Lady Griz face first road tests

The Montana women's basketball team will hit the road for the first time this season when it plays games at North Dakota and North Dakota State this week.

The Lady Griz (1-1) will face the Fighting Hawks (0-2) on Thursday at 11 a.m. (MT) in Grand Forks, the Bison (1-1) at 6 p.m. (MT) on Saturday in Fargo.

Thursday's game has a midday tip because it is UND's School Day Game.

Montana will be on the road next week as well for the Grand Canyon Women's Basketball Classic, with games against Houston Baptist and Nicholls State in Phoenix the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Coverage: Both games this week will stream on ESPN+ and have local radio coverage on KMPT (99.7 FM/930 AM), with Paul Yarbrough making his Lady Griz debut.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz opened their season with a home split against Northwest Nazarene, an 84-46 win, and Gonzaga, a 67-60 loss on Sunday.

As expected, Montana is being led by its four experienced upperclassmen.

Senior guard Sammy Fatkin is averaging a team-leading 16 points on 61.9 percent shooting through two games. Junior forward Carmen Gfeller is averaging 15.0 points on 64.7 percent shooting and a team-leading nine rebounds.

Senior forward Abby Anderson is averaging 11.5 points and eight rebounds, senior guard Sophia Stiles nine points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists. Stiles has just three turnovers in more than 57 minutes played this season.

Montana's top five scorers, the four mentioned above plus junior guard Katerina Tsineke, are shooting 55.4 percent, and the Lady Griz are shooting 47.4 percent as a team under first-year coach Brian Holsinger.

At a glance (North Dakota): The Fighting Hawks are 0-2 after opening their season with road losses at Weber State, 72-57, against the team picked to finish last in the Big Sky in the preseason media poll, and UTEP, 89-69.

North Dakota, down three starters on its season-opening road trip, was picked ninth out of 10 teams in the preseason Summit League poll.

UND is 2-21 under second-year coach Mallory Bernhard, who was hired after two-time Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year Travis Brewster was let go in March 2020 after leading the Fighting Hawks to a 15-win season.

Brewster was an assistant coach last season at Idaho State, which won the Big Sky regular-season and tournament championships. He's currently the head coach at Saint Xavier in Chicago. The Cougars are off to a 4-0 start.

Montana and North Dakota, Big Sky Conference rivals for six seasons, from 2012-13 to 2017-18, played last season in Missoula. The Lady Griz won 86-72 behind 26 points from Carmen Gfeller and a 22-point, 12-rebound double-double from Sophia Stiles.

At a glance (North Dakota State): The Bison, who host Northern Iowa on Wednesday night, opened their season with a challenging road trip, facing the teams picked second (Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and third (Wisconsin-Green Bay) in the Horizon League preseason poll.

The Bison, picked third in the Summit League behind mid-major heavyweights South Dakota and South Dakota State, won 69-58 at Milwaukee on 49 percent shooting, then lost two days later at Green Bay, 71-54, getting outscored 38-22 in the second half.

Junior guards Heaven Hamling (15.5/g) and Ryan Cobbins (15.0/g), who are 10 for 18 from 3-point range through two games, lead NDSU in scoring. Hamling was voted second-team preseason all-Summit League.

North Dakota State is coached by Jory Collins, who is in his third year. Collins made a name for himself doing good work at Division II Emporia (Kan.) State.

Series history (Montana-North Dakota):

* Montana leads the series with North Dakota 10-8 and has won the teams' last three matchups.

* The Lady Griz have gone 2-5 against the Fighting Hawks in Grand Forks. Montana won the teams' last meeting at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center 54-43 in January 2018 despite shooting 31.7 percent.

* Montana won games at The Betty against Montana State and Southern Utah at the 2014 Big Sky Conference tournament before falling to UND in the championship game.

Series history (Montana-North Dakota State):

* Montana and North Dakota State have met just twice previously, both at neutral sites.

* Montana won 58-49 in Bozeman during the 1977-78 season. The teams would not play again until the Bison won 70-53 at Loyola Marymount's tournament in November 2013.

* The two schools have had somewhat mirrored histories. At Montana, Robin Selvig was hired prior to the 1978-79 season. He led his teams to 865 wins and 21 NCAA tournament appearances.

* At North Dakota State, Amy Ruley was hired prior to the 1979-80 season and turned the Bison into a Division II power, winning national championships in 1991, '93, '94, '95 and '96, and 671 games.

