Lady Griz to face Utah Valley on Saturday

The Montana women's basketball team, coming off its best win of the season, will travel to Utah Valley for its only game of the week.

The Lady Griz (3-3) and Wolverines (1-6) will play at 2 p.m. on Saturday at UVU's Lockhart Arena in Orem.

It will be the third meeting between the teams, with Montana winning the previous matchups in 2010-11 and 2014-15, both in Missoula as part of the Lady Griz Classic.

Most recently (Montana): The Lady Griz spent Thanksgiving weekend in Fullerton, Calif., and went 1-1 at the Titan Classic. Montana opened the tournament with a 68-58 loss to Santa Clara, then defeated host Cal State Fullerton 71-69, holding on for the win after building a 17-point first-half lead.

Most recently (Utah Valley): The Wolverines, who opened the season 0-5 under first-year coach Dan Nielson, picked up win No. 1 on Saturday, 77-61 at home over Antelope Valley. Utah Valley lost at home on Tuesday night to Idaho State, 88-61. The Bengals, who led by 20 at the half, shot 59.6 percent.

Notes on Montana:

* The Lady Griz fell behind Santa Clara on Friday 23-7 after the first quarter a never held a lead in their 10-point loss. Montana never held a lead in its previous game either, a home loss to Arizona.

* Montana held the Broncos to 1-of-9 shooting in the second quarter to make it a nine-point game at the half, 30-21.

* The Lady Griz would get within five, 40-35, late in the third quarter, but Santa Clara ended the period on an 8-0 run to put the game out of reach.

* Santa Clara would go 9 for 19 (.474) from the arc, the third time in the season's first five games that an opponent made nine or more triples against Montana.

* Santa Clara's Tia Hay scored 25 points, the most given up by Montana to an opposing player this season.

* Montana scored 71 points in Saturday's victory over Cal State Fullerton on just 50 shots. The Lady Griz attempted 28 free throws and averaged 1.09 points per possession.

* Montana also scored 71 points despite no player taking more than eight shots. Six players took between six and eight shots in the win.

* The Lady Griz saw their 17-point second-quarter lead cut to seven by the end of the third quarter, 60-53.

* The Titans opened the fourth quarter on an 11-1 run to take a 64-61 lead with 3:44 to play.

* After allowing the Titans to score 40 points through the first 18 minutes of the second half, the Lady Griz held them without a field goal over the final 2:22 to rally for the victory.

* Taylor Goligoski's 3-pointer with 1:09 to play, with Montana trailing by two, gave the Lady Griz the lead for good.

* Raina Perez, who scored a game-high 17 points, missed a 14-footer at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime.

* Montana made nine 3-pointers in the win, its most on the road since hitting nine in a road victory at Weber State last January.

* Sophia Stiles had her best game since her knee injury in February 2018 with 13 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. She went 4 for 6 from the arc.

* The win over Cal State Fullerton was Montana's first away from Missoula since winning at Weber State last January.

* In two games at Fullerton, Emma Stockholm averaged 10 points on 58.8 percent shooting.

* Montana's five Division I opponents this season have all averaged more a point per possession while shooting a collective 45.8 percent.

* Good news: After shooting .271 from 3-point range in coach Shannon Schweyen's first three years, the Lady Griz are shooting 35.2 percent this season, the second-best mark in the Big Sky, 69th nationally.

* Bad news: Montana's opponents are shooting 43.6 percent from the arc. The Lady Griz rank last (348th) in the nation in that statistical category.

* McKenzie Johnston has moved up to 28th on the Montana all-time scoring list and is within 84 points of the next 10 former Lady Griz career scoring leaders who rank ahead of her.

* Johnston is now two assists shy of breaking into the top 10 for career assists. She has 394, leaving her two shy of the 396 of Julie Epperly (1988-91).

* Taylor Goligoski has opened her senior season shooting 48.1 percent (13 for 27) from 3-point range, which has her ranked 30th in the nation. She shot 28.6 percent from the arc her first three seasons.

* McKenzie Johnston this season has 29 assists and just 10 turnovers. That 2.9 assist-to-turnover ratio leads the Big Sky and ranks 26th nationally.

Notes on Utah Valley:

* The Wolverines went 14-16 last season, the final year for head coach Cathy Nixon, who led the program for 24 seasons.

* In her place stepped Dan Nielson, an assistant under Nixon from 2009-13 and most recently on staff at BYU.

* With five starters back, Utah Valley was picked fifth out of nine teams in the Western Athletic Conference preseason media poll, sixth in the coaches' poll.

* Senior forward Jordan Holland, who averaged 13.8 points and 6.2 rebounds last winter, was one of five players named preseason All-WAC by the league's coaches and media.

