Lady Griz to face Lumberjacks as postseason opens

Tuesday, March 10

Boise, Idaho

2:30 PM

Montana

Northern Arizona

Photo by: Derek Johnson

3/8/2020 3:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball

PDF Game Notes Tournament Bracket

By: Montana Sports Information

The postseason has arrived for the Montana women's basketball team.

The Lady Griz (17-12), who enter the Big Sky Conference tournament as the No. 4 seed, will play No. 5 Northern Arizona (15-14) on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. inside CenturyLink Arena in Boise in the second of four quarterfinal games that day.

Montana, holding its best postseason seed since 2014-15, swept the Lumberjacks during the regular season, winning 79-71 in Flagstaff in late December and 70-57 last month in Missoula.

How they got here (Montana): The Lady Griz were on the bubble for a top-five seed and first-round bye after consecutive road losses to Idaho State and Montana State, but Montana rebounded with home wins over Northern Arizona and Sacramento State, then clinched a bye with a road win at Northern Colorado on Wednesday.

Montana's three-game winning streak came to an end on Friday, with an 84-81 overtime loss at Southern Utah. The Lady Griz led by 13 in the third quarter but a Rebecca Cardenas jumper with five seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime, where the Thunderbirds went 4 for 6. Southern Utah did not hold a lead in the game until overtime.

How they got here (Northern Arizona): The Lumberjacks, who opened league 0-2 in late December, went 12-3 after the calendar flipped to 2020 and were sitting in second place behind Montana State just two weeks ago.

A 70-57 loss at Montana was followed by a 73-71 setback at Montana State, a game Northern Arizona led by 16 in the third quarter. NAU dropped a 68-63 decision at home on Wednesday to Portland State and will take a three-game losing streak into the postseason.

The headliner (Montana): Senior point guard McKenzie Johnston leads the Lady Griz in scoring (13.1/g) and assists (5.0/g), and ranks second in rebounding (5.3/g). She is shooting a career-best 46.1 percent from the field and ranks 37th nationally in both assists and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.15).

She has been brilliant in two games this season against the Lumberjacks, averaging 20 points on 57.7 percent shooting.

The headliner (Northern Arizona): Junior forward Khiarica Rasheed leads Northern Arizona in both scoring (16.8/g) and rebounding (7.2/g). She shoots the three sparingly but is dangerous, going 16 for 35, and she's gotten to the line 161 times, 65 more than any player for Montana.

She had 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting and six rebounds in Montana's win in Flagstaff, 17 points and six rebounds in NAU's loss in Missoula last month. She had just six points through three quarters before putting up 11 in the fourth.

The series: Montana has dominated the series 59-12 and has won 14 of the teams' last 15 matchups. ... The Lady Griz are 5-2 against the Lumberjacks in Big Sky tournament games, including a 78-63 win in Reno in 2016, and 2-1 against NAU when the teams have played at a neutral site.

The first meeting (Montana 79, Northern Arizona 71 in Flagstaff, Dec. 28): The Lady Griz never trailed in the game and built a 60-40 advantage entering the fourth quarter before giving up a 31-point final period to the Lumberjacks, who pulled within six in the final minute.

McKenzie Johnston scored 26 points on 8-of-11 shooting as Montana shot 45.0 percent and turned the ball over just 12 times. Emily Rodabaugh had 19 points off the bench for Northern Arizona, 14 of which came in the fourth quarter.

The second meeting (Montana 70, Northern Arizona 57 in Missoula, Feb. 27): The Lumberjacks came in rolling and led 18-8 after the first quarter and by 11 early in the second. But the Lady Griz would pull within one at the break, 28-27, then hold NAU to 35.5 percent shooting in the second half.

McKenzie Johnston scored 14 for Montana, with Taylor Goligoski and Jamie Pickens both adding 13 off the bench. Rasheed, scoreless in the first half, finished with 17 for the Lumberjacks, who went 4 for 21 from the 3-point line.

Summary: Montana will try for a three-game season sweep of Northern Arizona on Tuesday, with the winner advancing to Wednesday evening's first semifinal, where top-seeded Montana State likely awaits.

"I don't want to say I'm happy with the matchup, because I don't want to sound overconfident, but you'd rather play somebody you've swept than somebody you've split with or somebody who swept you," said coach Shannon Schweyen.

"You like playing a team you've had success against, but that certainly doesn't mean you're going to have it a third time. Every game is a different game, and it's not like (our first two games) were blowouts. They were close ball games."

Northern Arizona has three double-digit scorers in junior Khiarica Rasheed (16.8/g), junior Jacey Bailey (14.4/g) and sophomore Nina Radford (11.9/g), who is in her first year playing for the Lumberjacks after transferring from UC Santa Barbara.

Bailey put up 31 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the arc the only time Northern Arizona has defeated Montana in the teams' last 15 matchups, 82-65 in Flagstaff last season.

Montana limited those three players to 22 points in Flagstaff in December. They scored 38 in Missoula but didn't get much support from their teammates, who went 7 for 26.

The Lady Griz held the Lumberjacks below their season scoring average of 72.4 in both meetings during the regular season.

"We've done a good job on them by taking away some of their strengths. Now we've got to do that a third time around," said Schweyen.

"Rasheed is capable of having a big game, as Bailey and Radford are. They've had some big ones against people."

Montana is just 2-4 in Big Sky tournament games since the league went to a neutral site, with three years in Reno and so far one year in Boise.

