Lady Griz to get their shot on Sunday

The Montana women's basketball team will face its first Division I opponent of the season on Sunday when it hosts Gonzaga at Dahlberg Arena, with tipoff at 2 p.m.

The Lady Griz opened their season on Tuesday with an 84-46 victory over Northwest Nazarene to give first-year coach Brian Holsinger a win in his Lady Griz debut.

Gonzaga also will enter the game 1-0 after handily defeating Montana State on Thursday night in Spokane, 72-47. The Bulldogs shot 50.9 percent while limiting the Bobcats to 32.1 percent shooting.

Coverage: The game will air on ESPN+ with Riley Corcoran calling the action. Corcoran's call also will be on KMPT 99.7 FM/930 AM. The game will have additional distribution through SWX, with former Lady Griz Krista Redpath and Zach Kaplan on the call.

What they did (Montana): The Lady Griz went 12-11 last season and finished sixth in the Big Sky Conference with a 9-8 league record. No. 6 Montana was upset 65-58 by No. 11 Sacramento State in the opening round of the Big Sky tournament.

What they did (Gonzaga): The Bulldogs went 23-4 last season and won the West Coast Conference with a 16-1 league record. Gonzaga advanced to the NCAA tournament for the 11th time in the last 12 years it's been held. The Bulldogs, a No. 5 seed, lost 64-59 to No. 12 Belmont in San Marcos, Texas.

Where they were picked (Montana): The Lady Griz, with three seniors back but otherwise a mostly new-looking lineup and a mostly new coaching staff, were picked fifth in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll, seventh by the media.

Where they were picked (Gonzaga): The Bulldogs, two spots out of the top 25 in the preseason USA Today/WBCA national poll, were picked second in the West Coast Conference poll behind BYU. The Cougars picked up eight of 10 first-place votes, Gonzaga the other two.

Who to watch (Montana): Lady Griz junior Carmen Gfeller, a third-team All-Big Sky selection last season after leading Montana in scoring (14.3/g) and the league in field goal percentage (.529), was one of six players voted to the Preseason All-Big Sky Team.

Who to watch (Gonzaga): Senior forward Melody Kempton, the WCC Sixth Woman of the Year last season, was the lone Bulldog voted to the 10-player preseason All-West Coast team. She is the team's leading returning scorer (6.6/g) for a team that lost three starters.

How they've started (Montana): The Lady Griz got past Rocky Mountain on Nov. 5 in their lone exhibition game, 60-56. Four days later Montana looked much improved in opening its schedule with an 84-46 home victory over Northwest Nazarene behind 19 points off the bench from Sammy Fatkin.

How they've started (Gonzaga): The Bulldogs rolled through Central Washington 78-42 in their only exhibition game, then roughed up Montana State on Thursday by a surprisingly lopsided score against the team picked to finish second in the Big Sky.

Series history:

* Montana leads the all-time series against Gonzaga 17-15 but it's been trending in the Bulldogs' favor for years now.

* The Lady Griz won the teams' first 10 matchups, between 1980 and 1992, and 13 of the first 14. Since 1999, the Bulldogs are 13-3 against the Lady Griz and have won the last eight, by an average margin of more than 16 points per game.

* Montana's last win in the series was an 88-78 victory early in the 2006-07 season.

* Montana is 10-5 against Gonzaga in Missoula. The Bulldogs have left with a victory their last three trips.

* In last year's matchup in Spokane, Montana lost 58-51. The Lady Griz missed a 3-pointer with 3:20 remaining that would have given them the lead. Kayleigh Truong would hit a triple at the other end on Gonzaga's next possession, and the Bulldogs stayed ahead from there.

* Gonzaga coach Lisa Fortier is 3-0 against Montana. First-year Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger will be facing the Bulldogs for the first time as a head coach, for the eighth time overall.

* Washington State, where Holsinger was an assistant from 2007-08 to 2014-15, went 2-4 against Gonzaga during his time as an assistant under June Daugherty.

* Holsinger's most high-leverage game against the Bulldogs came in 2018-19, his third year as an assistant at Oregon State. The Beavers, playing at home, got by Gonzaga 76-70 in the second round of the NCAA tournament to advance to the Sweet 16.

Summary:

It's hard to believe a Kelly Graves-coached team could ever go 5-23 and winless through 14 games in the West Coast Conference, but that was the case in his first year at Gonzaga, in 2000-01.

By Year 3, he had Gonzaga to 18 wins. His fifth team, in 2004-05, went 28-4.

It was a few years later that June Daugherty was hired at Washington State. She would bring Brian Holsinger on as an assistant. And they had to play catchup against the growing power to the north thereafter.

"I was there when Kelly was doing his thing at Gonzaga," Holsinger says of the coach who departed Gonzaga for Oregon after the 2013-14 season and now has the Ducks regularly in the top 10.

"We ran against his program for years, and they've been one of the best. They developed something pretty cool there. Kelly turned it into a great program, and Lisa has done a great job of continuing it."

That would be eighth-year coach Lisa Fortier, who won 23 or more games six of her first seven seasons and has continued Gonzaga's run of making a national tournament (two WNIT, 12 NCAA) the last 14 times there has been a national tournament to qualify for.

