Lady Griz finally get first Big Sky home games

After playing seven of its first nine games on the road, the Montana women's basketball team will get its first Big Sky Conference home games of the season this week when it hosts winless Sacramento State.

The Lady Griz (5-4, 2-2 BSC) and Hornets (0-9, 0-6 BSC) will tip off at 7 p.m. on Thursday and 10 a.m. on Saturday inside Dahlberg Arena, where Montana is 2-0 this season and on a five-game winning streak.

The Lady Griz will get five of their next six games at home. Montana will play a split series against Montana State next week, then host Portland State to open February.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz split a pair of games at Northern Arizona last week, winning 83-74 on Thursday before falling 89-76 on Saturday morning.

In Montana's win, it was the most points scored on the road by the Lady Griz in a non-overtime game since the program's most recent NCAA tournament season of 2014-15, when they won 87-74 at Idaho.

At 55.4 percent, it was their best shooting performance away from home since 2013-14, when they shot 56.1 percent, also in a win at Flagstaff.

In Northern Arizona's win on Saturday, the Lumberjacks shot 56.9 percent. It was the best shooting performance by a Montana opponent since the Lady Griz allowed South Dakota to shoot 58.5 percent in a 96-64 loss at USD in December 2019.

For the two-game series, Montana averaged 79.5 points on 52.7 percent shooting while out-rebounding the Lumberjacks by 22.

The team's four leading scorers on the road trip -- Carmen Gfeller (.783), Abby Anderson (.632), Sophia Stiles (.529) and Madi Schoening (.545) -- all shot better than 52 percent in the two games.

Gfeller was particularly destructive while being incredibly efficient. She totaled 42 points on just 23 shots. She missed just five times, going 18 for 23.

At a glance (Sacramento State): The Hornets will travel to Missoula this week still seeking their first win of the season. The Hornets are 0-9 overall, 0-6 in league. Four of those six games came against Idaho and Idaho State, the teams picked first and second in the preseason polls.

Sacramento State, with three starters back from a team that went 8-22 last season, was picked ninth in the preseason coaches' poll, 10th in the media poll.

The Hornets have played six of their first nine games this season at home and have had three cancellations, games that also were scheduled to be played in Sacramento.

Sacramento State is winless but seven of its nine games have been decided by 12 points or fewer, including the last four.

In Saturday's 77-70 home loss to Big Sky leader Idaho State, the Hornets led with three minutes to play but got outscored 12-4 down the stretch.

Junior guard Summer Menke, the only player to start all nine games this season, leads the team in scoring (13.7/g), rebounding (7.4/g), assists (18) and steals (16).

The Hornets rank last in the Big Sky in scoring defense (78.7/g) and rebounding margin (-11.8/g).

The matchup:

* Montana, at No. 140, ranks third among Big Sky teams in the latest NET rankings, behind Idaho State (104) and Northern Arizona (110). Sacramento State ranks 315th (out of 342 Division I teams), last in the Big Sky.

* The Lady Griz are 42-7 against the Hornets, 24-1 in Missoula. That lone loss, 73-60, came in 2016-17 as part of Montana's 7-23 finish.

* Montana has won the last five games between the two teams and three straight against the Hornets in Missoula.

* In last season's matchup in Sacramento, a Gabi Harrington 3-pointer with 3:40 to play in a tie game gave Montana a lead it would hold the rest of the game. Emma Stockholm had 21 points, Abby Anderson 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

* In the teams' game in Missoula, the Lady Griz won 90-45 while holding the shorthanded Hornets to 17.3 percent shooting (9 of 52). Stockholm had 17 points, 14 rebounds, Madi Schoening 17 of Montana's 46 points off the bench.

The big news:

* Carmen Gfeller was named the College Sports Madness Big Sky Conference Player of the Week on Monday for her two-game performance at Northern Arizona.

Gfeller scored 21 points in both games, going 9 for 12 in Montana's win on Thursday, 9 for 11 in Northern Arizona's win on Saturday.

"I don't know how much better of a weekend you can have. Carmen had a phenomenal weekend," said Lady Griz coach Mike Petrino.

Gfeller, who went 2 for 2 from 3-point range at Northern Arizona and is 6 for 12 from the arc on the year, upped her season field goal percentage to .558, which leads the Big Sky and ranks 30th nationally.

"It's good to see her face-up game. She's starting to extend her range now, which she does well in practice all the time, so we knew that was there," said Petrino.

"She is a very efficient scorer. That's her strength. She makes good decisions. Credit to our players for getting the ball to her. When you run a motion offense, it's good when your efficient players touch the ball."

The official Big Sky Conference Player of the Week award went to Southern Utah's Liz Graves, who had 33 points and 12 rebounds in the Thunderbirds 80-73 home win over Texas-Rio Grande Valley on Sunday.

* Montana, then ranked ninth in the nation, was shooting 79.4 percent from the line through seven games when the Lady Griz headed to Flagstaff last week.

In two games against Northern Arizona, Montana went 29 for 32 to up its season percentage to .816, which ranks fifth nationally.

Sophia Stiles has made her last 23 free throw attempts, Madi Schoening her last 15, Kyndall Keller her last 11, Abby Anderson her last eight.

