Henderson’s big game years in the making
1/22/2019 5:36:00 PM | Women's Basketball
With all the buzz surrounding her performance on Saturday in her team's win over Idaho at Dahlberg Arena, it's instructive to keep the following in mind: Jace Henderson didn't come to Montana to play basketball.
She arrived on campus in August 2014, one of the incoming freshmen on the Griz volleyball team.
It made sense. The setter was named the Gatorade Montana Volleyball Player of the Year as a junior and senior after leading Billings Senior to back-to-back state titles, the Lady Broncs losing just one match over two seasons. She was the gem of then coach Jerry Wagner's recruiting class.
But it also didn't make sense, especially after Wagner was let go following the season. The daughter of Brian Henderson, who spent 13 years as the women's basketball coach at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, wanted to pursue the same profession as her father.
And just down the hall from the volleyball offices sat Robin Selvig, head of the Lady Griz basketball program, one of the best to ever coach the game. "I want to learn all the things he has to teach me as a player and future coach," Henderson said back then, after switching programs.
It didn't take much and was done without much fanfare, just a one-person tryout with then assistant coach Shannon Schweyen in the quiet of Dahlberg Arena on a spring day, after the basketball season had concluded.
It wasn't as if Henderson needed to introduce herself to the Lady Griz coaching staff. She had made a name for herself in the state not just in volleyball but basketball and track and field as well.
But she had made an early commitment to play volleyball in college, so the Lady Griz ended their recruitment.
"I'd seen her play in high school, so I knew she was a good player and athlete," says Schweyen, the program's primary recruiter back then. "But everyone knew what a great setter she was and how she was going to go volleyball."
The tryout that day, now nearly four years ago, took less than half an hour. "I shot with her for 25 minutes and said, 'She's good enough,' " said Schweyen.
Read by itself, she's good enough is hardly a glowing endorsement. It suggests Henderson was on campus and an easy pickup. What the heck, let's add her. One less player we have to recruit. It's not quite what Schweyen means. At all.
She had done a full background search on Henderson, including reaching out to her own former high school coach at Billings Central, Larry Tocci, who was still tied into the basketball scene in Henderson's hometown.
"I heard nothing but exceptional things about her leadership skills and that she was the kind of kid who would speak up in tough situations and say the right things," said Schweyen.
With those qualities as a known, and something any coaching staff would be happy to add to its locker room, the tryout was to check on her skills. She's good enough meant there was something there to work with, even if it was far from being a finished product.
With everything else she'd bring to the program, Henderson was worth the spot on the roster, no matter what kind of player she would become.
With Kayleigh Valley and Alycia Sims doing work in 2015-16, in what would be Selvig's final season, Henderson barely got a chance to dip her toe into the water, averaging just six minutes in the games she did play.
Here's the thing that sticks out to Schweyen today: Henderson was the exact same person that season as she is in 2018-19, even after putting up a career-high 31 points on Idaho on Saturday on 13-of-17 shooting.
Whether she had a starring role or whether she didn't play at all, Henderson's emotional investment and involvement was always the same. She was all in, always about the team first, her teammates second and herself way, way below that.
She got more minutes, still just 12 per game, two seasons ago, in Schweyen's first year after replacing Selvig. The effort was always there -- her 47 offensive rebounds, despite limited playing time, led the team -- but she was still out of sync with the game she was playing.
She shot just 32.1 percent, with many of her 84 attempts that season not coming out of the offense but through rebound put-backs that she had a hard time converting into what should have been easy baskets. Even free throw shooting -- 47.5 percent for the season -- was a struggle.
"It was a good thing-bad thing with Jace that season," says Schweyen. "She'd do nice things in the post, but she struggled finishing."
But the person never changed and the work kept getting put in, extra, whether it was just her or with some teammates or with a coach when no one else was watching. "Credit to her. She really went to work and her game started coming together," said Schweyen.
The rewards began coming last season, when Henderson, now in a starting role, averaged 8.8 points on 47.4 percent shooting and a team-high 7.2 rebounds.
She wasn't named the team's Most Improved Player, but it's an award she could have won. Instead she was voted both Most Valuable and Most Inspirational, a coupling that defines her as well as anything.
What Henderson did to the Vandals three days ago wasn't totally out of character. She'd shot 50 percent or better in 12 of the team's first 15 games this season prior to Saturday.
