Lady Griz host Eagles, look to rebound

The Montana women's basketball team will play a single game this week, hosting Eastern Washington on Thursday.

The Lady Griz (8-5, 3-1 BSC) and Eagles (2-10, 1-2 BSC) will tip off at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena.

Montana will travel to Oregon on Sunday for a game at Portland State (8-6, 2-2 BSC) on Monday at 8 p.m. (MT). The Vikings host first-place Montana State (8-5, 4-0 BSC) on Saturday afternoon.

Where they stand (Montana): The Lady Griz sit alone in second place in the Big Sky standings at 3-1, one game behind the league-leading Bobcats.

Montana improved to 3-0 in the Big Sky on Thursday with an 81-74 home victory over Southern Utah, then dropped its first league game on Saturday, falling at Dahlberg Arena to Northern Colorado, 67-58.

Where they stand (Eastern Washington): The Eagles have just two wins on the season, one against Division I competition, a 63-53 home victory over last-place Weber State.

Eastern Washington's only other win was an 81-62 victory at home over Northwest Christian.

The Eagles dropped a pair of lopsided games last week, losing 67-47 at home to Idaho State, 75-58 on the road at Portland State.

Game notes:

* Montana may lead the all-time series against Eastern Washington 71-24, but the Eagles have won the last six meetings and 10 of the last 14.

* During its six-game winning streak over Montana, Eastern Washington has won three of those games by three or fewer points, another by six, another by seven.

* Eastern Washington has won the teams' last three matchups in Dahlberg Arena. Montana is 42-8 at home against the Eagles.

* Eastern Washington has 11 underclassmen on its roster of 14.

* The Eagles took that young roster and opened the season with road games at Stanford, San Jose State, Utah and Gonzaga. EWU lost those four games by a combined total of 161 points.

* Eastern Washington fell 53-52 at home to Pepperdine, a team that is 7-7, and 63-61 at home to Boise State, a team that has 11 wins and was picked to win the Mountain West Conference.

* The Eagles are the only team in the Big Sky that does not have a player averaging at least 10 points per game. The team's leading scorer is sophomore Grace Kirscher at 9.8 points per game.

* Seven players have led Eastern Washington in scoring this season, including six different players in the first six games of the season.

* Kirscher, who hit six 3-pointers, scored 22 points in Eastern Washington's loss at Portland State on Saturday. It was the most points scored by an Eagle this season.

* Eastern Washington is shooting 32.9 percent as a team and averaging 54.1 points. Those statistics rank 342nd and 338th in the nation out of 348 teams.

* The Eagles, the No. 6 seed, made a surprising run to the championship game of the Big Sky tournament in March in Boise, with upsets of No. 3 Idaho State and No. 2 Northern Colorado.

* Eastern Washington lost in the championship game to Portland State, 61-59, getting outscored 15-8 in the fourth quarter. The Eagles were limited to a single basket over the final 5:34 after going up by seven.

* Eastern Washington was picked sixth in the preseason media poll, one spot ahead of Montana, seventh in the coaches' poll, two spots behind the Lady Griz.

* In Thursday's 81-74 win over Southern Utah, Montana had three players -- McKenzie Johnston, Emma Stockholm and Abby Anderson -- finish with 17 points. Gabi Harrington added 11.

* At 50 percent, it was Montana's best shooting performance of the season against a Division I opponent and its most points scored.

* Montana had a season-high 14 steals against the Thunderbirds, part of 19 turnovers forced.

* The Lady Griz, who held Southern Utah to five first-quarter points, twice fell behind in the fourth quarter but held the Thunderbirds without a field goal over the final 4:22.

* The five first-quarter points allowed on Thursday were the fewest allowed by Montana in a period this season, besting the seven scored by Santa Clara in the second quarter in the teams' game in Fullerton.

* In Saturday's home loss to Northern Colorado, Montana shot 30.5 percent and held the lead for just 69 seconds, never in the second half.

* Emma Stockholm scored 20 points in the first half, going 5 for 7 from 3-point range, and finished with a career-high 22 for the game.

* Stockholm became the first player with 20 or more points in a half since Kayleigh Valley put up 22 in the second half in a loss to North Dakota on her way to 30 in the 2016 Big Sky tournament quarterfinals.

* Montana had three possessions in the fourth quarter on Saturday against Northern Colorado when the Lady Griz could have made it a one-possession game: missed three, missed jumper, missed three.

* The win gave the Bears' a seventh consecutive victory over the Lady Griz. Northern Colorado held Montana to 62 or fewer points in six of those seven games.

* Stockholm and Abby Anderson, who was limited to 17 minutes, combined to go 9 for 18 against Northern Colorado. The rest of the team: 9 for 41 (.220).

* Montana took a season-high 22 3-pointers against the Bears. ... Northern Colorado was the first team since November to get to the free throw line more times than Montana.

* Anderson blocked a season-high four shots despite being limited to 17 minutes.

* All five Northern Colorado starters scored in double figures on Saturday. It was the first time this season an opponent has pulled that off.

