Lady Griz home for two this week

Thursday, February 14

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

Weber State

2/13/2019 4:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's basketball team will play at home for the first time since Jan. 19 this week when it hosts Weber State and Idaho State at Dahlberg Arena.

The Lady Griz (10-11, 5-7 BSC) will play the Wildcats (5-18, 2-11 BSC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. and the Bengals (15-7, 10-3 BSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz have lost seven of nine since opening league with three straight wins. The schedule sets up to give Montana some momentum heading into tournament week in Boise. The Lady Griz play five of their final eight regular-season games at home, where they are 6-3 this season.

At a glance (Weber State): The last-place Wildcats have four Division I wins this season under first-year coach Velaida Harris: nonconference victories over now 2-19 Incarnate Word and 6-18 UTEP and Big Sky wins at Northern Colorado, 55-54, at last week at home over Southern Utah, 67-66.

At a glance (Idaho State): The Bengals are half a game behind first-place Idaho in the league standings as they pursue their first Big Sky regular-season title since 2011-12. ISU dropped below the Vandals, who have won six straight, after a surprising 81-77 home loss to Northern Arizona on Thursday.

Setting the table:

With the Big Sky Conference tournament opening in Boise in less than a month, on Monday, March 11, Montana will try to put a 1-4 record over five consecutive road games in the past and attempt to build some momentum for the postseason with a favorable close to its regular-season schedule.

Montana is 6-3 at home this season and will play its next three and five of its last eight at Dahlberg Arena.

But home games are no longer sure-fire wins, as they felt like they were for years and decades. Since the start of the 2016-17 season, Montana is just 23-17 at home. It's been a big change for a program that has had 18 seasons with either one or no losses at home since the early 80s.

This season Montana has had a 23-point setback at Dahlberg Arena to (now nationally ranked) South Dakota, Eastern Washington won for the third straight year in Missoula and Northern Colorado won by 11 in a game the Bears never trailed.

But the old home-court magic made an appearance in Montana's last home game, when the Lady Griz handed Idaho one of its two league losses, 82-79, on Jan. 19.

The hope for Montana is that the final injury of the season has been announced, with Tuesday's news that Katie Mayhue is being shelved with damaged tendons in her foot. She'll join Sophia Stiles, Madi Schoening and Taylor Goligoski on the bench for the remainder of the season.

That leaves Montana with a solid starting five but a thin bench of four, all of them first-year players: redshirt freshman Abby Anderson and true freshmen Kylie Frohlich, Carmen Gfeller and Jordyn Schweyen.

Montana's reserves scored just eight points over two road games last week, at Idaho and Eastern Washington. On Saturday at Cheney, Eastern Washington's bench outscored Montana's 27-0 in what was a three-point loss.

"I told them at Idaho, Look around the huddle. This is who we are," said Lady Griz coach Shannon Schweyen.

"We need to dial into each other as best we can for the rest of the season with this group. We're going to go through some highs and lows, but as long as we're improving and giving it our best every day when we're out there, that's all we can ask for."

First up this week is Weber State. The good news is the Lady Griz won 72-60 at Ogden a few weeks back, leading the final 32 minutes. The bad news is the Wildcats are a more dangerous team than their 18-loss record might suggest.

They pulled out a nice home win over Southern Utah on Thursday and led Northern Arizona, which was riding high after its win at Pocatello two days earlier, by eight going into the fourth quarter on Saturday but gave up 31 fourth-quarter points to see a win turn into an 11-point loss.

Then comes a true gut-check game, on Saturday when Idaho State rolls into town. The Bengals put the Lady Griz into a defensive vice-grip a few weeks back in Pocatello, winning 50-34, the fewest points scored by Montana since a season-opening loss at UC Riverside in 2010-11.

Montana had scoring quarters of 8, 10, 8 and 8 and shot 25.9 percent with 21 turnovers.

The Lady Griz may own a series lead of 71-12 over Idaho State, but the Bengals have won three straight, all by double figures, giving 11th-year coach Seton Sobolewski six wins against Montana, or half of Idaho State's all-time wins in the series.

