Lady Griz start three-game home stand

The Montana women's basketball team will open a three-game home stand this week when it hosts Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado at Dahlberg Arena.

The Lady Griz will face the Eagles at 7 p.m. on Thursday, the defending Big Sky Conference champion Bears on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The home stand will conclude with a game against preseason league favorite Idaho on Saturday, Jan. 19.

Opening tips:

* Montana is 8-5 overall and tied for second in the Big Sky standings with a 3-1 league record. The Lady Griz upped their winning streak to four games on Thursday with an 88-86 double-overtime victory at Sacramento State, then suffered their first conference loss at Portland State on Saturday, 78-60.

The win on Thursday at The Nest snapped Montana's five-game losing streak on Sacramento State's home court. On Saturday, the Vikings led 29-9 after the first quarter, shot 21 for 28 (.750) in the first half and finished at 57.1 percent shooting for the game.

It's the best an opponent has shot against the Lady Griz since Notre Dame went 33 for 53 (.623) in the opening round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

* After facing Idaho at home on Jan. 19, the Lady Griz won't play another game inside Dahlberg Arena until Feb. 14, following three straight weeks on the road.

First it's a trip to Idaho State and Weber State, then a single-game week at Montana State, finally a trip to Idaho and Eastern Washington.

* Thursday is Montana's Set The Expectation game, with the Lady Griz wearing purple and teal ribbons to mark the occasion. Saturday is Youth Day, with kids 12 and under who wear a jersey getting free admittance. The Lady Griz will be signing posters following the game.

* Eastern Washington is 2-11 and has just one Division I win this season, its 64-58 road win at Weber State on Dec. 29. The Eagles' only other victory this year was a 66-45 home win over Eastern Oregon.

On the other hand, Eastern Washington played now 15-1 Gonzaga to a 12-point game and did the same thing on the road at Boise State, which is 11-2. And on Monday, the Eagles almost handed Northern Colorado its first league loss, falling 67-62 in overtime in Cheney.

* Northern Colorado won the Big Sky regular-season and tournament titles last year but lost the leader of their program at season's end when Kamie Ethridge departed for the Pac-12 and the head job at Washington State.

The Bears found Ethridge's replacement in the Pac-12, former UCLA assistant Jenny Huth.

Given so much uncertainty, it's understandable that Northern Colorado was picked fourth in the preseason coaches' poll. That may still turn out to be the case, but through two weeks of league games, the Bears sit in a familiar spot, atop the league standings at 4-0, 9-4 overall.

UNC opened its Big Sky schedule with a home sweep of Sacramento State and Portland State, outscoring the Hornets and Vikings in the first quarter by a combined 59-12.

On Saturday the Bears outscored Idaho 32-12 in the fourth quarter on the road to pick up a big 86-72 win in Moscow, then finished off the road-trip sweep in Cheney on Monday.

* Northern Colorado is the last unbeaten team in the league at 4-0 (UNC's men's team can claim the same thing). Four teams trail the Bears at 3-1: Montana, Montana State, Idaho and Idaho State. UNC will play at Montana on Saturday, then host Montana State on Monday in Greeley.

* Portland State, at 2-1, is also a one-loss team. That gives the league a strong top six, which matters because only the top five at regular season's end will earn a bye out of the first round of the 11-team tournament in Boise.

The bottom six teams, who will open the tournament on Monday, March 11, would have to win four games in five days to win the championship. The top five seeds, who won't play until Tuesday, March 12, would have to win three games in four days.

* Montana has lost four straight games to both Eastern Washington and Northern Colorado. It's the most consecutive wins for both the Eagles and the Bears ever in their series with the Lady Griz.

* Saturday's game between Montana and Northern Colorado will feature the two Big Sky teams with the highest RPIs. Northern Colorado checks in at 63, Montana at 73. No other team in the Big Sky ranks in the top 100.

* Montana was the team of choice by ESPN last week to be the Big Sky's representative in its mock NCAA Tournament field. This week it's the Bears, a No. 12 seed facing No. 5 California in Spokane.

Montana Notes:

* The Lady Griz opened both last season and this year 3-0 in league but then lost by 18 points on the road to drop to 3-1: 68-50 at Northern Colorado last winter, 78-60 at Portland State this year.

* Montana's double-overtime win at The Nest on Thursday was its first in that venue since the 2011-12 season.

* It was Montana's first double-overtime game since a 78-76 loss at Utah in 1991-92.

* Five players reached double figures against the Hornets, including two freshmen -- Katie Mayhue and Carmen Gfeller -- off the bench.

* Jace Henderson (48), Gabi Harrington (43) and Mayhue (42) all played more than 40 minutes.

* Henderson and Harrington made it back-to-back games with both posting double-doubles. They did it first against Southern Utah on Dec. 31. Against the Hornets, Harrington had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Henderson 17 points and 10 rebounds. It was the ninth career double-double for Henderson.

* Mayhue went 5 for 10 from the 3-point line at Sacramento State. It was the most triples made in a game for the Lady Griz since Taylor Goligoski went 6 for 6 against Incarnate Word in November 2016.

* Mayhue went 2 for 2 from 3-point range at Portland State, making her 7 for 12 for the road trip. Her teammates went 3 for 29.

