Two home games, then off to Boise

The Montana women's basketball team will conclude its regular-season schedule this week when it hosts Portland State and Sacramento State at Dahlberg Arena.

The Lady Griz will play the Vikings at 7 p.m. on Thursday, the Hornets on Saturday at 2 p.m. The latter will double as Senior Day for Jace Henderson.

Montana will travel to Boise on Sunday and open the Big Sky Conference tournament on Monday with a first-round game. Quarterfinals are on Tuesday, semifinals on Wednesday, the championship game on Friday.

What's at stake (Montana): The Lady Griz' four-game losing streak has locked Montana into a first-round game on Monday in Boise. The best seed the Lady Griz can get at this point is No. 7, the worst No. 9.

With a No. 7 seed, which is the most likely scenario, Montana (12-15, 7-11 BSC) would play at 5:30 p.m. on Monday in Boise against the No. 10 seed, which is currently Southern Utah, the team that defeated the Lady Griz by 15 points in Cedar City on Saturday.

If Montana drops to the No. 8 or 9 seed, the schedule remains the same. The 8-9 game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

Northern Arizona, which beat Montana 82-65 in Flagstaff on Monday night, is half a game behind the Lady Griz, with one game remaining, Saturday at home against Northern Colorado. Sacramento State, which plays at Montana State on Thursday, is one game back.

If the standings were to hold, No. 8 Northern Arizona would face No. 9 Sacramento State at 2:30 p.m. on Monday in Boise. No. 7 Montana would play No. 10 Southern Utah at 5:30 p.m., No. 6 Eastern Washington would play No. 11 Weber State at 8 p.m.

Beyond seeding, there is this week the matter of picking up a little momentum prior to championship week. The Lady Griz' four-game losing streak is their longest of the season.

Montana lost a well-played game to Montana State in Missoula on Feb. 23. Since then, the Lady Griz have lost by 18 to Northern Colorado, 15 to Southern Utah and 17 to Northern Arizona.

What's at stake (Portland State): The Vikings (21-6, 13-5 BSC), the first Big Sky team to reach 20 wins, is among the Big Four, along with first-place Idaho (15-3 BSC), second-place Northern Colorado (14-4 BSC) and Idaho State (13-5 BSC), which is tied with PSU for third.

The Vikings, with help, could win out and claim a share of the regular-season title with one or multiple teams, but that's unlikely. Portland State, which closes at Montana State on Saturday, is locked into a top-four seed and won't play in Boise until Tuesday's quarterfinals.

PSU is 2-2 in its last four games, with a 72-54 road loss at Idaho State and an 81-68 loss at home to Idaho.

Portland State is 1-5 this season against the other three teams at the top of the league standings, which doesn't bode well for Boise, but March tends to favor teams loaded with experienced upperclassmen, which PSU has a number of.

What's at stake (Sacramento State): Like Montana, the Hornets (10-16, 6-12 BSC) are locked into a Monday game in Boise. Sac State could win its way into a No. 7 seed by the time Saturday is done, but more likely is a spot in the 8-9 game, which kicks off six straight days of games in Boise.

Most recently (Montana): The Lady Griz dropped both ends of the Southern Utah-Northern Arizona road trip, losing 71-56 to the Thunderbirds on Saturday, 82-65 to the Lumberjacks on Monday.

Montana raced out to a 12-5 advantage on Saturday in Cedar City, but Southern Utah closed the first quarter on a 10-0 run to take a lead it would never give back.

SUU led 33-24 at the half and 49-41 after three quarters. Three 3-pointers in a span of 73 seconds midway through the fourth quarter sent the Thunderbirds to just their second victory over Montana in their 19 meetings.

McKenzie Johnston had 22 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but Montana was unable to overcome 33.8 percent shooting, 15 turnovers and SUU's 10-for-22 performance from the arc.

Sparked by three 3-pointers in the game's opening two and a half minutes, Northern Arizona raced out to a 13-0 lead on Monday night in Flagstaff and never looked back to snap a 12-game losing streak against the Lady Griz.

Trailing 29-10 after the first quarter, Montana cut its deficit to 10 at the half, 44-34, and down to five, 49-44, four minutes into the third quarter, but an 8-0 run for NAU pushed the lead back to 13 and it would remain at 10 or more the remainder of the game.

Jacey Bailey was on fire, going 7 for 9 from the arc, 12 of 15 overall, to score a season-high 31 points. Northern Arizona went 10 for 20 from the arc, the ninth time this season an opponent has dropped 10 or more triples on Montana.

The Lumberjacks shot 59.3 percent in the second half to finish at 53.2 percent for the game, the best an opponent has shot against the Lady Griz this season.

Jace Henderson and Gabi Harrington both scored 12 points, Abby Anderson added a season-high 10 off the bench for Montana.

Most recently (Portland State): The Vikings have feasted on the bottom two-thirds of the Big Sky this season, going 12-0 against teams not named the Vandals, Bears and Bengals and winning 11 of those 12 games by at least 12 points.

Last week was that in microcosm. Portland State lost at home to Idaho, 81-68, in the second meeting between the league's preseason favorites. Two days later, the Vikings had no trouble at home against Eastern Washington, shooting 49.2 percent on their way to a 76-57 win.

Most recently (Sacramento State): The Hornets don't have a win this season over a team in the top five but almost pulled off a shocker on Saturday, falling 69-65 at home to Idaho behind Hannah Friend's 24 points and 48.3 percent shooting.