Only one of those six wins has come in Missoula, however, where the Bengals are 2-40 and haven't won since 2011-12.

It sets up a matchup quite similar to Oregon and Stanford, who met at the Cardinal's Maples Pavilion on Sunday, a facility where the Ducks hadn't won since 1987.

Oregon coach Kelly Graves didn't focus on the series history or even show any concern for it. He wasn't part of much of it, nor were his players. So he kept the focus not on the historical dominance of the Cardinal over the Ducks but on this season and this group of players.

"I told everybody all week, 'This team has never lost to Stanford,' " he said. "What they've done in the years before these kids were born ... who cares? We don't talk about it. We talk about the game."

Well played. Oregon won 88-48, handing Tara VanDerveer the worst loss of her coaching career.

That's not brought up to project anything on Saturday's matchup -- or predict how Sobolewski will handle his own message to his own team -- just to point to some similarities.

Did you know that Idaho State has lost just three times since Nov. 23, since opening the season 2-4, a rough start to the season that included road games at Arizona, Gonzaga and Utah, and a neutral-site matchup against Georgia Tech in Cancun?

There was the 86-72 home loss to Idaho to open league on Dec. 29, when the Bengals got outscored 32-9 in the third quarter, with all signs from that game pointing toward a rusty performance for a team that hadn't played a game the previous 21 days. (And Idaho's pretty good too.)

ISU lost 60-56 at Northern Colorado in a game that was tied 56-56 in the closing seconds, with the Bengals in possession. Then came a call that favored the Bears, a technical foul on Sobolewski and four made free throws that gifted UNC a win.

Then came Thursday, when Northern Arizona needed to go 13 for 20 from the 3-point line and be +10 from the free throw line just to escape Reed Gym with a four-point win.

That's the extent of Idaho State's losses since you sat down for Thanksgiving dinner. In other words, the Bengals are rolling.

With the table set, some storylines:

* Barring any further injuries, which is no sure thing, the shape of Montana's team going forward is set. The Lady Griz will rely heavily on their starting five of senior Jace Henderson, juniors McKenzie Johnston and Emma Stockholm, and sophomores Sammy Fatkin and Gabi Harrington.

How heavy is that reliance? Montana's four available reserves have combined to score 80 points through a dozen league games.

If Saturday's game at Eastern Washington is any indication of the team's plan given its limitation in numbers, those starters will rarely see any time on the bench.

Henderson, Johnston, Fatkin and Harrington all played 35 or more minutes, with Stockholm's minutes limited because of foul trouble. She would eventually pick up her fifth and end the game on the bench.

While it's easiest to look at the numbers and see more offensive production from the starters, it's their work on the defensive end that has them in for most of the game.

"That's where the biggest gap is (between the starters and reserves), is what they do for us defensively," said Schweyen. "I feel good having them on the floor. Lots of kids in our league are doing that.

"But those younger kids need to get developed too, so we'll try to get them opportunities when situations arise."

* Yes, Montana has lost seven of nine and went 0-2 on the road last week, but there were some things that took place in Moscow and Cheney that gave the Lady Griz some positives to reflect on.

First: Montana fell behind at Idaho by 22 points in the third quarter and was on the verge of getting blown out. Taylor Pierce was feeling it. Mikayla Ferenz was feeling it. And you know coach Jon Newlee relishes turning the tables on Montana after so many losses to the Lady Griz earlier in his career.

But the Lady Griz didn't back down.

They scored 11 straight points to fight their way back into it and got the margin down to eight in the fourth quarter by holding the Vandals to 10 points in the final period, with just two made field goals.

"To battle them at their place like that, I was extremely proud of the way we came back," said Schweyen. "They could have buried us.

"We gutted up and made a run and knocked down multiple shots in a row and got some stops on the other end. All of a sudden it was like, okay, this is who we are. I was proud of that effort."

Second: Montana carried that over and got off to a 13-0 lead at Eastern Washington.

But a scoring slump let the Eagles back into the game, and then it became of game of the little things, which weren't in Montana's favor.

