Lady Griz to face Eagles this week

The Montana women's basketball team, on a season-high three-game winning streak, will face Eastern Washington twice this week as the end of the regular season approaches and March draws near.

The Lady Griz (10-7, 7-5 BSC) and Eagles (6-13, 5-9 BSC) will play at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula and at 1 p.m. (MT) on Saturday at Reese Court in Cheney.

Montana's regular-season schedule concludes with a home series against Big Sky Conference leader Idaho State next week and a road series at third-place Idaho the opening week of March.

The Big Sky tournament will open on Monday, March 8, in Boise.

What's at stake (Montana): The Lady Griz are currently in fifth place in the Big Sky, which would give them a bye through the first-round games on the opening day of the tournament in Boise. But the chase pack is close behind and Montana has the most challenging finish of any team in the league.

Positive results this week against the league's ninth-place team, one that has dropped four straight and seven of its last eight, would be beneficial.

What's at stake (Eastern Washington): The Eagles, picked 10th in the preseason coaches' poll, were a surprising 4-2 in league back in early January, after a road sweep at Portland State and a pair of home wins over Weber State, but they've lost seven of eight since, including five straight at home.

Eastern Washington is playing for opening-round seeding in Boise and to regain some of the mojo it had a month and a half ago. After playing Montana this week, the Eagles are off next week before closing the regular season at Idaho State.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz have won three straight, just the seventh time in the last five seasons they've put together a winning streak of three.

It started with a 76-63 home win over Portland State, one of the team's best all-around performances of the season.

Montana swept Weber State on the road last week, which was good, but both games against one of the nation's few teams without a win this season were struggles.

The Lady Griz led 24-23 at the half on Thursday before pulling away for a 61-46 win.

In Saturday's 58-57 win, Montana gave away all of its hard-earned 39-22 halftime lead. The Wildcats would open the second half on a 30-10 run and go up three early in the fourth quarter, just the second time this season they've held a fourth-quarter advantage.

A big 3-pointer by Kyndall Keller evened the score and clutch baskets by Sophia Stiles and Abby Anderson down the stretch allowed Montana, which held Weber State without a made basket over the final 3:06, to pull out the win.

Montana held Weber State to 51.5 points on 30.3 percent shooting in the two games and forced the Wildcats into 35 turnovers, all numbers that would suggest two comfortable victories.

But Montana shot 36.2 percent, well below its season average, and struggled from the arc, going 8 for 31 (.258). The Lady Griz turned the ball over 32 times and were even off at the free throw line, going 27 for 39 (.692).

Stiles was excellent on the road trip, averaging 13.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists, with a 2:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, and Abby Anderson averaged 11.0 points and 8.0 rebounds while blocking nine shots.

Weber State limited Montana's leading scorer, Carmen Gfeller, to 10 points in the two games on 4-of-15 shooting. Gfeller was shooting a Big Sky-leading 56.5 percent entering the series against Weber State. She still leads the league at .541 and ranks 32nd nationally.

Kylie Frohlich had her third straight solid game on Thursday, going for 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting off the bench, making her 19 of 26 over three games. She went scoreless on Saturday.

At a glance (Eastern Washington): The Eagles have lost four straight and seven of eight largely because of their defense. Over the last seven games EWU has allowed teams to average nearly 76 points per game. Only once in those seven games did an opponent not shoot better than 40 percent.

Of course the last four of those games came against Idaho and Montana State, two of the three highest scoring teams in the Big Sky, which tends to skew the numbers in the wrong direction.

Offensively, Montana and Eastern Washington are quite similar. Both are shooting 40.4 percent on the season, both have balanced scoring, both can have their issues with turnovers, though only Weber State averages more giveaways in the Big Sky than the Eagles' 18.8.

The Eagles have four players who average in double figures, led by a pair of freshmen, Maisie Burnham (14.1/g) and Aaliyah Alexander (11.3/g). Burnham also leads the team in rebounding (5.9/g), Alexander in assists (60).