* Both programs went through two coaches before landing Holsinger (Montana) and Collins (North Dakota State). Both coach with their program's histories and expectations hovering in the background.

Summary:

It's been three days since Gonzaga defeated Montana in an environment that can only be described as electric.

Perhaps it was fans enjoying the opportunity to watch in-person basketball again. Perhaps it was the opponent, one sitting just outside the top 25 in the national poll. Perhaps it was a fanbase trying to will a program back to the status it once enjoyed.

It almost worked.

Things to like:

* Montana shot 42.6 percent against a team that held its first opponent of the season, Montana State, to 32.1 percent shooting. The Lady Griz were shooting 47.5 percent after three quarters.

Carmen Gfeller scored 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting, Sammy Fatkin 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting and Sophia Stiles 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting.

Montana outshot Gonzaga, which finished at 41.0 percent.

* Montana turned the ball over just 11 times against a long, athletic opponent. That improved ball security came just days after turning the ball over 18 times against Northwest Nazarene.

The Lady Griz had 11 or fewer turnovers just twice in 23 games last season.

* Carmen Gfeller, who led the Big Sky in shooting last season at 52.9 percent, is 11 for 17 through two games (.647).

* Sammy Fatkin, who is playing competitive basketball for the first time since December 2019, is showing no rust. She is 13 for 21 (.619) two games into her return and leading the team in scoring at 16 points.

* Montana's four leading scorers (Fatkin, Gfeller, Anderson, Stiles) have each taken between 18 and 21 shots through two games. That's some delightful distribution and balance.

* Sophia Stiles has an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.0. She has nine assists, three turnovers. She had one turnover in 30 minutes played against Gonzaga.

* Montana was sharp from the opening tip on Sunday. Defensively, the Lady Griz forced Gonzaga to miss its first three shots, with a turnover thrown in as well. Offensively, Montana opened by hitting five of its first eight shots. The three misses were on good looks.

"First, I loved how hard we played. All the kids, from the end of the bench all the way through the starters, everybody was engaged, everybody gave everything they had," said first-year coach Brian Holsinger.

"We had a fantastic start to the game, which was important. We did what we were supposed to do. We executed. We had three or four shots during that stretch that could have made the lead much bigger, good looks that we just didn't make."

* Montana came out of the halftime break back on top of its game, a nod to both the coaches and to the players, who had to listen and then apply what they heard.

The Lady Griz shot 7 for 13 in the third quarter. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs shot 57.1 percent to mostly maintain the eight-point lead they had at the break.

"Really proud of the girls going in the third quarter. We came out and executed really well after we had a time to rest and regroup," said Holsinger. "We got back to the things that were successful.

"But we didn't get stops and weren't doing the right things on defense. We didn't put together offense and defense too much on Sunday except for the beginning of the game."

Montana played its best defense of the game in the fourth quarter, limiting Gonzaga to 3-of-14 shooting. The Bulldogs missed their final nine shots after taking a 62-54 lead with 7:01 to go.

That could have opened the door for Montana, but the Lady Griz went 4 for 14 in the fourth quarter with three turnovers.

"That's what I call learning how to win," said Holsinger. "At the end of the game, we were really good on defense, but we didn't execute on offense to get easy shots down the stretch.

"You have to put together good stretches on both sides to beat good teams, and we're not quite there yet. But super proud of our effort. We learned a ton from that game and it was a great crowd.

Areas of concern:

* Montana's bench was outscored 31-8, which proved costly with Abby Anderson spending much of the first half on the bench with two fouls. Sophia Stiles sat in the first half as well with two fouls.

The players who came off the bench were just 3 for 13.

"We have to get more production from our bench," said Holsinger, who has had limited numbers in practice this season due to a number of issues.

"Some of that has to do with Kylie (Frohlich) only having three practices. Some of that has to do with nerves."

* And some of that has to do with facing a team that you can scout on paper but not quite replicate on the court until the opening jump ball.

Rebound-putbacks are challenged, closeouts and being done by bigger, faster players than a team can prep for in practice.

"When you face a longer, better team, your windows of opportunities are tighter," said Holsinger. "You can't simulate that until you play against a team like that."

* After giving up 16 offensive rebounds to Northwest Nazarene in the opener, extra opportunities that didn't prove costly to the Lady Griz, Montana gave up 19 to Gonzaga, and they came at a steep price.