* On Saturday at Portland State, the Vikings made their first six shots and 10 of their first 11 and never looked back.

* Montana had four players in double figures and had a season-low eight turnovers, but its 31.8 percent shooting performance was its worst of the season.

* Montana got a split of last week's road trip despite leading for less than 10 of the 90 minutes played.

* Carmen Gfeller averaged 12.5 points on 54.5 percent shooting and 5.0 rebounds in the two games.

* Since cracking the starting lineup prior to the Husky Classic -- now six games -- Gabi Harrington is averaging 12 points on 41.9 percent shooting and 6.8 rebounds.

* After doing it on Thursday, Montana has now twice this season won when trailing at the half: at home against UC Davis (trailed 30-25, won 62-56) and on the road at Sacramento State (trailed 38-34, won 88-86). The Lady Griz are 6-0 when leading at the half.

* Montana is 4-0 this season when coming off a loss, which the Lady Griz did in their last game on Saturday at Portland State.

* Montana is 8-0 this season when shooting better than 40 percent, 0-5 when shooting worse than 40 percent, with an average margin of defeat in those games of 25.8 points.

* Saturday's loss at Portland State marked the first time this season in nine games when Montana has scored 60 or more points and fallen.

* Gabi Harrington's 18 points at Sacramento State on Thursday were a career high.

* Portland State's 50 first-half points scored on Saturday wasn't the most allowed by Montana in a half this season. Arizona put up 53 first-half points back on Dec. 5.

* Jace Henderson ranks second in the Big Sky in field goal percentage (.553), third in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8), sixth in assists (4.3/g) and seventh in rebounds (7.5/g).

What to watch for (Eastern Washington):

* After going 17-14 last year behind Delaney Hodgins, the Eagles had a major roster turnover, with six players departing, including Hodgins and her 2,120 career points, and eight newcomers arriving.

* Eastern Washington was picked fifth in the preseason media poll, seventh in the coaches' poll.

* Senior guard Violet Kapri Morrow, the team's lone player averaging in double figures (17.5/g), has scored 993 career points. She'll likely become the program's 18th player to reach 1,000 career points on Thursday night.

* In the Eagles' lone Division I and Big Sky win this year, EWU outscored Weber State 20-4 in the fourth quarter to rally for a 64-58 win.

* The team's second-leading scorer is guard Grace Kirscher, a freshman from Sandpoint, Idaho.

* The Eagles are the Big Sky's lowest scoring team, at 56.4 points per game, and rank ahead of only Sacramento State in shooting at 35.7 percent.

* Coach Wendy Schuller is in her 18th year at Eastern Washington.

* Montana is 42-6 against Eastern Washington in Missoula but four of the Eagles' six wins have come in the last eight seasons. They've won on their last two trips to Dahlberg Arena, including 75-72 last year behind Hodgins' 24 points and EWU's 11 3-pointers (on 21 attempts).

The Lady Griz went 1 for 11 from the arc and missed 12 free throws and were still in a two-point game with two minutes to go.

What to watch for (Northern Colorado):

* The first sign the Bears were going to be okay with a new coaching staff in place: opening the season with eight- and five-point losses at Colorado and LSU, two teams now 20-8.

* Confirmation: Winning game No. 3, 74-66 at home over Denver, the team sitting atop the Summit League standings after last week's win over South Dakota. Yes, that South Dakota.

* Senior guard Savannah Smith is back for her final season, which is a treat for fans, not so much for opposing coaches who have to game-plan for her. She was the Big Sky's regular-season and tournament MVP last year. She leads the team at 17.9 points per game.

* Smith is averaging 21.8 points through four league games and has gotten recent scoring help from freshman guard Micayla Isenbart, who is averaging 14.3 points in league.

* Northern Colorado used just six players in its road win at Idaho on Saturday. The Bears turned the ball over only 11 times and went 8 for 9 from the arc in the second half, 11 for 20 for the game to beat the Vandals at their own game.

* Smith led UNC on Monday at Eastern Washington, a game neither team held a lead of more than six points. She scored 25 points but needed 27 shots to get it done. She was 1 for 12 from the arc. The Bears finished 6 for 28 (.214) from three.

* Northern Colorado defeated Montana three times last season: 68-50 in Greeley, 64-58 in Missoula behind Smith's 18 second-half points and 78-69 in Reno in the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals. The Bears hit nine 3-pointers in the first half and finished 12 for 28 for the game.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Thursday's schedule: EWU at UM, ISU at WSU, UI at MSU

* Game to monitor: Idaho at Montana State -- How do the Vandals respond to imploding against the Bears on Saturday? Idaho led 67-62 with seven minutes to play in the fourth quarter before allowing Northern Colorado to score the game's next 19 points.

* Saturdays' schedule: UNC at UM, SAC at ISU, PSU at WSU, SUU at NAU

* Game to monitor: With nothing of intrigue taking place elsewhere and all four games starting at 2 p.m., give all your focus to Montana and Northern Colorado.

* Monday's game: Montana State at Northern Colorado

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Players Mentioned

Carmen Gfeller

Taylor Goligoski

Gabi Harrington

Jace Henderson

Katie Mayhue

University of Montana Athletics