What was out of character was that she had to force herself to be selfish, just this once, for the good of the team. She took 17 shots, most by a Lady Griz player this season. And don't think it didn't cross her mind as she took shot after shot. Who cares that 13 went in?
"I've never taken 17 shots in a game in my life," she says. "I definitely thought after the game that that was a lot."
But, for that game anyway, it was the best thing she could do to help her team. Idaho mostly defended her with a single player, positioned directly between her and the basket. All those hours and hours of work? This is when it paid off.
There were jump hooks, up and unders, mid-range jumpers, sweeping moves that spanned the width of the lane. Her entire arsenal was on full display, with the strength necessary to get herself into position, teammates who wanted to get her the ball and the soft touch to finish.
"That was my role that game," says Henderson, who continues to lead the team in assists as a post player. "I had to take advantage of the fact they were going one-on-one so I could either open up things for other girls or help keep our team in the game."
Still, those 17 shots were an uncomfortable total. "I tried to look at it as a team-mentality kind of thing."
For as effective as Henderson was, Idaho refused to change. For the most part, one player would defend Henderson, and the Vandals would take their chances that 3-point specialists Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce would produce enough to out-point anything the shorthanded Lady Griz could put up.
"They have strong, physical post defenders, and I think that's what they were hoping to do by just playing us one-on-one," says Henderson. "At some point I thought I might see more of a double, so I was expecting to pass out more. But when they didn't, I just decided, okay, I've got to stay aggressive."
She can credit her teammates for that. Montana is shooting 43.0 percent this season, up from 35.1 percent in Schweyen's first year, 39.8 last year.
There are just more players making shots, which is forcing opposing coaching staffs to decide how they want to defend Montana this winter. Idaho chose its course and ultimately got tagged with a loss in the end.
But opt to double Henderson, and she'll likely find the right player with the kick-out pass. More than ever, Montana is taking advantage of those looks.
"Credit my teammates for sure," Henderson says. "They are hitting open shots and making themselves such a threat that teams have to decide what threat they are going to try to take away, and that's huge."
If Henderson's performance on Saturday was that of a maestro, Sammy Fatkin played the role of first violin, the team's success not happening without both doing their thing at a high level, in sweet harmony.
Fatkin had scored 19 points through her first six games as a Lady Griz and was 1 for 17 the previous four before Saturday. It's why Idaho coach Jon Newlee would have been fine with Henderson going off for 31 had he known his team was on its way to scoring 79 on the road.
With Taylor Goligoski and Katie Mayhue out, who else for Montana was going to bridge the gap between Henderson's 31 and the points the Vandals would put up? It made sense, both on paper and based on what could have been expected.
Even Montana's coaches thought they would need to hold the Vandals in the 60s if the Lady Griz were going to have a chance to win.
It's why Newlee tagged Fatkin the x-factor, after she doubled her season scoring output with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, with some big baskets early in the fourth quarter, when Idaho was threatening to open a multiple-possession gap on the scoreboard.
And there was McKenzie Johnston's five assists and no turnovers. And Gabi Harrington's latest double-double. Even Jordyn Schweyen came off the bench to knock down a first-half triple, the only bench points of the game for Montana. In a three-point outcome, that was as big a shot as any.
Montana has now had 30 wins with Schweyen as head coach, but none of the previous victories felt quite like Saturday did. A really good team played a really good game, and Montana was just a little bit better.
It felt like the old days inside Dahlberg Arena, high-level basketball from opening tip to final shot, and when it's Montana, with its 24 conference championships, that's a good thing.
It's wasn't all because of Henderson, but on Saturday she was the easy player to highlight. After all, her previous career high was 18 points.
She is a bit old school, the antithesis of the player who wants everything now, for herself, without having to work for it or earn it. She wasn't ready when she first became a Lady Griz, and she knew it, but it never affected her buy-in. She didn't grumble. She didn't cause problems or create drama.
Instead she got to work, hoping her day, her moment, would arrive. On Saturday it did.
"I've had to develop my game in different ways the last four years," she says. "I've just listened to my coaches and done what I needed to do to help make our team the best it could be." Someone call the engraver. That needs to go on a plaque inside the Lady Griz locker room.
It's why Montana took a chance on a volleyball player four years ago, not on what she was but on what it was banking she could become. And everything she could offer the program and her teammates while everyone watched and waited for Saturday to arrive. We are all witnesses.
She arrived on campus in August 2014, one of the incoming freshmen on the Griz volleyball team.