That came two days after falling at home to Eastern Washington, 71-62.

The first meeting (Portland State 78, Montana 60 -- Jan. 5 at Portland): Back when Montana had Taylor Goligoski and Katie Mayhue in the lineup, the outcome was decided in a hurry. Sidney Rielly scored 16 first-quarter points and the Vikings led 29-9 just 10 minutes in.

Portland State shot 21 for 28 in the first half, built a 65-35 lead seven minutes into the third quarter and cruised to victory from there.

Rielly would lead both teams with 19 points. Carmen Gfeller led Montana, which shot just 31.8 percent, with 13 points off the bench.

The first meeting (Montana 88, Sacramento State 86 [2ot] -- Jan. 3 at Sacramento): The win improved the Lady Griz to 3-0 in league and remains one of just two times Montana has won this season after trailing at the half (the other: home against UC Davis).

Katie Mayhue made five 3-pointers as Montana rallied from an 11-point deficit in the second quarter and a 61-54 deficit with just over four minutes to go in regulation.

The Lady Griz could have iced the win in regulation but went 1 for 2 from the line with six seconds left. That opened the door for Sarah Abney to send the game into overtime with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

With Montana leading 87-86 late in the second overtime, Kennedy Nicholas missed a short shot that hung on the rim before rolling off with three seconds left. The Lady Griz grabbed the rebound and hit a free throw for the game's final point.

Gabi Bade, a transfer from Buffalo, hit six 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 26 points. Mayhue finished with 17, Henderson and Harrington both had double-doubles.

Big Sky race heats up: It's advantage Idaho, as the Vandals enter the season's final week of regular-season games at home, hosting last-place Weber State and third-place Idaho State.

Idaho can clinch a share of the regular-season title with a win on Thursday over the Wildcats.

Second-place Northern Colorado closes at home against Southern Utah on Thursday, then plays at Northern Arizona on Saturday. Portland State makes the Montana-Montana State trip, Idaho State the Eastern Washington-Idaho trip.

Fifth-place Montana State (10-8 BSC) and sixth-place Eastern Washington (9-9 BSC), which split their head-to-head matchups, are both at home this week and playing for the No. 5 seed, which advances a team to Tuesday's quarterfinals.

Either the Bobcats or Eagles will fall to No. 6 and be forced to play on Monday.

Series history: Portland State has won four of five against Montana, but the Lady Griz continue to lead the all-time series 47-20. Montana has gone 27-5 against the Vikings in Missoula.

Montana has dominated the series against Sacramento State, winning 39 of the teams' 46 games, but it's become more 50-50 the last few years. In the teams' last 13 meetings, Montana has won seven, the Hornets six.

Montana is 22-1 at home against Sacramento State. The Hornets' lone win came in 2016-17.

Game notes:

* McKenzie Johnston takes 957 career points into this week's games. With at least three games remaining this season, she could become the 34th player in program history to reach 1,000 points.

* The 1.25 points Northern Arizona averaged per possession on Monday night was the second-highest allowed this season by Montana. Only Arizona (1.44) had better production.

* Three times this season Montana has allowed a player to score 31 or more points. Savannah Smith scored 31 in Missoula, 40 in Greeley in Northern Colorado's two wins. Jacey Bailey became the third with 31 points on Monday in Flagstaff.

* Montana's 17-for-18 performance from the line on Monday night (.944) was its best percentage of the season. Had the Lady Griz not missed the one free throw, they would have set a new program record for number of makes without a miss.

* Montana's six turnovers at Northern Arizona on Monday were a season low.

* Abby Anderson had the team's best efficiency rating on Monday. She becomes the sixth player to lead Montana this season, joining Henderson, Johnston, Harrington, Fatkin and Mayhue.

* Jace Henderson shot an uncharacteristic 3 for 15 at Southern Utah. She bounced back by going 5 for 10 at Northern Arizona, but the road trip dropped her to .561 for the season and out of first place in the Big Sky. That spot now belongs to Montana State's Madeline Smith (.586).

* On Montana's four-game losing streak, its opponents have gone 39 for 92 (.424) from 3-point range. The Lady Griz in those four games: 16 for 67 (.239).

* Through 18 league games, Montana has made more 3-pointers than its opponent in a game just once, its win at Weber State, when the Lady Griz made a season-high nine triples.

* McKenzie Johnston had her streak of seven consecutive double-figure scoring games snapped on Monday night when she scored seven points at Northern Arizona.

* Carmen Gfeller's five points on Monday at Northern Arizona were the most she'd scored since going for 13 at Portland State back on Jan. 5.

* Montana shot 34.1 percent in its road losses at Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. The Lady Griz went just 6 for 28 from the arc (.214), while the Thunderbirds and Lumberjacks went 20 for 42 (.476).

* On its four-game losing streak, Montana has gone 47 for 56 (.839) from the line.

* Montana's 26 bench points on Monday were the most since the 29 the team's reserves scored in the Lady Griz' double-overtime win at Sacramento State in early January. They were the most points the bench has scored this season in a regulation game against a Division I opponent.

* On Montana's four-game losing streak, the Lady Griz have led for just 9:30 of 160 minutes.

Upcoming: Boise, with seeding to be determined this week.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Carmen Gfeller

Taylor Goligoski

Gabi Harrington

Jace Henderson

McKenzie Johnston

Katie Mayhue

University of Montana Athletics