Lady Griz to make home debut

The Montana women's basketball team will make its home debut on Monday when it hosts North Dakota at 3 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena.

The Lady Griz, who kicked off their season on Nov. 25 with an 81-74 road loss at Utah State, had their home and Big Sky Conference openers last week, scheduled for Thursday and Saturday against Southern Utah, canceled because of COVID-related issues within the Thunderbird program.

Coverage: Watch on Pluto TV (channel 1056) or listen on KMPT (99.7 FM/930 AM) or 930kmpt.com. All will feature the call of first-year Voice of the Lady Griz Shawn Tiemann.

The matchup:

* Monday's matchup will feature a pair of interim head coaches. Mallory Bernhard replaced Travis Brewster, now an assistant at Idaho State, in March. Mike Petrino took over for Shannon Schweyen in April.

* Both teams will enter the game looking for win No. 1 on the season. North Dakota lost 90-82 at home last Sunday to Marquette and 84-72 this Sunday at Montana State.

* Montana is 36-6 in home openers since the program was brought under the intercollegiate athletics umbrella prior to the 1978-79 season. The six losses: twice to Western Kentucky, once to Kentucky, Washington, Oregon and Seattle.

* Montana has gone 0-3 the last three seasons in its first home game of the season against a Division I opponent, falling to Kentucky in 2017-18, South Dakota in 2018-19 and Fresno State last season.

* Montana leads the all-time series 9-8 and has gone 6-1 against North Dakota in Missoula. The Lady Griz have won the last two games in the series after the Fighting Hawks had won six of seven.

* The two programs competed as Big Sky Conference opponents for six seasons, from 2012-13 to 2017-18.

* The Fighting Hawks went 7-6 against the Lady Griz those seasons, with a 2-0 mark in the postseason, winning 72-55 in the Big Sky tournament championship game in 2014 in Grand Forks and 65-62 in the quarterfinals in Reno in 2016.

* The latter was the final of 1,151 games coached by Robin Selvig, who went 865-286 on the Montana sideline over 38 seasons. He retired in July 2016.

* Montana won the teams' last two meetings, sweeping the season series in 2017-18 to snap a four-game losing streak against North Dakota.

* In the teams' most recent meeting, on Feb. 3, 2018, in Missoula, Montana won 53-51 on a Taylor Goligoski jumper from the right elbow with 2.2 seconds to play.

* North Dakota's lone win in Missoula came on Jan. 16, 2016. After McCalle Feller tied the score at 59-59 with a 3-pointer with 17 seconds to go, Mia Loyd won it for the Fighting Hawks, 61-59, on a baseline inbounds pass with 0.5 seconds left.

More on Montana:

* The Lady Griz opened their season with an 81-74 road loss at Utah State on Wednesday, Nov. 25.

* Montana built a 39-26 lead late in the second quarter but Utah State scored the final 11 points of the first half, then outscored the Lady Griz 9-2 to begin the second, making it a 20-2 run over 5:02 of clock time.

* The Aggies made 11 consecutive shots spanning the end of the second quarter and the start of the third and went nearly 10 minutes -- from 3:18 of the second to 3:27 of the third -- between missed shots.

* Montana took a 60-58 lead early in the fourth quarter on an Abby Anderson jumper. The Aggies answered with an 8-0 run, and the Lady Griz would get no closer than four the rest of the way.

* Redshirt sophomore Carmen Gfeller had a career-high 21 points on just 13 shots. She went 8 for 13 from the floor, 5 for 6 from the line to surpass her previous career high of 15, scored as a true freshman in 2018-19.

* Freshman Willa Albrecht scored 14 points in her Lady Griz debut on the strength of 4-of-5 shooting from the arc.

* Albrecht's 14 points tied for third for the most points scored by a Lady Griz freshman in a season opener (see more below).

* Only five times has a Lady Griz freshman made more than Albrecht's four 3-pointers in a game during their first season (see more below).

* Montana went 8 for 21 (.381) from the arc against Utah State. That was a total reached just four times last season against Division I competition.

* Sophia Stiles matched career highs with eight assists and four steals. Abby Anderson scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting in 19 minutes. She had foul trouble in the first half and left the game in the second with an injury.

* Coach Mike Petrino used 12 players in the game. Eight of them were playing in a Lady Griz uniform for the first time.

* Utah State shot 53.1 percent in the second half to outscore Montana 44-35 over the final 20 minutes.

* Robin Selvig, who would win 865 games with the Lady Griz, lost the first game he coached, in 1978-79, at Utah State, just as Petrino did.

More on North Dakota:

* Like Montana, North Dakota had a change in leadership last spring when Bernhard replaced two-time Big Sky Coach of the Year Travis Brewster, who was let go -- via phone call -- after eight seasons and more than 100 victories.

* The Fighting Hawks went 15-15 last season though finished the year on a downward trajectory. After opening 12-4, UND lost 11 of its last 14 games.

* North Dakota was picked eighth out of nine teams in the preseason Summit League poll, coming in ahead of only Nebraska-Omaha.

* Senior forward Julia Fleecs, who averaged 12.2 points and 4.8 rebounds last season, was voted second-team preseason All-Summit League.

* North Dakota's top seven scorers from last season's team are back.

* UND had its season opener, scheduled at Chicago State on Nov. 25, canceled.

* North Dakota, despite dressing only eight players, lost 90-82 last Sunday in Grand Forks to Marquette, a team that went 24-8 last season and was picked third in the Big East preseason poll behind Connecticut and DePaul, with Fleecs going for 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

* On Sunday afternoon, North Dakota lost 84-72 at Montana State, with the Fighting Hawks getting outscored 42-6 from the arc.

