Bobcats top Lady Griz in Bozeman

Saturday, February 2

Bozeman, Mont.

2:00 PM

Montana

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Montana State

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Montana

Montana State

2/2/2019 9:36:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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By: Montana Sports Information

Montana State shot 46.8 percent and used a big scoring outburst in the second and third quarters to pull away from Montana and record a 74-52 victory over the Lady Griz at Worthington Arena in Bozeman on Saturday afternoon.

Montana, which lost for the fifth consecutive time on MSU's home court, led 20-11 late in the first quarter, but it was all Bobcats after that.

Montana State, which switched from man defense to zone after falling behind, outscored Montana 21-7 in the second quarter and 21-11 in the third to build a lead that was too large for the Lady Griz to overcome.

"It's disappointing. We got off to a great start, then they changed to zone and we had a hard time getting anything down," said UM coach Shannon Schweyen. "The second half it just kind of ballooned on us a little bit."

On Montana's four previous losses at Worthington Arena, the Lady Griz were hindered by their offense, shooting just 33.6 percent and averaging 56.8 points in those games.

It looked like Montana was going to change that history early on. The Lady Griz scored the game's opening nine points thanks to five quick ones from Gabi Harrington.

It took nearly five minutes for Montana State to get on the scoreboard, and Sammy Fatkin hit a pair of 3-pointers later in the opening period, just 45 seconds apart, to keep the Lady Griz in control.

They led 20-13 after one. And that was right about the time Montana State changed up its defense.

"We were getting good stuff in man and scoring pretty easily," said Schweyen. "The zone certainly made a difference."

Not surprisingly, not with Taylor Goligoski out for the year and Katie Mayhue suited up but only able to play for a few minutes of the second quarter on Saturday before having to call it quits.

Montana went just 3 for 19 in the second quarter. The seven points the Lady Griz scored in the period were the fewest since scoring seven in the opening quarter against Washington, back on Dec. 15.

"Losing Taylor and losing Katie, someone has to have some confidence that they're going to make those shots," said Schweyen. "I thought we got a lot of good looks initially against the zone, but unfortunately they didn't go down.

"Had four or five of those gone down, you feel like you're hurting them a little bit and making them pay for being in the zone."

It was 34-27 at the half, but it felt larger given the momentum Montana State had gained in coming back from a 20-11 hole.

The start of the third quarter was going to be key, and that's when the Bobcats took control. They hit three of their nine 3-pointers on the day in the period and shot 52.9 percent while extending their lead to 19 points.

Montana wasn't being sloppy -- the Lady Griz matched a season low with eight turnovers -- it just couldn't make much of anything, shooting 26.3 percent for the quarter, part of a 30.0 percent effort on the day.

"Even with missing all those in the first half, you think you're going to get it going offensively a little bit," said Schweyen. "I had confidence in this group that we'd knock some down in the second half, but we never could put a run together and we couldn't stop them.

"They're shooting it well at home from three. They can make a lot of them. You're not going to hold them down at home, but if you can be scoring with them and hanging around at the end, you have a chance. But we couldn't put together a run after we lost our momentum."

The game was Montana's first look at senior Claire Lundberg, a Seton Hall transfer who is in her first season of eligibility for the Bobcats. She entered the game averaging 17.6 points, so she was a defensive focus for the Lady Griz.

They did a good job on Lundberg, holding her to nine points on 3-of-13 shooting, but the Bobcats had plenty of weapons to make up the difference.

The most impactful on this day was Oliana Squires, who not only knocked down four 3-pointers, she also got to the basket, much more easily than Schweyen would have preferred.

"We concentrated and focused on (Lundberg), and when you do that, you're going to give up some other things," Schweyen said. "Squires got to the hole a little bit too much on us. She's a good driver, but it should have been tougher for her."

And Blaire Braxton and Madeline Smith, both 6-foot-2, combined for 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting. They were a large part of Montana State's 32 points in the paint.

"They buried us down there. We need to do a much better job of not letting people get us that low," said Schweyen.

Montana had out-rebounded five consecutive opponents going into Saturday's game. On this day, the Bobcats were the aggressors, out-boarding the Lady Griz 46-39.

That proved to be particularly important on the offensive end. With Montana missing 70 percent of its shots, there were plenty of balls up for grabs. And the Lady Griz only finished with 11 second-chance points.

"When you're struggling offensively against zone, somebody has to go get some rebound put-backs," said Schweyen. "That should be a weakness of playing a zone, and we didn't have that effort tonight that we needed on the O-boards.

"But when you're not scoring, it can affect your whole game. We talked about composure and not letting it affect us, but there is nothing more frustrating than when you're not making shots. It makes it really hard."

Sammy Fatkin would score a team-high 13 points and now has 12 3-pointers the last four games. Jordyn Schweyen came off the bench to add nine points, all on 3-pointers. Harrington also finished with nine.

Montana will conclude its stretch of five consecutive road games next week at Idaho and Eastern Washington. The Lady Griz will close the regular season playing five of their final eight at home.