The Lady Griz missed seven free throws, six in the third quarter alone, some right after they'd rebuilt a six-point lead and could have gained some separation.

And then there were the 15 offensive rebounds allowed. Five came in the fourth quarter, the big one coming with 90 seconds left that snapped the Eagles' scoring drought that had reached more than four minutes. The put-back gave them the lead.

"Games like that, it's the little things, like free throws and not missing a box out," said Schweyen, whose team outshot both opponents last week by a wide margin.

Montana shot 50 percent at Idaho, 42.6 percent at Eastern Washington, and those numbers bucked season-long trends for the Lady Griz.

They had been 9-1 when outshooting an opponent this season. Now they're 9-3. They had been 10-1 when shooting 40 percent or better. They're now 10-3. They had been 4-1 in games decided by 10 points or fewer. They're now 4-3.

Despite losing twice, Montana's season field goal percentage actually went up last week, from .416 to .420.

Other firsts: Thursday's loss at Idaho was the first loss this season when Montana averaged more than a point per possession (1.02). Credit the Vandals' 12 made 3-pointers for that. And Saturday was the first time this season Montana has lost when leading at the half. That record is now 8-1.

* For all the hand-wringing that came after Montana's 34-point outing at Idaho State last month, lost was this: the Lady Griz defended nearly as well, keeping a team in the 30s on its home court midway through the fourth quarter.

It was the first time Montana had held a team to 50 points or fewer and lost since falling 49-47 at Portland State in 2009-10. And it was the second-best defensive effort on the Bengals all season. Arizona limited Idaho State to 26.8 percent shooting.

"It was a defensive battle by two teams," said Schweyen. "I thought we did a really good job defending them and they did a really good job defending us."

One game earlier, Montana had knocked off Idaho, with Jace Henderson going for a career-high 31 points on 13-of-17 shooting.

Five days later it felt like the Lady Griz wanted a repeat performance in the worst way, even though the Bengals largely took Henderson out of the equation by limiting 1) her touches and 2) her shots.

By trying to squeeze the ball into places it shouldn't go, Montana turned the ball over 21 times.

"We kept forcing it into Jace. We had way too many turnovers trying to feed the post," said Schweyen. "If they're going to take that away, we need to do something different. We've got to take what they give us and try to capitalize on that a little better."

* Montana did just that two days later, at Weber State. Henderson didn't take a shot in the first quarter but had three assists as the Lady Griz opened 8 for 16 to build a lead they would hold the rest of the game.

Sammy Fatkin was the early spark, hitting two 3-pointers in the first quarter and scoring 14 first-half points. Gabi Harrington would score a team-high 18 as all five starters finished in double figures.

"I thought that game was one of our best overall team efforts. We had multiple kids who had really good games and played well," said Schweyen.

"We had lots of good sharing of the ball. We moved the ball a lot better and got it turned and reversed, and we hit some shots. You just feel better when you put some points on the board. It carries over into everything else you're doing."

* Montana State lost all-league player Claire Lundberg for the season on Feb. 4, with a knee injury suffered in a home loss to Northern Colorado.

Time will tell how that impacts the Bobcats going forward -- she was leading the team in scoring at 17.0 points per game -- and how it impacts the Big Sky Conference race for tournament spots.

The top four seeds feel locked in -- Idaho, Idaho State, Northern Colorado and Portland State, in some order.

The fifth-place team at the end of the regular season gets the bonus of escaping Monday's first-round games at Boise, while the bottom six teams square off and would have to go Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday if they want to advance.

Montana State currently holds down the fifth-place spot, with Montana and Eastern Washington a game back in the loss column. A game behind the Lady Griz and Eagles in the win column are Sacramento State and Northern Arizona, so the chase is on.

Game notes:

* The Department of Athletics is accepting donations for the UM Food Pantry at all remaining Lady Griz home games this season.

* Idaho State opens its road trip with a game at Montana State on Thursday night. The two teams met in Pocatello two days after the Bengals locked down on Montana. The Bobcats didn't fare much better. They led by two at the half but scored just 14 second-half points on 3-of-22 shooting to lose 61-43.

