Lady Griz to face Rocky Mountain in Friday exhibition

The Montana women's basketball team will host Rocky Mountain on Friday night at Dahlberg Arena in the team's lone exhibition game of the preseason. The game tips off at 7 p.m.

The Lady Griz will play their first regular-season game on Tuesday at 5 p.m. against Northwest Nazarene, the first half of a doubleheader with the men's team, which hosts Dickinson State at 7:30 p.m.

(Fans who purchase a ticket to attend the women's game are invited to stay for the men's game but will be asked to move to general-admission seating or an open seat in the upper bowl.)

Montana will then turn around and host Gonzaga, which went 23-4 last season and is two spots out of the top 25 in the first USA Today/WBCA Coaches' Poll, on Sunday, Nov. 14, at 2 p.m.

The Lady Griz will then make two-game road trips to North Dakota and Arizona, and won't play again at home until opening their Big Sky Conference schedule against Sacramento State on Thursday, Dec. 2.

Coverage: Friday's game will not have radio coverage and won't be streamed on ESPN+. Live stats will be available, as will in-game highlights posted to the team's Twitter account (@MontanaGrizWBB).

COVID note: Fans are asked to wear masks this season at Montana's home basketball games.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz made their public debut on Wednesday, Oct. 27, with the Maroon and Silver scrimmage, then had a closed-door scrimmage against Northwest College on Monday afternoon.

Three starters return from a team that went 12-11 last season and finished sixth in the Big Sky at 9-8. The Lady Griz, under first-year coach Brian Holsinger, were picked fifth in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll, seventh in the media poll.

At a glance (Rocky Mountain): The Battlin' Bears opened their season with a 59-50 exhibition loss to crosstown rival MSU Billings last week, then turned around and won its regular-season opener the next night, 83-60 over Viterbo behind N'Dea Flye's 18-point, 12-rebound double-double.

Rocky Mountain, led by eighth-year coach Wes Keller (no relation to Lady Griz guard Kyndall Keller), went 1-11 last season. The Battlin' Bears tied for fourth out of six teams with MSU Northern in the Frontier Conference preseason coaches' poll behind Carroll, Montana Western and Providence.

Summary:

Friday night will be the next step for coach Brian Holsinger's first Lady Griz team, after Montana held its Maroon and Silver scrimmage last week, then played Northwest College on Monday.

Behind Sophia Stiles' 20 points on 10-of-11 shooting, plus six assists, five rebounds and two steals, Montana outscored Northwest College 68-24 in the 30-minute game portion of the scrimmage.

The Lady Griz shot 55.4 percent and had just five turnovers while forcing 20 and holding the Trappers to 23.7 percent shooting.

"Much improved. That was my biggest takeaway. We rate and give percentages on how accurate we are with our system. The times we did things better and more accurately than the Maroon and Silver were off the charts," said Holsinger.

"It's encouraging. That's what you want. We're just looking for improvement, so I was pleased. Things are starting to transfer (from talk to execution), and that's a huge plus."

Willa Albrecht came off the bench to score 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, Katerina Tsineke added nine points, five assists and three steals, and Nyah Morris-Nelson hit a pair of 3-pointers.

Montana was able to compete with just nine players on Monday. Missed practices, resulting from a variety of reasons, has been a frustrating constant as the early season has progressed through October and into November.

"No question it's set us back. The injury piece and not having people around definitely impacted us, so we're not as far along as a whole unit, strictly because people haven't been here," said Holsinger.

"Anytime you don't have a full team and you're teaching as much as we're teaching, it holds you back as a team."

On Friday night Montana will return to the spotlight once again, playing in front of fans just days before things get even more serious with the opening of the regular season on Tuesday.

"First, we're super thankful for Rocky to do it. It hasn't been easy to get exhibitions, so we're thankful they agreed to come over. They've already played a few games, which is great," Holsinger said.

"It's a good opportunity for us to play against someone else again, this time in front of a crowd. It's kind of a progression. Hopefully it prepares us for Tuesday."

It will be a first time Montana has gone through the preparation process under Holsinger, from coaches reviewing an opponent and putting together a scouting report to passing that information along to the players.

"Just an opportunity for us to slowly work into what real scouts and real preparation for these games means," said Holsinger. "We haven't done any of that yet. It gives us practice, essentially, at preparing.

"One of the most fun things of coaching is game-planning. How do you prepare your team the best possible way to play? How do we game-plan to beat Rocky this week? What's the best way to put our girls in position to be successful? What are the most important things to concentrate on?

"It's fun as a coach, and it will be a good time for us as a staff, too. They'll see what I want and how I want it done, and at the same time, what are some of the strengths they bring to the preparation process?

"And it's another opportunity against an organized team to see how we execute. How do we execute on offense, how do we execute on defense?"

Upcoming: Montana will host NCAA Division II Northwest Nazarene at 5 p.m. on Tuesday. It will be the regular-season opener for the Lady Griz, the second of two exhibition games for the Nighthawks, who play an exhibition at Washington State on Friday night.

As part of the Can the Cats campaign, fans will be able to gain admission to Tuesday's game by donating five or more canned-food items.

Lady Griz to face Rocky Mountain in Friday exhibition

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Players Mentioned

Willa Albrecht

Kyndall Keller

Nyah Morris-Nelson

Sophia Stiles

Katerina Tsineke

University of Montana Athletics