Lady Griz reach end of long road

The Montana women's basketball team will put an end to a stretch of five consecutive road games and open the second half of its Big Sky Conference schedule this week when it plays at Idaho and Eastern Washington.

The Lady Griz (10-9, 5-5 BSC) will face the Vandals (11-8, 8-2 BSC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. (MT) in Moscow and the Eagles (5-14, 4-6 BSC) at 3 p.m. (MT) on Saturday in Cheney.

Montana will close the regular season playing five of its final eight league games at home before heading to Boise for the Big Sky tournament, which opens on Monday, March 11.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz closed the first half of the Big Sky schedule right in the middle of the standings, with five teams above them and five teams below. The first half came to a disappointing end with a 74-52 loss at Montana State on Saturday, Montana's fifth consecutive loss in Bozeman.

At a glance (Idaho): The preseason league favorites are right where they were expected to be, tied atop the Big Sky standings in the loss column with Idaho State and Northern Colorado. The Vandals rank third in the country in 3-point shooting (11.3/g) and will be looking to avenge a road loss in Missoula.

At a glance (Eastern Washington): The Eagles only have five wins on the season but are 4-6 in league, a game behind Montana in sixth place. Eastern Washington already owns road wins over Montana and Montana State, the teams directly ahead of it in the standings and this week's opponents.

The week in review (Montana): The Lady Griz traveled to Bozeman and lost 74-52 to Montana State on Saturday. After jumping out to a 20-11 lead in the opening eight minutes, Montana got outscored 48-18 over the next 24 to lose to Montana State for the sixth time in the teams' last eight meetings.

The margin of victory was largest ever for the Bobcats in their now 28 wins over the Lady Griz in their 106 meetings.

Montana matched a season low with just eight turnovers but couldn't keep up offensively, shooting 28.8 percent. Montana State shot 53.1 percent in the second half, 46.0 percent for the game, to break open what was a 34-27 halftime advantage for the Bobcats.

The week in review (Idaho): The Vandals upped their winning streak to four games, all coming since losing 82-79 at Montana, by taking care of business last week on the road, winning 86-69 at Northern Arizona and 82-70 at Southern Utah.

Idaho knocked down 15 3-pointers in its victory at Flagstaff and pulled away in the fourth quarter in its win in Cedar City. In the latter, Taylor Pierce, who made eight 3-pointers against Montana, became the fourth player in NCAA Division I history to reach 400 made 3-pointers.

With 18 points on Saturday at Southern Utah, Mikayla Ferenz moved up to third on the Big Sky career scoring list with 2,125 points. The last two on the list to surpass: Montana's Shannon Cate (2,172) and Idaho State's Natalie Doma (2,296).

The week in review (Eastern Washington): The Eagles split the same road trip the Vandals swept last week, losing 73-63 at Southern Utah before bouncing back with a 64-62 win at Northern Arizona to snap a three-game losing streak.

On Thursday, the Thunderbirds turned the ball over just seven times and held Eastern Washington's leading scorer, Violet Kapri Morrow, to 12 points. Morrow bounced back with 21 points against the Lumberjacks on Saturday as the Eagles led the game's final eight minutes.

What's at stake (Montana): It's only halfway through the league season, so it's not a done deal, but it sure feels like the top four teams in the standings -- Idaho State (9-2 BSC), Northern Colorado (9-2), Idaho (8-2) and Portland State (7-3) -- have started separating themselves from everyone else.

The Big Sky's regular-season champion is probably coming from that quartet and all four are likely to be among the five teams that gain the postseason edge of not having to play on Monday of tournament week in Boise.

That leaves everyone else fighting for that coveted fifth spot. That's the space the Lady Griz are inhabiting at the moment.

Montana, in sixth place, is tied with fifth-place Montana State (6-5) in the loss column, after the Bobcats lost at home to Northern Colorado on Monday night. MSU has the early head-to-head tiebreaker with Saturday's win, but the teams will play again in Missoula in less than three weeks.

There are also Eastern Washington and Sacramento State to be concerned about. Both sit a game behind Montana, and the Eagles could gain an important sweep of the Lady Griz on Saturday in Cheney. The Hornets? They've won four of six since opening league 0-4.

What's at stake (Idaho): The Vandals are playing to live up to preseason expectations, which had them winning the league. At 8-2, they're doing a good job of it.

All four teams at the top of the standings have one or more results they'd like to have back. Idaho State had possession in a tie game at Northern Colorado in the final seconds of regulation and lost by four after a costly offensive foul-technical foul combination.

Northern Colorado gave one away by allowing 1-10 Weber State to leave Greeley with its only league win. Portland State has lost two of its last three by a grand total of three points.

And then there is Idaho, which held fourth-quarter leads in both of its Big Sky losses. The Vandals were up five on Northern Colorado at home in the final period and up four at Montana and dropped both games.

What's at stake (Eastern Washington): The Eagles have been gifted a scheduling bonus, playing seven of their final 10 games at home. But will they be able to take advantage? Eastern Washington is 1-6 at Reese Court this season, its only win coming against Eastern Oregon back in November.

With a successful home series over Montana State (Thursday) and Montana (Saturday), the Eagles would be holding a big tiebreaker against the teams likely to be in the mid-pack mix throughout the second half.