It made sense. The setter was named the Gatorade Montana Volleyball Player of the Year as a junior and senior after leading Billings Senior to back-to-back state titles, the Lady Broncs losing just one match over two seasons. She was the gem of then coach Jerry Wagner's recruiting class.
But it also didn't make sense, especially after Wagner was let go following the season. The daughter of Brian Henderson, who spent 13 years as the women's basketball coach at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, wanted to pursue the same profession as her father.
And just down the hall from the volleyball offices sat Robin Selvig, head of the Lady Griz basketball program, one of the best to ever coach the game. "I want to learn all the things he has to teach me as a player and future coach," Henderson said back then, after switching programs.
It didn't take much and was done without much fanfare, just a one-person tryout with then assistant coach Shannon Schweyen in the quiet of Dahlberg Arena on a spring day, after the basketball season had concluded.
It wasn't as if Henderson needed to introduce herself to the Lady Griz coaching staff. She had made a name for herself in the state not just in volleyball but basketball and track and field as well.
But she had made an early commitment to play volleyball in college, so the Lady Griz ended their recruitment.
"I'd seen her play in high school, so I knew she was a good player and athlete," says Schweyen, the program's primary recruiter back then. "But everyone knew what a great setter she was and how she was going to go volleyball."
The tryout that day, now nearly four years ago, took less than half an hour. "I shot with her for 25 minutes and said, 'She's good enough,' " said Schweyen.
Read by itself, she's good enough is hardly a glowing endorsement. It suggests Henderson was on campus and an easy pickup. What the heck, let's add her. One less player we have to recruit. It's not quite what Schweyen means. At all.
She had done a full background search on Henderson, including reaching out to her own former high school coach at Billings Central, Larry Tocci, who was still tied into the basketball scene in Henderson's hometown.
"I heard nothing but exceptional things about her leadership skills and that she was the kind of kid who would speak up in tough situations and say the right things," said Schweyen.
With those qualities as a known, and something any coaching staff would be happy to add to its locker room, the tryout was to check on her skills. She's good enough meant there was something there to work with, even if it was far from being a finished product.
With everything else she'd bring to the program, Henderson was worth the spot on the roster, no matter what kind of player she would become.
With Kayleigh Valley and Alycia Sims doing work in 2015-16, in what would be Selvig's final season, Henderson barely got a chance to dip her toe into the water, averaging just six minutes in the games she did play.
Here's the thing that sticks out to Schweyen today: Henderson was the exact same person that season as she is in 2018-19, even after putting up a career-high 31 points on Idaho on Saturday on 13-of-17 shooting.
Whether she had a starring role or whether she didn't play at all, Henderson's emotional investment and involvement was always the same. She was all in, always about the team first, her teammates second and herself way, way below that.
She got more minutes, still just 12 per game, two seasons ago, in Schweyen's first year after replacing Selvig. The effort was always there -- her 47 offensive rebounds, despite limited playing time, led the team -- but she was still out of sync with the game she was playing.
She shot just 32.1 percent, with many of her 84 attempts that season not coming out of the offense but through rebound put-backs that she had a hard time converting into what should have been easy baskets. Even free throw shooting -- 47.5 percent for the season -- was a struggle.
"It was a good thing-bad thing with Jace that season," says Schweyen. "She'd do nice things in the post, but she struggled finishing."
But the person never changed and the work kept getting put in, extra, whether it was just her or with some teammates or with a coach when no one else was watching. "Credit to her. She really went to work and her game started coming together," said Schweyen.
The rewards began coming last season, when Henderson, now in a starting role, averaged 8.8 points on 47.4 percent shooting and a team-high 7.2 rebounds.
She wasn't named the team's Most Improved Player, but it's an award she could have won. Instead she was voted both Most Valuable and Most Inspirational, a coupling that defines her as well as anything.
What Henderson did to the Vandals three days ago wasn't totally out of character. She'd shot 50 percent or better in 12 of the team's first 15 games this season prior to Saturday.
What was out of character was that she had to force herself to be selfish, just this once, for the good of the team. She took 17 shots, most by a Lady Griz player this season. And don't think it didn't cross her mind as she took shot after shot. Who cares that 13 went in?
"I've never taken 17 shots in a game in my life," she says. "I definitely thought after the game that that was a lot."
But, for that game anyway, it was the best thing she could do to help her team. Idaho mostly defended her with a single player, positioned directly between her and the basket. All those hours and hours of work? This is when it paid off.
