Lady Griz fall to Lumberjacks in Big Sky quarterfinals

Tuesday, March 10

Boise, Idaho

2:30 PM

Montana

17-13

Northern Arizona

16-14

Northern Arizona

Montana

Photos by David Staggs/Brooks Nuanez

Lady Griz fall to Lumberjacks in Big Sky quarterfinals

3/10/2020 7:18:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's basketball team allowed a 16-0 run, went more than seven and a half minutes without scoring and trailed by eight going into the final two minutes, and still, with so much going against them, the Lady Griz got everything they could have asked for in the closing seconds.

Trailing 68-65 to No. 5 Northern Arizona on Tuesday afternoon, Montana, the No. 4 seed, ran a play to perfection out of a timeout and got Emma Stockholm an open 3-pointer from the corner.

The shot looked good off her hand. It looked good in flight. But it bounced off the rim. And just like that, the horn sounded and the season came to a heartbreaking end in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference tournament at CenturyLink Arena in Boise.

"I thought we did a heck of a job getting back into that. They did everything we asked of them," said fourth-year coach Shannon Schweyen.

"We got our top 3-point shooter a shot to try to tie it. Unfortunately it didn't go. But I'm extremely proud of the effort we had out there today."

Montana hit nine of its first 18 shots and looked comfortable early operating against a team the Lady Griz defeated twice during the regular season, going up 19-11 in the first quarter.

Everything changed in the second quarter.

After Sophia Stiles made the type of play only she could anticipate and make -- a backcourt strip of a player who had just grabbed a defensive rebound and was heading up court, which Stiles turned into a layup and a 27-20 lead -- Montana would go scoreless the final five minutes of the first half.

Northern Arizona would score the final eight points of the second quarter and lead 28-27 at the break.

"The second quarter was a big turning point for us. We got a little impatient, took some tough shots. We made it tough on ourselves in that stretch," said Schweyen, whose team went 3 for 17 in the second quarter.

The Lumberjacks would score the opening eight points of the second half -- a 27-20 Lady Griz lead was now a 36-27 deficit -- before McKenzie Johnston ended Montana's long scoring drought with her deadliest weapon: a mid-range pull-up jumper.

As hard as Montana tried, as much as the Lady Griz fought, it was the 3-point shooting of Northern Arizona in the second half that won the Lumberjacks the game.

NAU would go 6 for 10 from the arc in the second half, each of them its own little dagger, setting back another Montana comeback attempt.

"They got it going a little bit in the second half. Every time we made a run, they would come down and make a three," said Schweyen.

"We lost some shooters who got away from us a little bit. They capitalized on those opportunities and knocked down some big threes in the second half when it counted."

Montana trailed 45-37 late in the third quarter when Schweyen called a timeout after Northern Arizona had hit its fourth 3-pointer of the period.

Everything was going the Lumberjacks' way.

"We changed some things up and got a spark and the girls got after it," said Schweyen. "Kenzie came in the huddle and was like, let's get this thing going."

Abby Anderson, who finished with 15 points before fouling out with 3:15 to go, finished a strong drive to the basket and Stockholm added a jumper just before the buzzer.

And all of a sudden it was a four-point game and the Lady Griz had some momentum for the first time since the first quarter.

Montana would cut the lead to one on three occasions early in the fourth quarter, with Anderson making it 50-49 with 7:27 to go.

The next two minutes, for all that didn't happen, would prove to be a turning point. Five Montana players would miss six shots that could have given the Lady Griz the lead.

None was more excruciating than Madi Schoening's shot from under the basket with 5:26 to go. It hit the back plate and sat there. And sat there. And sat there. Until if finally, somehow, rolled off and not through the net.

Just a few seconds later Northern Arizona ended its own scoring drought with a 3-pointer. The lead was four.

Jacey Bailey added another triple two minutes later to answer a jumper by Taylor Goligoski, and when Lauren Orndoff converted a three-point play with 2:03 to go, Northern Arizona had gone back up by eight, 64-56.

Goligoski gave Montana life when she hit a 3-pointer on the next possession, and Johnston made it 64-61 when she hit another mid-range jumper with 1:14 left.

It would be a one-possession game entering the game's final minute.

The teams traded trips to the free throw line, which all led up to Nina Radford going 1 for 2 with 11 seconds left. That gave Montana the ball down three.

The play was drawn up in a timeout, all the players did what they needed to do to get the open final shot. But it missed.

Fittingly, all three seniors -- win or lose -- played a role. Stockholm scored 11 points in the game's first 12 minutes to get Montana going early. Goligoski scored all 10 of her points in the second half.

And Johnston was Johnston, playing all 40 minutes and finishing with a game-high 18 points, six rebounds and six assists.

"We knew where we wanted to go together as a group. They all three wanted this thing," said Schweyen. "They may not have been able to accomplish what some other Lady Griz teams have, but they are champions in my heart."

It ends a long journey. And we were all witnesses.

Johnston's first game against a Division I opponent, as a redshirt freshman? Montana trailed 26-8 after the first quarter. The Lady Griz would shoot 25.4 percent in an 84-43 loss to South Dakota State.

Four years later she has 1,398 points and 515 assists, ranking her seventh and fourth in Lady Griz program history. She became one of the best of the best right before our eyes.

And like those before her, it always comes to an end, always sooner than anyone wants.

"Obviously there is a lot of disappointment right now. It's going to take some time. But you have to be proud of what we accomplished as team together and how far we've come since I've been a freshman," she said.