* North Dakota shot 45.1 percent inside the arc, but it wasn't enough to keep pace with the Bobcats, who drained 14 triples in their season opener.

* The Fighting Hawks, who out-rebounded the Bobcats 52-39, were led by sophomore guard Juliet Gordon, who scored 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting in her season debut.

Talking points:

* Over the final 15 games of her freshman season, in 2018-19, Carmen Gfeller totaled 21 points. After redshirting last year, she matched that total by putting up 21 in Montana's season-opening loss at Utah State.

Gfeller, who is 6-foot-1 and can score from basket to arc and anywhere in between with a sweet shooting stroke, went 8 for 13 against the Aggies.

"It was so nice to go out and play again," she said. "I was telling some of my teammates that honestly it hasn't felt like I've played in two years because I was behind Emma Stockholm and Jace Henderson (in 2018-19).

"Redshirting was a really beneficial year for me, confidence-wise and skills-wise. I think I developed a lot. I knew I put in the time and effort that I needed to be successful, so I felt confident going into (the Utah State) game."

Gfeller's previous career high came in her first game played as a Lady Griz. She scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting in Montana's 90-45 victory over Providence (MT) in November 2018.

"Our team did a really good job of creating open looks for everybody," she said. "I just took advantage of it.

"We've been playing together as a team for so long, it was good to play against somebody else and take it to somebody who is not your own teammate."

* As noted above, freshman Willa Albrecht made a splashy debut in Montana's season opener against Utah State.

In 17 minutes off the bench, she scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, going 4 of 5 from the arc.

Only two players since 1980-81 have scored more as a freshman in a Montana season opener. Kenzie De Boer put up 23 at Colorado State in 2009-10, Shannon Cate scored 18 against Eastern Illinois in 1988-89.

Hollie Tyler also scored 14 points in Montana's season opener against Southeast Missouri State in 2001-02.

Those three players rank first (Cate), third (Tyler) and 14th (De Boer) in career scoring at Montana with 5,140 points between them.

"It was just taking open shots how they came and not forcing anything," said Albrecht. "I wasn't going in thinking I'd get to shoot that much, so it was nice to get some shots."

As for her four 3-pointers, only five times has a freshman made more in a game during her first season as a Lady Griz.

Taylor Goligoski (2016-17 vs. Incarnate Word) and Mandy Morales (2005-06 vs. Idaho State) both made six in a game during their first year.

Katie Mayhue (2018-19 vs. Sacramento State), Katie Edwards (2002-03 vs. Gonzaga) and Cate (1988-89 vs. Gonzaga) all connected five times during a game.

Edwards, with 236 for her career, ranks first in program history in 3-pointers made. Morales (186) ranks fifth, Cate (133) eighth, Goligoski (122) tied for ninth.

"I knew I could shoot it, but I definitely worked on it over the summer," she said. "It was something I wanted to get better at.

"In order to drive and use my athleticism, I need to be able to make outside shots. They'll complement each other. If I can make outside shots, that will just help open it up for me."

* When Montana last hosted North Dakota, the game won by Goligoski in the final seconds with her jumper from the elbow in 2017-18, Sophia Stiles was a true freshman and turning into a star.

Three games prior, in a win at Southern Utah, she had 26 points on 11 shots, six rebounds and four assists.

In the second half of Montana's win over North Dakota, Stiles drove the right side, her path to the basket blocked by UND's Lexi Klabo.

She rose up, came down and stayed down. It was a season-ending knee injury that forced her to redshirt the following season, 2018-19, as well.

She played all of last season with a brace. Now that's gone, and here comes North Dakota. Is it something that registers with Stiles?

"It does. It's a little different," says Stiles, who played against Fallyn Freije last season in Freije's one season with Montana State after transferring from North Dakota. Freije scored 19 points for the Fighting Hawks in the game Stiles was injured.

"I even thought about it last year, when Fallyn was on MSU. She was on North Dakota when it happened. It's kind of surreal and I have thought about it a couple of times."

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* With the Montana-Southern Utah games canceled last week, only two sets of games were played, both involving teams expected to compete for the Big Sky Conference title.

* Idaho, first in the polls, took care of Sacramento State in Moscow, winning 97-73 and 81-70 on back-to-back days. It's a small sample size, but through two games, the Vandals have six players averaging in double figures, led by former Lady Griz Gabi Harrington (14.0/g).

* Northern Arizona, third in both polls, won a pair of road games at Eastern Washington, winning 89-60 on Saturday, 69-55 on Sunday.

* In other pre-Christmas league matchups in December, Idaho State will host Northern Colorado on Dec. 14 and 16, and Weber State will host Portland State on Dec. 18 and 20.

* The Montana-Southern Utah games will not be made up. The Lady Griz won't have their first Big Sky game until playing at Northern Colorado on Jan. 1.

* With Montana State winning on Sunday, Portland State is the only Big Sky team yet to play a game. Due to cancelations, the Vikings are not scheduled to play their first game until Dec. 16, at Dixie State.

Upcoming: Montana will go on a two-game road trip, with games at Gonzaga (1-2) on Sunday, Dec. 13, and Seattle (1-3) on Tuesday, Dec. 15.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Willa Albrecht

Abby Anderson

McCalle Feller

Carmen Gfeller

Taylor Goligoski

Gabi Harrington

Jace Henderson

Katie Mayhue

Sophia Stiles

Emma Stockholm

University of Montana Athletics