"They've done a great job, so just a ton of respect. And we know them personally. One of their assistant coaches, Stacy Clinesmith, played high school soccer with my wife," said Holsinger.

"It all starts with recruiting. They've had a great streak of recruiting. They are long and athletic and they are well-coached."

Holsinger admits he might have preferred to get Gonzaga a few more games into the schedule, to allow his first team to get a few more experiences under its belt, but there is no changing that now. The Bulldogs will be here on Sunday afternoon, ready or not.

"It's going to be a great test to see where we're at. It's a little earlier than I would have liked to play them, but we're going to learn a ton about who we are and what we need to improve on to ultimately reach our goals at the end of our season," he said.

His Lady Griz will face a team that shot 50.9 percent in its one-sided win over Montana State on Thursday night, against a team that's been known to defend a little bit.

Montana is coming off a win over Division II Northwest Nazarene on Tuesday when it held the Nighthawks to 20.3 percent shooting, 15.8 percent in the second half.

"We just kind of locked in and made it really hard for them. We took away most things," Holsinger said. "You're seeing moments when we're just locked in, talking, pointing, making it really hard for the other team to get any kind of good shot."

Montana put five players in double figures on Tuesday and shot 51.6 percent. Sunday's defense will be a bit saltier.

Montana State was able to shoot just 27.6 percent in the first half against Gonzaga on Thursday and was sitting at 25.6 percent through three quarters. MSU's starting five went 8 for 31 in the game.

One of the reasons Montana looked sharper offensively on Tuesday compared to Friday was the return not just of Sammy Fatkin, who scored a team-high 19 points, but the depth that allowed the Lady Griz to play at a faster pace.

"We could play the way we wanted to," said Holsinger. "We got to play fast, to get out in transition. Our hope is to get layups or kickout threes, whether that takes three seconds or 25. That's our goal every single time."

Montana broke Northwest Nazarene's ill-fated pressure right from the start on Tuesday and raced out to leads of 15-0 and 20-2.

The Nighthawks would fight their way back to within eight in the second quarter, but a 20-0 run over the end of the second quarter and start of the third buried the visitors.

"We want to have a culture that's built with toughness and hustle. We want to go out there and the other team is like, wow, this team gets on the floor and does all the little things," said Holsinger.

"We did not do that against Rocky. Then we had 10 or 12 hustle plays against NNU. We have people who are willing to do the little things it takes to win."

Montana's 18 turnovers were a bit of a concern, as were the 16 offensive rebounds the Lady Griz allowed, which led to 15 second-chance points for the Nighthawks.

Whether Sunday is the biggest win for the program in recent years or something else, Montana will take to the road next week for the first time to face North Dakota and North Dakota State.

A road trip to Phoenix the following week, to play in Grand Canyon's Thanksgiving tournament, will extend Montana's time away from home.

"It will be another opportunity to learn," said Holsinger. "What is this team about, how do we do things on the road? They've never been on a road trip with me, I've never been on a road trip with them, including our assistant coaches."

Montana has actually been pretty good on the road recently, going 13-12 in true road games the last two seasons.

"We pride ourselves on being tough. Going on the road, you either get tough and execute or you kind of wither when adversity comes.

"There are more opportunities for adversity on the road. How are we going to respond to those adversities? Are we going to fight through them?"

Montana notes:

* Montana's win on Tuesday was just its fifth in its last 13 season openers. … The Lady Griz are 1-11 in the last 12 seasons in their first game against a Division I opponent, which Sunday will be.

* Montana had five players in double figures in Tuesday's win, the first time that's happened since a 90-45 home win over Sacramento State on Feb. 29, 2020.

* Sophia Stiles' eight points on Tuesday gave her 600 for her career.

* Abby Anderson (16 points, 11 rebounds) and Carmen Gfeller (11 points, 14 rebounds) both had a double-double on Tuesday. That's a first for the Lady Griz since Jace Henderson and Gabi Harrington doubled up in a road win at Sacramento State in January 2019.

* Sammy Fatkin, in her first game in a Montana uniform since Nov. 30, 2019, matched her career high on Tuesday with 19 points. She went 7 for 10, hit a 3-pointer and had three steals.

* Gfeller's 14 rebounds on Tuesday were the most for Montana since Emma Stockholm had 14 in a home win over Sacramento State in February 2020.

* Anderson's double-double was the fifth of her career, Gfeller's was her second.

* Montana's 54 rebounds were its most since ripping down 57 in a home win over Sacramento State in February 2020.

* Montana gave up 16 or more offensive rebounds just three times last season, against Gonzaga (18), Northern Colorado (20) and Montana State (17).

* The last time Montana held an opponent to a lower shooting percentage than Northwest Nazarene's 20.3 on Tuesday: Sacramento State shot 17.3 percent in Montana's 90-45 home win in February 2020.

Upcoming: Montana will play a midday game at North Dakota on Thursday, with tipoff at 11 a.m. (MT) in UND's School Day Game. The Lady Griz will travel an hour south and face North Dakota State on Saturday, Nov. 20.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Sophia Stiles

University of Montana Athletics