It's why Montana lost despite outshooting Gonzaga and only turning the ball over 11 times. The Bulldogs just got more shots and opportunities to score, the difference in a mostly tight game.

* After forcing a Gonzaga miss late in the first half, Montana had possession of the ball, down five, the shot clock off. A basket of any kind would have made it a one-possession game at the half, assuming it came late enough that the Bulldogs wouldn't be able to get a shot of their own.

Montana rushed up the court and got an open 3-pointer from the corner with 11 seconds left. It was off the mark, but the Lady Griz grabbed the rebound. A putback with seven seconds left missed as well.

That gave Gonzaga enough time to rush up the court and hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer. With so much working in Montana's favor in that end-of-half situation, the Lady Griz went to the locker room down eight.

"That gave them all the energy going into the half," said Holsinger, who would have been fine had his team not gotten any shot off if it meant not giving the ball back to Gonzaga.

"The whole point is to not give them momentum going to the locker room. Even if you miss the last shot, they don't have the opportunity to take the momentum back."

* Montana went just 1 for 10 from 3-point range on Sunday and is 7 for 28 (.250) through two games.

It will be an aspect of the game to watch for a team that has shot 28.3 percent from the arc the previous five seasons. It's been the program's Achilles heel.

The good news is Montana has defended well the 3-point line through two games. Northwest Nazarene and Gonzaga went 10 for 49 (.204) from the arc.

Now Montana heads on the road for the first time this season.

It was an area of improvement for Montana the last two seasons after going 6-31 in road games the previous three years. The Lady Griz were above .500 at 13-12 in road games in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Of course, that's nothing compared to what Holsinger experienced in his five seasons at Oregon State. Over those five seasons, the Beavers lost just 15 true road games and went 53-26 away from Corvallis, including games at neutral sites. That's better than two out of three.

"It's a good challenge for us as we grow as a team," he said. "You go on the road and how do you react to adversity, how do you react to the environment? These next two weeks are a good opportunity for us to prove our culture is headed in the right direction."

Montana notes:

* Mostly because of offensive rebounds, Montana's opponents have taken 24 more shots than the Lady Griz through two games. Yet Montana has 14 more makes.

* Northwest Nazarene and Gonzaga combined to go 21 for 25 (.840) from the free throw line.

* Someone leads Montana in blocked shots with four, and it's not Abby Anderson. It's Katerina Tsineke. Anderson has 144 for her career but is still seeking rejection No. 1 of the season.

* That Anderson has no blocks through two games is a rarity. She had two games out of 30 as a sophomore without a block, two games out of 22 as a junior without a block.

* Carmen Gfeller has opened her junior season with games of 11 and 19 points. She has reached double figures 19 times in 25 games since the start of last season.

* Freshman Dani Bartsch made the most of her eight minutes against Gonzaga. She made a basket and added three rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Two teams have multiple wins thus far. Portland State (2-0) has defeated Warner Pacific and Dixie State, the school soon to be known as Utah Tech.

* Sacramento State (2-1) has wins over San Jose State and Sonoma State. San Jose State was picked ninth of out 11 teams in the preseason Mountain West Conference poll.

* Montana, Idaho and Idaho State all are 1-1, with the Vandals and Bengals, both picked for top-three finishes this season, experiencing the full spectrum through two games.

* Idaho hit 21 3-pointers in a 95-46 home win over Lewis-Clark State, then had quarters of five and seven points in a 20-point home loss to San Diego. Three-pointers made in the loss: two. Turnovers committed: 27.

* Idaho State scored 34 points in a 91-34 season-opening loss at No. 10 Oregon, then came back and put up 109 in a 109-56 home win over Park University.

* Montana State (2-1), picked second in the preseason coaches' poll, is 1-2 with a pair of humbling losses: 72-47 at Gonzaga and 80-42 at UNLV. The Bobcats face another challenge on Thursday at South Dakota State before playing at North Dakota on Saturday.

* Northern Colorado (1-2) picked up win No. 1 for Kristen Mattio with a two-point home victory over Texas-Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday.

* Northern Arizona (0-2), Eastern Washington (0-3) and Southern Utah (0-3) all are seeking win No. 1 of the season.

* Games of interest this week: Idaho State at Gonzaga on Thursday, Washington State at Idaho on Sunday. Short road trip for the Cougars.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Dani Bartsch

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Sophia Stiles

Katerina Tsineke

University of Montana Athletics