Lady Griz open season at Utah State

The Montana women's basketball team will open its 2020-21 season on Wednesday when it plays at Utah State. The Lady Griz and Aggies will tip off at 2 p.m. at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan.

Opening tips:

* Wednesday's game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network. For a more local perspective, Shawn Tiemann makes his debut as Voice of the Lady Griz on KMPT (99.7 FM/930 AM) and 930kmpt.com.

* Wednesday is the first date Division I teams could schedule games this season. Of the seven scheduled women's basketball contests involving Big Sky teams, four have already been cancelled. Montana-Utah State, Northern Arizona-UNLV and Northern Colorado-Kansas are still on.

* Wednesday will be the first game for Montana, which was not able to play any of the usual exhibition games prior to the start of the regular season, since falling 68-65 to Northern Arizona on March 10 in a Big Sky tournament quarterfinal game in Boise.

* Montana, as a department, has not competed since March 12, when the Griz golf team walked off the course at Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George, Utah.

* Wednesday's game will feature a pair of first-year head coaches. Kayla Ard, formerly on the staff at Denver, was hired by Utah State on March 23. Mike Petrino, after four years as an assistant coach, was announced as interim head coach of the Lady Griz on April 20.

* Wednesday's game will be played in a mostly empty facility. Only a limited number of family members will be allowed inside as Utah State begins the season by keeping spectators away for health reasons. Montana also will open the season without fans when the Lady Griz open at home next week.

* Utah State went 8-23 a year ago and finished last in the Mountain West Conference by four games, going 2-16 in league. Those two wins came by a total of three points.

* Utah State became the first No. 11 seed to win a Mountain West tournament game when the Aggies knocked off No. 6 San Diego State in the first round, 81-79 in overtime in Las Vegas. The season came to an end when the Aggies gave up a 16-point lead in a 64-59 quarterfinal loss to No. 3 Wyoming.

* The Aggies, with two starters back and nine newcomers, were picked to finish 11th out of 11 teams in the preseason Mountain West poll. The league's top five: Fresno State (22 of 26 first-place votes), San Jose State (2), Boise State (1), San Diego State (1) and Wyoming.

* The Lady Griz, with three starters back and eight newcomers, were picked to finish sixth in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll, seventh by the media. Idaho, Idaho State, Northern Arizona, Montana State and Northern Colorado topped both polls in that order.

* Montana went 17-13 last season and tied for fourth in the Big Sky at 12-8 with Northern Arizona. The Lady Griz lost to the Lumberjacks 68-65 in the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals when an open-look 3-pointer at the buzzer by Emma Stockholm rolled out.

* Of Utah State's nine newcomers, five are freshmen, four are transfers. Of the four transfers, three come from junior colleges. The other is Jessica Chatman, last seen averaging 6.4 points and 4.9 rebounds last season for an 18-win Southern Utah team.

* Of Montana's eight newcomers, five are freshmen, three are transfers. Nyah Morris-Nelson (Iowa Western Community College) and Hannah Thurmon (Three Rivers [Mo.] College) are junior-college transfers. Lauren Mills joined the program after spending two-plus seasons at Iowa State.

* Montana has just one senior (Madi Schoening) and only four returners who played last season: Schoening and juniors Abby Anderson, Kylie Frohlich and Sophia Stiles. The team lost five of its top six scorers from last season, either by graduation or transfer.

* Utah State lost its top four scorers from a year ago, players who averaged between 9.4 and 13.8 points per game. The leading returning scorer is senior guard Emmie Harris, who averaged 3.8 points.

* The last time Montana opened the season on the road and came away with a win: 71-70 at Utah State on Nov. 18, 2005. ... The Lady Griz have dropped their first game against a Division I opponent the last six seasons, losing to: Fresno State, Gonzaga, Wyoming, South Dakota State, Seattle and Pacific.

* Over the last 41 seasons, Montana has opened the season with a true road game nine times. The Lady Griz are just 1-8 in those games.

* Dating back to 1974-75, or as far back as our historical records go, Montana is 30-16 in season openers. ... The Lady Griz won their season opener last season, 98-45 at home over MSU Northern. Montana went 11 for 19 from the arc and shot 59.4 percent overall.

* Montana is 8-3 against Utah State. The teams have split their four matchups in Logan, with each team winning twice.

* The teams' last matchup was a 65-47 victory for the Aggies on Nov. 27, 2016, in the championship game of the Lady Griz Classic. Utah State held Montana to 21.6 percent (11 for 51) shooting.

* The teams' last matchup in Logan was a 65-62 Montana victory, as the Lady Griz fought back from a 35-24 halftime deficit thanks to 6-of-8 shooting from the arc in the second half. Katie Baker had 11 points and 16 rebounds.

Talking points:

* In a more normal season, Montana would be going into its regular-season opener having played the Maroon and Silver scrimmage and then two exhibition games.

This year's team, which could have used a soft entry into the season given the changeover in the roster, got the benefit of none of that.

"Having a few games under our belt, both for a learning experience and for us to try different lineups, would have been fantastic," said first-year coach Mike Petrino.

"Instead, this is where we're at. It is unique. We've learned a lot about ourselves the last two months in practice. Now we'll learn a lot more about ourselves in our first game."

* As noted above, Montana and Utah State are perfectly suited to be matching up on opening day, so largely do they mirror one another with first-year coaches and more newcomers than returners.

"It's two teams that have a lot of similarities, in terms of roster turnover," said Petrino. "Both brought in JC kids, both have a large freshman class. They have some of the same circumstances we're going through."

* Montana isn't necessarily young, with seven upperclassmen, but the Lady Griz are somewhat inexperienced. Only three players (Schoening, Anderson, Stiles) have started games in their careers.

Schoening has played in 86, started 76. Anderson has played in 59, started 30. Stiles has played in 51, started 32.

Frohlich has played in 55 games, without a start. Redshirt sophomores Carmen Gfeller and Jordyn Schweyen both played as true freshmen in 2018-19 before redshirting last season. Shelby Schweyen also redshirted last season, her first year on the team.

Still, they are outnumbered 8-7 by the newcomers.

"All the returners have done a good job of welcoming the new players," said Petrino. "I've heard that from all the new kids individually.

"I really applaud our returners. They've been great about embracing the returner role and helping out the new people. That started with Zoom calls back in April and May, so the communication started long before we got on campus in August."

* Petrino is just the third head coach of the Lady Griz over the last four-plus decades. That's the case when one coach -- Robin Selvig -- wins 865 games over 38 seasons, from 1978-79 to 2015-16.

Shannon Schweyen played for Selvig and spent 24 years as an assistant on his staff before taking over prior to the 2016-17 season. She was the head coach for four seasons.

Petrino was on Schweyen's staff all four years before being elevated to interim head coach in April.

"There will be some familiar actions that Montana has done in the past," said Petrino when asked about what fans can expect from his first team. "And there will be things that will be new based on our personnel.

"Coach Selvig won a lot of games here. Some years his best player was the point guard, some years it was a post player, some year a wing player. Some years he won with zone, some years he won with man. It comes down to your personnel. Systems can work, but players are the key."

Upcoming: Montana will return home and host Southern Utah next week in its Big Sky Conference openers. The Thunderbirds, who lost five starters off last year's 18-win team, will not play before that after its scheduled opener, on Wednesday at Utah, was cancelled by the Utes.

University of Montana Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Kylie Frohlich

Carmen Gfeller

Lauren Mills

Nyah Morris-Nelson

Madi Schoening

Jordyn Schweyen

Shelby Schweyen

Sophia Stiles

Emma Stockholm

Hannah Thurmon

Related Videos