The Lady Griz have not advanced beyond the quarterfinals since winning the championship in 2015 in Missoula. In two of the last three years Montana has been sent home after one first-round game.

"This group has experienced some good and some bad," says Schweyen, who starts two seniors, a junior and two third-year sophomores.

"I think they have a different feel this year knowing that we almost beat the No. 1 team in the league and we were very close to sweeping the No. 2 team. That certainly gives us some confidence going into this week."

Should Montana win on Tuesday and the other games go as expected, the Lady Griz would face No. 1 Montana State at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the semifinal round.

The Bobcats defeated the Lady Griz 66-61 in overtime in Missoula, 92-78 in Bozeman.

Tournament bona fides: Montana is 56-16 in conference tournament games, a record built largely on its success in winning the regular season and then hosting and winning the conference tournament.

The Lady Griz are 40-2 at home in the postseason.

Away from Missoula it's a little more balanced. Montana is 2-4 in road games, 14-10 in neutral-site games.

Montana has just once before been the No. 4 seed, and the Lady Griz certainly enjoyed that experience. They defeated No. 5 Idaho State, No. 2 Northern Colorado and No. 1 Portland State on the Vikings' home floor to win the title in 2011.

Montana is 50-5 in the postseason as the higher seed, 6-11 as the lower seed.

Monday's schedule (first-round games):

No. 8 Northern Colorado vs. No. 9 Sacramento State: The Bears swept the season series, winning 73-63 on the road, 90-73 at home. The Hornets enter the postseason on a six-game losing streak

No. 7 Portland State vs. No. 10 Eastern Washington: The teams split their regular-season series, with the Vikings winning 75-58 in Portland, the Eagles 79-75 in Cheney. PSU, which won last year's tournament, has gotten hot at the right time, winning three straight. EWU has dropped five in a row.

No. 6 Southern Utah vs. No. 11 Weber State: The Thunderbirds swept the season series, winning 87-71 in Ogden, 82-66 in Cedar City. SUU has won five of seven, WSU has won four games all season.

Tuesday's schedule (quarterfinal games):

No. 1 Montana State vs. UNC/SAC: The Bobcats went 19-1 in league, averaging more than 80 points per game to finish with a scoring margin of +17.8. MSU's lone loss came at home in double overtime to Idaho. That is Montana State's lone loss since Christmas.

No. 4 Montana vs. No. 5 Northern Arizona: See above

No. 2 Idaho vs. PSU/EWU: The Vandals were picked behind the Bobcats in both preseason polls and lived up to those expectations, going 15-5 in league. Idaho has won five in a row and seven of eight going into the postseason.

No. 3 Idaho State vs. SUU/WSU: Largely overlooked after a 3-4 start to league, the Bengals closed winning 10 of 13, a stretch that started with a road win at Montana. ISU's three losses since mid-January: twice to Montana State, once to Idaho.

Montana notes:

* Montana's 17 wins are a high for the Lady Griz under fourth-year coach Shannon Schweyen, whose first three teams won seven, 14 and 14 games.

* Montana is 7-7 this season away from Missoula. The last three seasons the Lady Griz were 8-38.

* Montana lost its only other neutral-site game this year, 68-58 to Santa Clara at Cal State Fullerton's Thanksgiving tournament in November.

* Montana is 8-4 this season when coming off a loss, which is how the Lady Griz enter the postseason after Friday's overtime defeat at Southern Utah.

* Montana was 15-2 this season when leading at the half before falling on Friday at Southern Utah.

* The key metric: Montana is winless this season (0-8) when shooting below 40 percent against Division I opponents.

* McKenzie Johnston enters the week ranked eighth on the Montana career list in scoring (1,380) and sits fifth in assists (509).

Johnston is 16 points behind Lauren Cooper (1996-2001), 20 behind Katie Edwards (2002-06) and 47 from Katie Baker (2009-13) and cracking the top five.

She is two assists from catching Margaret Williams (1982-87) and moving into fourth on that list. And fourth is as high as she'll go.

* Johnston had her second double-double of the season at Southern Utah, finishing with 14 points and 10 assists. It was her fifth career double-double and her second 10-assist game of the season.

* Emma Stockholm goes into the postseason averaging 16.3 points on 54.5 percent shooting and 8.3 rebounds over the team's final three regular-season games.

* Gabi Harrington, who returns to her hometown of Boise this week, went 6 for 12 from 3-point range over the team's last five games.

* Abby Anderson has 24 blocks the last five games, including seven against Northern Arizona and seven on Friday at Southern Utah.

"She is just an absolute beast down there. I can't say enough about her timing and her ability to get so many of those clean. She has a great knack for it," says Schweyen.

* In Montana's 17 wins this season, the Lady Griz shot 46.4 percent. In their 12 losses: 35.6 percent.

* Montana had outrebounded eight straight opponents before Friday's game at Southern Utah. The Thunderbirds were +2 and grabbed a game-changing 17 offensive rebounds, 11 in the second half to spark their comeback from a 13-point deficit.

* Montana's .541 shooting percentage at Southern Utah was its best against a Division I opponent this season. The Lady Griz shot 12 for 14 (.857) in the first quarter, 16 for 25 (.640) in the first half.

* Montana split on the road last week despite leading for more than 73 of 85 minutes of game time.

* The Lady Griz fell to 0-2 in overtime games this season with their loss at Southern Utah on Friday.

* Montana did not face a deficit of more than five points over its last three regular-season games, against Sacramento State, Northern Colorado and Southern Utah.