Lady Griz hoping to make weeklong run in Boise

The postseason has arrived for the Montana women's basketball team.

The Lady Griz will take the No. 7 seed into this week's Big Sky Conference tournament at Boise and open with a first-round game against No. 10 Southern Utah on Monday at 5:30 p.m. at CenturyLink Arena.

The winner will advance to Tuesday's quarterfinal round and play No. 2 Northern Colorado at 5:30 p.m.

The tournament semifinal games will be played on Wednesday evening, the championship game at 1 p.m. on Friday.

The winner of the Big Sky tournament will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Coverage: All 10 games of the tournament will be available on Pluto TV (channel 231) and WatchBigSky.com. The semifinal and championship games will have additional coverage through Eleven Sports. Locally the game will air on KMPT 930 AM/99.7 FM.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz (14-15, 9-11 BSC) entered last week on a four-game losing streak but picked up some momentum for the postseason with home wins over Portland State and Sacramento State.

Behind the performance of Big Sky Player of the Week Jace Henderson, who averaged 21.5 points on 64.3 percent shooting and 11.5 rebounds, Montana knocked off the Vikings 73-70 in overtime and pulled away in the second half to defeat the Hornets 75-67.

At a glance (Southern Utah): The Thunderbirds (7-22, 4-16 BSC) closed the regular season winning just one of their final 10 games, but that came on March 2 against the same Montana team SUU will be facing on Monday evening.

After snapping a seven-game losing streak -- the team's first win since January -- against the Lady Griz, Southern Utah followed with a 70-55 home loss to Montana State, then wrapped up the regular season with an 88-71 loss at Northern Colorado on Thursday.

The first meeting (Montana 79, Southern Utah 57 -- Dec. 31 at Missoula): The Lady Griz trailed 23-19 after the first quarter but controlled the game the rest of the way, shooting 50 percent and out-rebounding the Thunderbirds 50-31.

Emma Stockholm scored a career-high 20 points, while Jace Henderson and Gabi Harrington both had 15-point, 11-rebound double-doubles.

Playing without Rebecca Cardenas (concussion), Southern Utah shot 33.8 percent. Harley Hansen led the Thunderbirds with 12 points.

The second meeting (Southern Utah 71, Montana 56 -- March 2 at Cedar City): The Lady Griz got out to a 12-5 lead, but the Thunderbirds closed the first quarter on a 10-0 run and never trailed after that.
Montana shot 33.8 percent, 2 of 13 from the arc. Southern Utah went 10 of 22 from 3-point range and committed just 11 turnovers.

Rebecca Cardenas was one of four players who scored either 14 or 15 points. She totaled 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals.

With Jace Henderson enduring her worst shooting game of the season -- she opened 0 for 10, finished 3 for 15 -- Montana couldn't keep up. McKenzie Johnston scored 22 points, Emma Stockholm had a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double.

History: Southern Utah's win on March 2 was just its second against Montana in the teams' 19 meetings. The Lady Griz hold a 17-2 advantage and won the teams' only other postseason, neutral-site matchup.

At the 2014 Big Sky tournament in Grand Forks, No. 3 Montana trailed No. 2 Southern Utah 62-49 with seven minutes left, but the Lady Griz held the Thunderbirds to one made field goal the rest of the way to rally for a 73-69 victory.

Tournament bona fides (Montana):

* The Lady Griz are 56-15 all-time in conference tournaments, with 21 championships won. Nineteen of those came on Montana's home floor, when it hosted the tournament.

* The two tournaments Montana won outside of Missoula: 1992 at Boise State and 2011 at Portland State.

* Montana went 2-3 in the three years the tournament was held in Reno and didn't advance beyond the quarterfinals in any of those seasons. The Lady Griz lost in the quarterfinals as the No. 5 seed in 2016, in the first round as the No. 11 seed in 2017 and in the quarterfinals as the No. 8 seed last March.

* Montana, which is playing for the first time as a No. 7 seed, is 50-4 in conference tournament games as the higher seed, which it will be on Monday.

* The Lady Griz are 14-9 in neutral-site tournament games, which all in Boise will be.

* Montana picked up its first postseason win under now third-year coach Shannon Schweyen last March in Reno, when the No. 8 Lady Griz defeated No. 9 Sacramento State 87-80 in a first-round matchup. She is 1-2 in postseason games.

Tournament bona fides (Southern Utah):

* The Thunderbirds have been a member of the Big Sky since the 2012-13 season. They advanced to the tournament their first two seasons in the league, missed in 2014-15 and lost a first-round game each of the three years the all-inclusive postseason was held in Reno.

* Southern Utah has a Big Sky tournament record of 1-5. Its lone tournament victory came in 2014 in Grand Forks, 86-78 over Sacramento State in the quarterfinals.

* In last year's tournament at Reno, No. 12 Southern Utah lost 59-49 to No. 5 Idaho State in the first round.

* First-year Southern Utah coach Tracy Sanders is making her Big Sky tournament debut on Monday.

Five (+1) questions that will be answered this week:

1. Will there be any carryover from the teams' last meeting?

Southern Utah 71, Montana 56 was probably the low point for the Lady Griz this season, and it fed into the next game two days later, when Northern Arizona led Montana 29-10 after one quarter.

But Montana bounced back with two home wins last week, and Southern Utah closed the season with two more double-digit losses following its win over the Lady Griz.

Still, if there was a higher-seeded team Southern Utah probably wanted to see in the first round, it was Montana, which is susceptible to the 3-point shot that the Thunderbirds have the ability to shoot so well.