There were jump hooks, up and unders, mid-range jumpers, sweeping moves that spanned the width of the lane. Her entire arsenal was on full display, with the strength necessary to get herself into position, teammates who wanted to get her the ball and the soft touch to finish.
"That was my role that game," says Henderson, who continues to lead the team in assists as a post player. "I had to take advantage of the fact they were going one-on-one so I could either open up things for other girls or help keep our team in the game."
Still, those 17 shots were an uncomfortable total. "I tried to look at it as a team-mentality kind of thing."
For as effective as Henderson was, Idaho refused to change. For the most part, one player would defend Henderson, and the Vandals would take their chances that 3-point specialists Mikayla Ferenz and Taylor Pierce would produce enough to out-point anything the shorthanded Lady Griz could put up.
"They have strong, physical post defenders, and I think that's what they were hoping to do by just playing us one-on-one," says Henderson. "At some point I thought I might see more of a double, so I was expecting to pass out more. But when they didn't, I just decided, okay, I've got to stay aggressive."
She can credit her teammates for that. Montana is shooting 43.0 percent this season, up from 35.1 percent in Schweyen's first year, 39.8 last year.
There are just more players making shots, which is forcing opposing coaching staffs to decide how they want to defend Montana this winter. Idaho chose its course and ultimately got tagged with a loss in the end.
But opt to double Henderson, and she'll likely find the right player with the kick-out pass. More than ever, Montana is taking advantage of those looks.
"Credit my teammates for sure," Henderson says. "They are hitting open shots and making themselves such a threat that teams have to decide what threat they are going to try to take away, and that's huge."
If Henderson's performance on Saturday was that of a maestro, Sammy Fatkin played the role of first violin, the team's success not happening without both doing their thing at a high level, in sweet harmony.
Fatkin had scored 19 points through her first six games as a Lady Griz and was 1 for 17 the previous four before Saturday. It's why Idaho coach Jon Newlee would have been fine with Henderson going off for 31 had he known his team was on its way to scoring 79 on the road.
With Taylor Goligoski and Katie Mayhue out, who else for Montana was going to bridge the gap between Henderson's 31 and the points the Vandals would put up? It made sense, both on paper and based on what could have been expected.
Even Montana's coaches thought they would need to hold the Vandals in the 60s if the Lady Griz were going to have a chance to win.
It's why Newlee tagged Fatkin the x-factor, after she doubled her season scoring output with 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting, with some big baskets early in the fourth quarter, when Idaho was threatening to open a multiple-possession gap on the scoreboard.
And there was McKenzie Johnston's five assists and no turnovers. And Gabi Harrington's latest double-double. Even Jordyn Schweyen came off the bench to knock down a first-half triple, the only bench points of the game for Montana. In a three-point outcome, that was as big a shot as any.
Montana has now had 30 wins with Schweyen as head coach, but none of the previous victories felt quite like Saturday did. A really good team played a really good game, and Montana was just a little bit better.
It felt like the old days inside Dahlberg Arena, high-level basketball from opening tip to final shot, and when it's Montana, with its 24 conference championships, that's a good thing.
It's wasn't all because of Henderson, but on Saturday she was the easy player to highlight. After all, her previous career high was 18 points.
She is a bit old school, the antithesis of the player who wants everything now, for herself, without having to work for it or earn it. She wasn't ready when she first became a Lady Griz, and she knew it, but it never affected her buy-in. She didn't grumble. She didn't cause problems or create drama.
Instead she got to work, hoping her day, her moment, would arrive. On Saturday it did.
"I've had to develop my game in different ways the last four years," she says. "I've just listened to my coaches and done what I needed to do to help make our team the best it could be." Someone call the engraver. That needs to go on a plaque inside the Lady Griz locker room.
It's why Montana took a chance on a volleyball player four years ago, not on what she was but on what it was banking she could become. And everything she could offer the program and her teammates while everyone watched and waited for Saturday to arrive. We are all witnesses.
Players Mentioned
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
G
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's Basketball
F
/ Women's BasketballUM vs Weber State Highlights
Saturday, April 04
Griz Softball vs. Seattle Highlights - 3/24/26
Monday, March 30
2026 Griz Softball Hype Video
Monday, March 30
2006 Griz Basketball Flashback: NCAA Tournament Win Over Nevada
Monday, March 30
