 games by an average of nearly 16 points per game.

Montana-Northern Colorado (Part I): In a matchup of 3-0 teams in Greeley earlier this month, it was all Bears early on as UNC jumped out to a 15-1 lead. The Lady Griz trailed 37-22 at the half and never got closer than 14 in the second half.

Courtney Smith scored eight of her 12 points in the game's first four minutes as Montana struggled to contain Northern Colorado, which hit six of its first eight shots and connected at 45.5 percent for the game.

"I wish we had the first six minutes to do over," said Schweyen, "because I truly feel after that we played fairly even after that. We talked about what we wanted to do defensively, and they got layups on us. It was disheartening."

Smith scored 16 points two weekends ago in Northern Colorado's loss at North Dakota but didn't play on Thursday in the Bears' home loss to Idaho. UNC announced on Saturday that she was no longer on the team.

Six-foot-three sophomore Bridget Hintz moved into a starting role in Smith's absence and averaged 9.5 points on 70 percent shooting and 4.0 rebounds in two games last week.

"With Smith leaving the team, Hintz is doing well, so I don't think that's a huge, huge loss for them," said Schweyen. "They still have very talented guards."

Senior Savannah Scott is averaging 17.2 points per game, while junior Savannah Smith is averaging 16.9. They combined for 24 in Northern Colorado's win over Montana and also had 13 assists.

"We have to do a better job containing them," said Schweyen. "They got to the hole too easily on us for easy ones."

Montana turned it over 10 times in the first half, which played a part in its 15-point halftime deficit, just five in the second half.

"We did not pass and catch very well in that game. We've got to be stronger with the ball. It was one of those games when nearly everybody had a hard time holding on to the ball. We were out of sorts," said Schweyen.

"But credit also to them. They are good on defense. They are quick and recover well."

Since the first meeting: The Bears are just 2-3 since defeating Montana, though all three losses came in tight games.

UNC was in a one-point game at Weber State in the fourth quarter before losing by nine, led 47-33 at the half at North Dakota before giving up a big second-half comeback and was in a fourth-quarter tie at home against Idaho on Thursday before losing by eight.

History: Montana leads the all-time series against Northern Colorado 17-8, though the Bears have won the last two meetings by a combined 37 points. The Lady Griz are 9-3 at home against UNC, including wins in the 2013 and '15 Big Sky tournament championship games.

Montana-North Dakota (Part I): The Lady Griz used a big second quarter to build a 26-21 halftime lead, then led the entire second half to snap a four-game losing streak to the Fighting Hawks and a five-game skid in Grand Forks.

Lexi Klabo finished with 21 points and eight rebounds, but her teammates went just 7 for 30. North Dakota shot 2 for 20 from 3-point range after knocking down 26 triples in its previous three games.

North Dakota's second-leading scorer, Fallyn Freije, scored just seven points, and Jill Morton, who has averaged 15 points in the six games since, had just three in 36 minutes.

"We didn't want both Klabo and Freije to have big games on us," said Schweyen. "We knew they'd score some, but we wanted to contain them as best we could.

"They'd just come off some games when they'd had some really good outside shooting from their perimeters. The girls really followed the game plan well in that respect. We got to shooters and we somewhat made it tough for (Klabo and Freije) to get a lot of good looks inside."

Caitlin Lonergan scored a team-high 12 points off the bench for Montana, which celebrated afterwards the end of its 20-game road losing streak and a win on its last trip to Grand Forks with both teams members of the Big Sky.

"It was a fun locker room," said Schweyen. "There was big-time excitement from the coaching staff to the kids to finally get that elusive road win we'd been waiting for.

"And it was fun to win it in front of some people. It's one thing to get a road win at some of the places in the Big Sky when there is nobody there. It's always fun to do that in front of a crowd."

Montana may have lost its next two road games, both one-sided decisions at Northern Colorado and Montana State, but the Lady Griz got back to it last week with two more road wins.

"I like that we're starting to walk onto the floor now expecting to win," said Schweyen. "They believe they can beat anybody, and I don't think that happened last year, with our youth and lack of road wins.

"That's a very important belief to have, but I'm not going to be fooled into anything. I look at the second half of our schedule and know it's going to be tough. It's going to be very demanding. We've got some really tough teams, some tough home games, some rough road games."

Since the first meeting: After scoring 43 points against Montana on Jan. 4, North Dakota scored 39 first-half points two days later and went on to defeat Montana State at home 79-70.

The Fighting Hawks got swept on the Idaho State-Weber State trip, then returned home to top Northern Colorado and Eastern Washington before falling on Saturday to Idaho and Geraldine McCorkell, 78-64. McCorkell, this week's Big Sky Player of the Week, had 34 points and nine rebounds.

Klabo continues to lead North Dakota in both scoring (17.9/g) and rebounding (8.4/g), while Freije contributes 13.9 and 8.4. Morton's recent uptick in scoring has increased her season average to 10.5 points, giving UND three in double figures.

History: Montana's win at Grand Forks earlier this month evened the series at 8-8. The Lady Griz are 5-1 at home against the Fighting Hawks, who picked up their first win in Missoula on their most recent visit, 61-59 on a last-second Mia Loyd basket on a baseline inbounds in January 2016.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Idaho (10-10, 6-3 BSC) isn't in first place but may be the hottest team in the league, winner of four straight and five of six. In six of the Vandals' last nine games, their leading scorer (Mikayla Ferenz five times, Geraldine McCorkell once) has topped 30 points.

* Montana State (12-8, 6-3 BSC) swept the same Northern Arizona-Southern Utah trip as Montana last week to win its fourth straight and move to 6-3, another of the teams right on the heels of the Lady Griz.

* Weber State (14-5, 6-2 BSC) could very well be in a first-place tie with Montana when the Lady Griz tip off against Northern Colorado on Thursday night. The Wildcats host Southern Utah at noon that afternoon in their annual school-day game.

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

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Portland State at Idaho. It was fireworks the last time these two teams met, on Jan. 6 in Portland, with the Vandals winning 101-90. Mikayla Ferenz scored 39, Geraldine McCorkell 23 and Taylor Pierce 22 for Idaho, which hit 15 3-pointers and shot 59.0 percent overall.

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

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Northern Arizona at Weber State. One of the Wildcats' two league losses this season surprisingly came on the road at Flagstaff. This one will likely have a different outcome, especially if NAU's Olivia Lucero continues to miss games due to injury.

Upcoming: Montana will play games next week at Portland State and Sacramento State, teams the Lady Griz swept at home in January.

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Players Mentioned

Taylor Goligoski

Alycia Harris

Jace Henderson

McKenzie Johnston

Caitlin Lonergan

Madi Schoening

Sophia Stiles

Kayleigh Valley

University of Montana Athletics