* The 10-point deficit faced by Montana in the fourth quarter on Saturday was its largest since playing at South Dakota in mid-December.

* McKenzie Johnston shot 16 for 21 in Montana's Big Sky games against Northern Arizona and Southern Utah. Against Sacramento State and Northern Colorado she went 4 for 19.

* Johnston moved up from No. 24 to No. 19 on the Montana career scoring list in two games last week, moving past Sarah Ena, Sherri Brooks, Sharla Muralt, Greta Koss and Anita Novak.

* Johnston also moved up from No. 10 to No. 8 on the career assists list, advancing past her current coach, Shannon (Cate) Schweyen, and Cheryl Brandell. She is eight behind Torry Hill for the No. 7 spot.

* Stockholm was 3 for 14 from the arc on the season before going 5 for 7 in the first half against Northern Colorado on Thursday.

* Gabi Harrington was held scoreless by Northern Colorado on Saturday. It was her first time without a point since a home loss to South Dakota early last season.

* Madi Schoening opened the season making her first 13 free throw attempts before going 0 for 2 on Saturday against the Bears.

* Anderson is shooting 19 for 31 (.613) through four Big Sky Conference games.

* Montana's 0.88 points per possession against Northern Colorado were its fewest since facing Santa Clara in late November.

* Montana leads the Big Sky in free throw attempts (266 or 20.5/game) and ranks last in 3-point field goal attempts (59 or 4.5/game).

Game preview:

Montana will attempt to rebound from a loss to Northern Colorado on Saturday when the Lady Griz host Eastern Washington on Thursday night at Dahlberg Arena.

The Lady Griz trailed the Bears 37-31 at the half and were within one possession just once in the second half, late in the third quarter. But only once did the UNC lead reach 10.

"The second half, every time we'd make a big play or do something positive, they either came up with a big steal or we fouled a shooter. We just shot ourselves in the foot," said Schweyen.

"We kept battling and making a game of it, we just couldn't quite close the gap to where maybe they panicked a little bit. They did just enough to get by us at the end."

Coming off a 33-point loss at Montana State two days prior, Northern Colorado got just the start it wanted on Saturday, hitting its first four shots and leading 8-0 before the game was three minutes in.

All four baskets came in the paint.

"We got off to a horrible start, which didn't help us," said Schweyen. "We went for a couple steals in the post that turned into layups, and they get off to a great start."

Now comes Eastern Washington, sporting a 2-10 record with just a single win against a Division I opponent but that coming after a tough nonconference schedule with a young team.

It will be a wait-and-see type game on Thursday. Only four players have seen action in all 12 games and only sophomore guard Jessica McDowell-White has started all dozen.

And while the Eagles don't have anyone averaging more than 10 points per game, they have seven averaging 5.8 or more, each of whom could lead the team in scoring on Thursday. If they play.

"They have had a lot of kids in and out of lineups, so we kind of don't know what we're going to get," said Schweyen. "They are a lot like us, in that they have different kids stepping up every night."

If the Northern Colorado game was physical, that largely took place in the paint. Eastern Washington tends to extend that level of physicality to the perimeter.

"We always expect a physical game with them," said Schweyen. "We have to be ready to adjust to that immediately. You know they are going to guard the ball tough.

"I'm not sure we adjusted to the physicality (on Saturday). We've got to take better care of the ball. That hurt us down the stretch. We've been a team that takes care of the ball. We didn't in that one."

The Eagles also counter with some size with experience. Senior Leya DePriest, in her second year with the Eagles after transferring from Denver, and sophomore Bella Cravens are both 6-foot-3.

"They have good size. DePriest and Cravens are both good sized and big bodies," said Schweyen. "It's not like SAC and NAU, when we were definitely the bigger team on the floor."

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Montana State, at 4-0, is the last unbeaten. The Bobcats put up 91 points in wins last week against Northern Colorado and Southern Utah and have won their league games by an average of 26 points.

* Montana sits alone in second place at 3-1, with Idaho, Idaho State and Northern Colorado all sitting 2-1.

* Sacramento State and Weber State are 0-3 and the last two teams still seeking a league win. They meet on Saturday in Ogden.

* Thursday in the Big Sky: EWU at UM, UI at MSU, ISU at SUU, SAC at NAU, WSU at UNC

* Game to monitor: Idaho at Montana State -- The two teams picked first (MSU) and second (UI) in both the coaches' and media polls. Some luster was taken off this game when the Vandals had scoring quarters of six and seven points in last week's 74-53 loss at Portland State.

* Saturday in the Big Sky: NAU at ISU, SAC at WSU, MSU at PSU

* Game to monitor: Montana State at Portland State. It's the league's stingiest defense (MSU at 58.2 points per game) against the Big Sky's second-best scoring team (PSU at 71.6 points per game).

Upcoming: Montana will play games at Portland State on Monday night and at Idaho a week from Saturday before starting an important four-game home stand.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Gabi Harrington

McKenzie Johnston

Madi Schoening

Emma Stockholm

Kayleigh Valley

University of Montana Athletics