Montana-Idaho, Round 1 (Lady Griz 82, Vandals 79) and things taken away from that result:

* Jace Henderson (31) and Sammy Fatkin (19) combined to outscore Taylor Pierce (28) and Mikayla Ferenz (20). Henderson scored 13 more points than she ever has before in a Lady Griz uniform while shooting 13 for 17, and Fatkin dazzled in her first career start, earning X-factor honors.

* Montana's next three opponents noticed. Idaho State, Weber State and Montana State limited Henderson to 23 points on 19 shots by giving her plenty of close, personal friends in the paint, whether she had the ball in her hands or not.

* One game after putting up 82 on Idaho, Montana was held to 34 at Idaho State on 25.9 percent shooting. On Saturday in Bozeman: 52 points on 28.8 percent shooting.

* Even with Emma Stockholm adding 11 points and Gabi Harrington 10, Montana had to hold on to the very end as Idaho knocked down 14 3-pointers, with Taylor Pierce going 8 for 15.

The big question for Thursday: How does Idaho defend Montana this time around, and how do the Lady Griz adapt? With Montana shooting 27.3 percent from 3-point range through 10 league games, expect the Vandals to focus on taking away the inside and daring the Lady Griz to go deep to keep up.

The series: Montana's victory last month snapped Idaho's four-game winning streak in the series and upped the Lady Griz' all-time advantage to 42-12. ... Montana has gone 16-8 against Idaho in Moscow but the Vandals have won the last two by 17 and 25 points.

Montana-Eastern Washington, Round 1 (Eagles 68, Lady Griz 62) and things taken away from that result:

* For the second straight season in the teams' matchup in Missoula, the 3-point line was the difference as Montana went 1 for 14 and Eastern Washington went 10 for 20 from the arc.

* That performance from distance seems to have awakened something in the Eagles. Makes from the arc the last six games: 10, 12, 10, 9, 9, 10. They hadn't reached 10 in a game this season before facing Montana.

* Montana had nine turnovers in the first half as the Lady Griz once again needed time to remember the physical nature of Eastern Washington's style of play.

* Violet Kapri Morrow, who reached 1,000 career points in the game, scored a team-high 17 points. She had three teammates who each made three 3-pointers.

* Jace Henderson had 12 points and 17 rebounds but only took six shots. Gabi Harrington led all scorers with 18 points.

* Montana fell behind 6-0 and 9-2 and never held a lead.

The big question for Saturday: Are the 3-pointers falling for the Eagles, and will the Lady Griz be ready to be bumped, poked and knocked around from the opening tip?

The series: Last month's victory gave Eastern Washington five straight wins in the series, the most ever in row for the Eagles against the Lady Griz, though they still trail 71-22.

The last win for Montana over Eastern Washington? It came at Dahlberg Arena in March 2015, in the semifinals of the Big Sky tournament, when Lexie Nelson was a senior for the Eagles, Kellie Rubel a senior for the Lady Griz and Robin Selvig still had one final season ahead of him. So it was a while ago.

Montana has dropped five straight at Reese Court, all by 10 points or less, three coming by two points or less. The last win was a long time ago, in 2011-12, 53-46 behind Katie Baker's 14-point, 11-rebound double-double.

Montana notes:

* Three of Montana's nonconference opponents are either leading or tied in the loss column atop their respective conferences: Gonzaga (21-2, 10-1 West Coast), South Dakota (20-3, 8-1 Summit) and UC Davis (15-6, 7-1 Big West).

* With Taylor Goligoski out for the season and Sammy Fatkin moving into the starting lineup in her place, Montana's reserves on the bench are all first-year players: redshirt freshman Abby Anderson and four true freshmen.

* Katie Mayhue, one of those freshmen reserves, was limited to eight minutes in the first half on Saturday because of an ongoing injury.

* Since moving into the starting lineup, Sammy Fatkin has a four-game scoring average of 14.5 points on 51.2 percent shooting. She has hit 12 3-pointers in those four games. She led Montana in scoring at both Idaho State and Montana State.

* Freshman Jordyn Schweyen matched a season high with nine points in Saturday's loss at Montana State. She went 3 for 8 from the arc to account for all her points. She also matched a season high with four rebounds.

* Montana got to the line a season-low five times on Saturday in Bozeman and got out-rebounded by an opponent for the first time in six games.

* The Lady Griz also matched a season low with just eight turnovers against the Bobcats.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

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

Game to monitor: Montana State at Eastern Washington -- The Eagles won the teams' first matchup, rallying from down 15 in the fourth quarter to win in overtime in Bozeman behind Violet Kapri Morrow's 37 points.

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

Game to monitor: Northern Colorado at Portland State -- The second meeting between league contenders. In the first matchup, in Greeley, the Bears led 26-12 after the opening period and never looked back in winning 79-63.

Monday's schedule: UNC at SAC

Game note: In the teams' first meeting, in Greeley, the Bears led 33-0 after the first quarter. The Hornets outscored UNC 69-49 over the final three periods to lose 82-69.

Upcoming: Montana will host Weber State and Idaho State next week, the first home games for the Lady Griz since Jan. 19. Then it gets crazy: Saturday, Monday, Saturday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday, off to Boise.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Sammy Fatkin

Taylor Goligoski

Gabi Harrington

Jace Henderson

Katie Mayhue

Kellie Rubel

Jordyn Schweyen

Emma Stockholm

University of Montana Athletics