Montana notes:

* Thirteen players saw the court at Northern Arizona, 10 of them scored on the road trip. ... Both teams made 59 baskets and were separated by four points in the two games.

* While Carmen Gfeller got the Player of the Week recognition, and rightfully so, Abby Anderson was excellent as well. She averaged 16.0 points and 6.0 rebounds while shooting 63.2 percent.

* Sophia Stiles was 9 for 13 from inside the arc at Northern Arizona, Madi Schoening 5 for 7. ... Hannah Thurmon went 5 for 11 from the 3-point line and is shooting 41.0 percent from the arc on the season.

* Montana had 21 assists on 31 made field goals in Thursday's win. It's the second time this season the Lady Griz have had 20 or more assists in a game. They had 20 to open the season at Utah State.

* Montana shot a season-best 44.4 percent from the 3-point line in Thursday's win, going 8 for 18. Five players connected from the arc, with Jordyn Schweyen hitting three, Hannah Thurmon two.

* Montana averaged 1.14 points per possession on Thursday, 1.07 on Saturday. Those performances rank second and third this season behind the 1.23 points per possession scored against North Dakota.

* Northern Arizona's 1.27 points per possession scored on Saturday was the highest allowed this season by Montana.

* The Lady Griz hadn't allowed a team to shoot 40 percent for seven straight games before NAU shot 56.9 percent on Saturday.

* Carmen Gfeller, at 25, had the season's second-best efficiency ranking on Thursday. The only better was Sophia Stiles, at 35, against North Dakota, with 22 points, 12 rebounds, five steals, three assists and two blocks.

* Thursday's win was the second of the season when Montana trailed with two minutes left in regulation. The Lady Griz also came back in their first of two games at Northern Colorado.

* Montana has shot better than its opponent seven times in nine games.

* The Lady Griz gave up just 12 offensive rebounds in two games against Northern Arizona and 14 second-chance points.

* Carmen Gfeller has had back-to-back 20-point scoring games twice this season. She also opened the season with 21 against Utah State and 26 against North Dakota.

* The last Montana player to score 20 or more in three straight games was Kayleigh Valley in 2015-16. She did so in the last nine games of the season, 21 in all, on her way to a program-record 678 points.

* Breakout alert: After opening the season going 12 for 50, Madi Schoening went 4 for 4 on Saturday. She reached double figures with 11 points on Thursday, added 10 on Saturday.

* Nyah Morris-Nelson made the first 3-pointer of her Lady Griz career in Thursday's win. She made 80 in her first two years of junior-college basketball, at South Plains and Iowa Western.

* After shooting 25.3 percent from the arc as a true freshman in 2018-19, redshirt sophomore Jordyn Schweyen is connecting at 36.8 percent this season.

* Montana has shot better this season in the games it has lost (.419) than the games it has won (.409). The difference has come at the defensive end. In the team's wins, opponents are shooting 33.0 percent and averaging 58.0 points. In its losses, 42.2 percent and 76.2 points allowed.

* Montana scored 40 or more points in three of four halves at Northern Arizona. The Lady Griz did that in just two halves through their first seven games (2H vs. North Dakota, 2H in Game 2 vs. Northern Colorado).

* Montana scored 82 points in the paint in two games at Northern Arizona, 36 on Thursday, a season-high 46 on Saturday.

* Montana's 12 bench points on Saturday was its second-lowest output of the season from the team's reserves.

* Montana ranks second behind Big Sky-leader Idaho State in the Big Sky in both scoring defense (66.1/g) and field goal percentage defense (.371).

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Idaho State grabbed a two-game lead in the loss column on the rest of the league with its road sweep at Sacramento State last week. The Bengals are now 8-0 and on a nine-game winning streak.

* Five teams have two losses, though those teams are not equal in the standings. Idaho is 6-2. At the other end: Southern Utah is 0-2 due to cancelations and lost games.

* The Vandals split their games last week at Northern Colorado, losing 63-61 on Thursday after holding a six-point lead with four minutes to play, then bouncing back with a 74-57 win in a game that was tied at the half. Idaho put up 45 second-half points on 65.4 percent shooting.

* Eastern Washington remains at 4-2 after taking a forced weekend off. Northern Arizona (4-4), Portland State (3-3), Montana (2-2) and Montana State (2-2) are all at .500, making for a jumbled race for a first-round bye at the Big Sky tournament in March in Boise.

* After opening league with home losses to Eastern Washington, Portland State has won three of four, including Saturday's 72-70 home win over Montana State when the Vikings rallied from down five midway through the fourth quarter.

* Southern Utah (0-2), Weber State (0-4) and Sacramento State (0-6) are all winless in league.

This week's series: SAC at UM, NAU at MSU, PSU at ISU, WSU at SUU, UNC at EWU

Upcoming: Montana will play at Montana State on Thursday, Jan. 28, before returning home and hosting the Bobcats on Saturday, Jan. 30.

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Carmen Gfeller

Gabi Harrington

Kyndall Keller

Nyah Morris-Nelson

Madi Schoening

Jordyn Schweyen

Sophia Stiles

Emma Stockholm

Hannah Thurmon

Kayleigh Valley

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