Lady Griz host Warriors in first exhibition

The Montana women's basketball team will host Lewis-Clark State on Friday at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena as the Lady Griz play their first of two preseason exhibition games.

Montana will welcome Carroll to town on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for its second exhibition game, then open the regular season hosting MSU Northern on Tuesday, Nov. 5, at 11:30 a.m. in the third annual Lady Griz School Day game.

Now in their 19th year under coach Brian Orr, the Warriors will give Montana exactly what fourth-year Lady Griz coach Shannon Schweyen wants from an opponent in late October: a game Montana should win but will have to execute and play well to do so.

Orr has been doing it at an NAIA school, but he's had Selvig-level success in his program. The Montana native's teams have won 20 or more games in 16 of his 18 seasons at the school.

Nine times the Warriors have won 25 or more games under Orr, two times 30 or more.

Three seasons ago, in 2016-17, Lewis-Clark State played for an NAIA national championship. Last year the Warriors advanced to the quarterfinals.

"He always does a nice job with his teams. They'll know what they're doing out there for sure," said Schweyen.

"They'll be organized and run really good things, and they are always really good defensively. That's one of the reasons we wanted to play them. We wanted someone who would be a very challenging game for us."

Lewis-Clark State lost its two leading scorers from last season, both of whom were six-footers and voted All-Frontier Conference as seniors.

Headlining the returners is junior guard Jansen Edmiston, who led the team in scoring in 2017-18 before missing last season with an injury.

The Warriors were picked for a fourth-place finish in the seven-team Frontier Conference preseason poll, collecting one first-place vote.

The game will come just three days after Montana made its public debut on Tuesday evening with the Maroon-Silver scrimmage.

While it was difficult to take too much away from a scrimmage that featured defenders who knew the plays being run and players shifting between teams at the quarter and halftime breaks, there were some good signs.

No matter their makeup, both teams shot better than 44 percent and combined for more than 110 points in 34 minutes.

"There were a lot of good things. It was nice to see us shoot the ball fairly well in a variety of ways," said Schweyen.

Defensive intensity stood out to Schweyen as well, and not in a good way.

She'll get her wish on Friday. On Tuesday, everyone played good minutes simply because of numbers. Against the Warriors, she can be a bit more discriminating who is on the court.

"What really makes people understand is you won't be playing if you don't figure those things out," she said. "It comes down to the kids who want to talk and communicate and take charge out there. Those are the kids who are going to get to be on the floor.

"We've got options right now, so it's pretty easy to make those decisions."

A number of players had nice scoring games in Tuesday's scrimmage. Nobody was quite as good as junior Sammy Fatkin though.

She led all scorers with 19 points, going 8 for 12, 3 of 4 from the arc. She also collected five steals.

Fatkin, a transfer from Arizona, was declared eligible in late December. She played in the team's final 21 games last season, starting the final 15.

She averaged 7.2 points and had some big scoring games. She poured in 19 in Montana's home win over Idaho and scored 16 in the team's road win at Weber State.

"She worked awfully hard this summer on her game," said Schweyen. "She's a good penetrator, she's got a nice pull-up jumper that allows her to shoot over people, and she shoots the three well."

A handful of players made their return from injury on Tuesday, and overall the offseason roster turnover was minimal. Jace Henderson was last year's only senior.

The team brought in just two newcomers, freshmen Jamie Pickens of Helena and Shelby Schweyen of Missoula. "I thought it was really good for them to get out there in front of a crowd," said Schweyen.

All eyes were on Pickens, the program's most heralded recruit in years. She finished with eight points on 2-of-8 shooting and five rebounds.

"Jamie's learning as she goes that there is a big difference between high school and college in terms of the pace of the game. It's an ongoing adjustment for her

"We're just encouraging her to post stronger, to play stronger. She was big and strong at the level she was at, but at this level there are going to be other girls her size."

Schweyen had six points and six rebounds in 18 minutes on the floor.

"Shelby ripped a couple of tough boards, she led the break a couple of times and made some good decisions," said Schweyen.

"And then she scored a few times inside. That's an area I think she could do a lot of damage for this team is around the basket."

Taylor Goligoski, who missed the last two months of her junior season with a leg injury, had 13 points in the scrimmage, McKenzie Johnston totaled 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, seven assists and six rebounds.

Sophia Stiles, who hasn't played in an official game since February 2018, finished with 10 points and five assists, Emma Stockholm had nine points, five rebounds and three steals, and Gabi Harrington collected eight rebounds.

Carroll, which has two Division I dropdowns, was a unanimous pick to win the Frontier Conference and opened at No. 7 in the NAIA preseason national poll.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Sammy Fatkin

Taylor Goligoski

Gabi Harrington

Jace Henderson

McKenzie Johnston

Jamie Pickens

Shelby Schweyen

Sophia Stiles

Emma Stockholm

University of Montana Athletics