* Weber State will play at Montana State on Saturday. When the teams met in Ogden, the Wildcats built a 33-23 halftime lead but got outscored 43-26 in the second half to lose 66-59.

* Idaho State leads the Big Sky in field goal percentage (.443) and ranks second behind Portland State in field goal percentage defense (.360).

* Montana, with 95 3-pointers made, or one less than Idaho's Taylor Pierce has made by herself, ranks last in the Big Sky in that category. Idaho State ranks next to last, with 109.

* Montana (+1.8) and Idaho State (+1.6) both have a positive rebounding margin for the season. The Lady Griz out-rebounded the Bengals by three in their matchup in Pocatello.

* Weber State senior guard J'aiamoni Welch-Coleman ranks seventh in the Big Sky in scoring at 16.6 points per game. Sophomore forward Dominique Williams ranks third in rebounding (8.6/g).

* Sophomore forward Kayla Watkins led Weber State in its first matchup with Montana, going for 19 points and 11 rebounds. She was a classmate at Glacier Peak High in Snohomish, Wash., of Montana sophomore Sammy Fatkin.

* Idaho State senior forward Grace Kenyon ranks in the top 11 in the Big Sky in scoring (ninth, 14.4/g), rebounding (11th, 6.9/g) and field goal percentage (seventh, .482).

* Montana's Jace Henderson, at 58.4 percent, continues to lead the Big Sky in shooting.

* Kenyon, with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and senior guard Saylair Grandon, also with 11 points and 10 rebounds, both had double-doubles against Montana in the first matchup.

* Montana leads the Big Sky and ranks 16th nationally in fewest personal fouls committed (14.0/g).

* Saturday at Eastern Washington was the third time this season Montana has committed a season-low eight turnovers.

* McKenzie Johnston averaged 16.5 points on 58.3 percent shooting and 4.5 assists on the road last week. Her 21 points at Idaho on Thursday were a season high.

* Gabi Harrington has three double-doubles in Montana's 12 Big Sky games. Four other times she has come up one rebound short of a double-double.

* Harrington averaged 19 points and nine rebounds on Montana's road trip to Idaho and Eastern Washington. Her 21 points at Idaho, which matched Johnston for team high, were a career high.

* In Montana's two games against Eastern Washington this season, both losses, the Lady Griz went 3 for 22 from the arc. The Eagles went 19 for 44 as they won by six points in Missoula and three in Cheney.

Around the Big Sky:

* Idaho sits atop the Big Sky standings at 10-2 but still has road games remaining at Northern Colorado and Portland State, and a season-ending home game against Idaho State, which has the potential to be a huge matchup.

* Idaho State gets Portland State and Northern Colorado at home later this month.

* Portland State, at 9-3, is a game behind Idaho but has the toughest remaining schedule of the four leaders. The Vikings play six of their final eight games on the road. They've built their 17-4 overall record largely at home, going 13-2 at Viking Pavilion.

Thursday's schedule: WSU at UM, ISU at MSU, EWU at UNC, SAC at SUU, PSU at NAU

Game to monitor: Portland State at Northern Arizona -- The Lumberjacks are feeling good after last week's road sweep of Idaho State and Weber State, when they averaged 78 points per game. The Vikings lead the Big Sky in most defensive categories.

Saturday's schedule: ISU at UM, WSU at MSU, UI at UNC, PSU at SUU, SAC at NAU

Game to monitor: Idaho at Northern Colorado -- Yes, please. The Bears stole one in Moscow, outscoring the Vandals 32-12 in the fourth quarter to win 86-72. Idaho is rolling offensively. The Vandals went 19 for 38 from the arc in their 90-65 win over Montana State on Saturday.

Monday's schedule: UI at EWU (The Vandals won the first meeting 84-68.)

Upcoming: The home stretch: Saturday (MSU), Monday (at UNC), Saturday (at SUU), Monday (at NAU), Thursday (PSU), Saturday (SAC), off to Boise.