* Utah Valley lost its first five games of the season, three on the road, by an average of just 9.2 points per game. That included a 77-69 setback at Mountain West preseason favorite Boise State.

* Utah Valley's lone win came at home, 77-61 over Antelope Valley, an NAIA school out of Lancaster, Calif.

* The Wolverines' only lopsided loss of the season came on Tuesday night at home against Idaho State, which went 10 for 21 from 3-point range, 34 for 57 (.596) overall.

* For the season, sophomore forward Eve Braslis is averaging a team-leading 10.9 points. The Wolverines have four players averaging between 9.0 and 10.9 points.

This week's storylines:

* Montana picks up a big road win -- When the Lady Griz won at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday it was their first victory away from Missoula since January and just the seventh true road win for the program under fourth-year coach Shannon Schweyen.

Montana built a 17-point lead on the Titans, its largest lead on the road since building a 23-point advantage at Grand Canyon last December.

"Any road win is a huge win, especially playing the host team at their tournament. We were thinking it was an important one and one we needed to get," said Schweyen.

Montana led 39-28 at the half and 60-53 through three quarters. Cold shooting, both from the field and free throw line -- the Lady Griz missed 10 free throws in the second half -- allowed the Titans time to work their way back into it.

Fullerton took a 68-66 lead with 2:23 to go, but that would be the Titans' final basket.

"Had we made our free throws, it never would have gotten to where it did. After they crept back into it, I was very proud of the way the girls kept their composure to retake the lead and then hold on in the end with a few big stops," said Schweyen.

"Those are just huge lessons as you're moving through the season to experience those types of things on the road."

* Montana comes through from distance -- The Lady Griz made nine or more 3-pointers just six times in Schweyen's first three seasons, but they looked confident from the arc on Saturday.

They went 9 for 18 for the game, 6 for 10 in the second half. Big triples late by Sophia Stiles, who went 4 for 6 for the game, and Taylor Goligoski, who went 3 for 5, helped Montana pull off the road win.

"It was great to see it coming from a variety of people," said Schweyen. "I've always felt like we have good shooters on this team."

Montana opened the season going 11 for 19 from three against MSU Northern. The Lady Griz followed that with a 0-for-12 effort in a home loss to Fresno State.

Montana went 6 for 25 (.240) in back-to-back losses to Arizona and Santa Clara.

"We'll have some games when we shoot really well from three and then others when we have severe droughts," said Schweyen. "A little more consistency in that area would be nice to see."

* Montana is shooting and sharing the ball as well as it has under Schweyen -- The Lady Griz rank second in the Big Sky in assists at more than 17 per game, 35th nationally.

It helps that Montana is averaging just 12.5 turnovers per game -- first in the Big Sky, 18th in the nation -- which means more possessions that are ending with a shot, and is shooting 42.9 percent on those shots.

The Lady Griz set a program record with 30 assists in their season-opening win over MSU Northern. They had 20 assists on 23 made field goals in Saturday's win at Cal State Fullerton, even better than the 19 assists on 23 baskets in their home win over Grand Canyon.

"From the beginning of the year we've been sharing the ball well," said Schweyen. "Our bigs are good passers and that helps a lot. That helps trigger some of the things we do.

"Then when you're making shots around the basket, you're getting the assists, and we've done that for the most part."

* Utah Valley is a more dangerous opponent than its record indicates -- On their way to an 0-5 start, the Wolverines lost to four teams that are off to .500 starts or better. UC Santa Barbara is 4-4, Southern Utah is 4-2, Nevada is 4-2 and Boise State is 4-4.

Only UC Riverside, at 2-7 is below .500, and Utah Valley cost itself with season-worst 28.3 percent shooting in that game.

The Wolverines, who have shot 40 percent or better four of their last five games, were in a two-point game at Boise State in the fourth quarter back on Nov. 26.

"The Boise game is the one in particular that catches your eye," said Schweyen. "They hung in there and made big shots and big stops."

Sophomore Josie Williams, at 6-foot-5, is averaging 10.1 points and 5.9 rebounds despite playing only 20.4 minutes per game. She has made 26 of her 42 (.619) shot attempts this season.

"Their big girl is 6-5 and she's a factor," said Schweyen. "She's physical and a good scorer around the post. They have really good size and some really nice players.

"Every game they've had different kids step up and play more minutes than others, so they're looking at a lot of different lineups."

Upcoming: Montana has another single-game week. The Lady Griz will play at mid-major power South Dakota (8-1) on Sunday, Dec. 15, before wrapping up their pre-Christmas schedule with a home game against MSU Billings on Friday, Dec. 20.

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Players Mentioned

Taylor Goligoski

McKenzie Johnston

Sophia Stiles

Emma Stockholm

University of Montana Athletics