Southern Utah connected on 30 3-pointers over its final four regular-season games while shooting 40.5 percent from the arc.

If the Thunderbirds get hot from distance, it will feel familiar to Montana, which saw Northern Colorado make nine 3-pointers in the first half alone, 12 for the game, in a 78-69 loss that knocked the Lady Griz out of last year's tournament in the quarterfinals.

2. Will scheduling work in Southern Utah's favor?

With 11 teams in the league, someone was going to have the benefit of not having to play the final Saturday of the regular season. That was Southern Utah, whose final game came on Thursday at Northern Colorado.

While everyone else was playing on Saturday afternoon, then likely undergoing some torturous, depleting travel to get to Boise, Southern Utah was able to do whatever it was Southern Utah did with its gift of time.

Monday's game will be Montana's seventh in the last 17 days. Those little things matter.

3. How will McKenzie Johnston score her 1,000th career point?

Johnston's arsenal of shots runs deep, whether it's a spin shot around the basket, a silky smooth mid-range jumper, the occasional 3-pointer or the even more occasional 60 footer to end the third quarter.

She enters Monday's game with 989 career points, putting her 11 away from becoming the 34th player in program history to reach 1,000. She's scored 12 or more points in nine of Montana's last 10 games, so odds are she'll reach it against the Thunderbirds.

4. Which team is going to come through away from its home gym?

Southern Utah is 1-14 away from Cedar City this season. The team's lone road win: 82-76 in overtime at Northern Arizona on Jan. 12.

Montana has three true road wins this season, but it's a pretty thin resume: at Grand Canyon, which is now 7-19, and at Sacramento State and Weber State, two of the bottom three teams in the Big Sky.

The Lady Griz do have a neutral-site victory over Saint Francis, like Montana a 14-win team, by two points at the Husky Classic in December.

Of Montana's 35 wins under third-year coach Shannon Schweyen, 27 have come at Dahlberg Arena.

5. How will coach Shannon Schweyen use her bench in Boise?

The best way for Montana to make it to Friday and the championship game is to keep its starters as fresh as possible. But the more those starters play, the better chance the Lady Griz have of winning each game. And you can't reach Friday without winning on Monday.

It puts Schweyen in a delicate spot.

She knows McKenzie Johnston could benefit from not playing 40 minutes on Monday, not with potential games on Tuesday and Wednesday. But she also knows that the Lady Griz were +20 the 36:50 Johnston was on the court on Saturday against Sacramento State and -12 the 3:10 she sat.

Of course that bench has been producing at a higher rate the last few games.

Abby Anderson had 10 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes at Northern Arizona. Jordyn Schweyen had nine points and a season-high seven rebounds against Portland State. And Kylie Frohlich scored a season-high eight points on 4-of-6 shooting and added five rebounds against Sacramento State.

Montana's bench players have averaged 15.7 points the last three games. The previous 13 games: 5.5.

Bonus question: With Northern Colorado and Savannah Smith looming in Tuesday's quarterfinals, does it even matter?

Montana twice faced the Bears this season and never held a lead, largely because of Smith, who scored 31 in her team's 73-62 win in Missoula and 40 in UNC's 79-61 win in Greeley, which matched the most points ever scored against the Lady Griz.

So, does it even matter? YES! March is made for the moments that emerge from opportunities. That's all a team can ask for, no matter the opponent.

Game notes:

* Keep an eye on the halftime score on Monday. Montana is 12-1 this season when leading at the break, 2-14 when trailing. The team's largest halftime deficit overcome was against UC Davis, when the Lady Griz trailed 30-25 at the half and won 62-56.

They also won in double overtime at Sacramento State when down four at the half.

* Other key metrics: 13 of Montana's 14 wins this season have come when the Lady Griz have shot 40 percent or better ... The Lady Griz have out-rebounded their opponent in all 14 of their wins ... Montana is 5-2 in games decided by five points or fewer ... Montana is 10-1 when scoring at least 70 points.

* Saturday was just the third time this season the Lady Griz have won when allowing an opponent to average more than a point per possession. Sacramento State checked in at 1.02. Montana's 1.13 was its best since defeating Idaho back in January while averaging 1.17.

* Jace Henderson's player efficiency rating of 37 on Thursday was the team's second-highest of the season, behind Henderson's 39 in Montana's home win over Idaho.

* Jace Henderson's current shooting percentage of .570 would rank second in program history for a single season. Marti Leibenguth (1985-86) holds the program standard of .572.

* Jace Henderson was awarded her first career Big Sky Player of the Week on Sunday after her performances against Portland State and Sacramento State.

Her 25 points against Portland State was the second-highest scoring total of her career. Her 18 rebounds against the Vikings were a career high. She went 9 for 11 against the Hornets with a team-high five assists.

* Henderson's 25-point, 18-rebound double-double against Portland State was her eighth of the season, the 13th of her career.

* Because of a +10 advantage in offensive rebounds on Saturday and only seven turnovers against the Hornets, Montana took 72 shots compared to Sacramento State's 52. That helped overcome the Hornets' advantage at the free throw and 3-point lines.

Upcoming: To be determined. Either another matchup with Northern Colorado and Savannah Smith or the offseason. But that kind of either-or is what makes March such a delight.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Kylie Frohlich

Gabi Harrington

Jace Henderson

McKenzie Johnston

Jordyn Schweyen

Emma Stockholm

University of Montana Athletics