After getting swept at home by Northern Colorado in late January, which snapped its four-game winning streak, Eastern Washington split at Sacramento State. The loss gave the Hornets their first (and still only) win of the season.

The Eagles then got swept by both Idaho and Montana State, losing those four games by an average of more than 20 points per game. Both teams jumped on EWU early. The lead after the first quarter was an average of 13 points. MSU led 27-6 after the opening 10 minutes on Thursday.

Saturday's game will be the final home contest of the year for Eastern Washington, which is just 3-9 this season at Reese Court, with wins over College of Idaho and two against Weber State.

Game notes:

* Montana leads the all-time series 73-24 and has gone 43-8 against the Eagles in Missoula, 27-15 in Cheney.

* The Lady Griz swept the teams' games last season, winning both comfortably, which snapped the Eagles' six-game winning streak in the series, their longest in the teams' history that dates back to the 1975-76 season.

* The teams have played every season since 1979-80. The only team Montana has faced more has been Montana State.

* Eastern Washington had won six straight against the Lady Griz at Reese Court prior to Montana's 77-56 win last season.

* Montana led that game 41-24 at the half and finished with a sparkling 24:7 assist-to-turnover ratio. McKenzie Johnston approached a triple-double with 22 points, nine assists and eight rebounds.

* Earlier in the season, Montana defeated Eastern Washington 92-54 in Missoula to end the Eagles' three-game winning streak at Dahlberg Arena.

* Leading 23-21 after one, Montana outscored Eastern Washington 69 33 the rest of the way. Taylor Goligoski had 21 points off the bench, Johnston had 11 points, 10 assists. (In the two games, Johnston had 19 assists and one turnover.)

* Eastern Washington coach Wendy Schuller, in her 20th season with the Eagles, is 13-25 against Montana. After starting 1-16, she has gone 12-9.

* She went 8-23 against Robin Selvig-coached teams, 5-2 against Shannon Schweyen. Thursday will be her first matchup against Mike Petrino.

Montana notes:

* With nine blocked shots last week in two games at Weber State, Abby Anderson upped her career total to 134. That moved her past Doris Deden (1980-84), who had 133, and into eighth on the Montana career list. Next up: Tamara Guardipee (2005-09), who had 137.

* When Montana won 58-57 at Weber State on Saturday, it marked the third time this season the Lady Griz have won when trailing with two minutes to play. They previously did that in wins at Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona.

* Montana has shot a better percentage than its opponent in 14 of 17 games this season. ... The Lady Griz have held 15 of their last 16 opponents to a shooting percentage below 40 percent. ... At .360, Montana ranks second in the Big Sky in field goal percentage defense, behind only Idaho State (.353).

* Abby Anderson had 12 points and 11 rebounds in Thursday's win at Weber State, her third double-double of the season. She also matched a season high with five blocks in that game.

* Sophia Stiles had 13 points and 12 rebounds in Saturday's win at Weber State. It was her second double-double of the season.

* In two games against Portland State and the opener at Weber State, Kylie Frohlich scored 44 points. For the rest of the season she has 22.

* Montana is shooting better than 40 percent on the season but has exceeded 40 percent just one time in the last seven games. The Lady Griz have surpassed 66 points just once in those seven games.

* In Thursday's win at Weber State, Montana went from 24 first-half points to 37 in the second half. In Saturday's win, the Lady Griz went from 39 points at halftime to 19 in the second half.

* The 39 points were one off the season high for points in the first half. The 19 were the fewest scored in the second half this season.

* Montana has scored more points in the paint than its opponent in 12 of the last 13 games and in all but three games this season.

* Montana used just nine players in Thursday's win, the fewest in any game this season. The previous low was 10, which Montana used in Saturday's win.

* The Lady Griz lead the Big Sky in blocked shots (5.4/g) and rank third in rebounding margin (+3.5/g). ... Montana ranks 20th nationally in blocked shots, 23rd in free throw percentage (.770) and 31st in field goal percentage defense.

* Abby Anderson ranks 22nd nationally in blocked shots (2.6/g), Sophia Stiles 30th in free throw percentage (.869), Carmen Gfeller 32nd in field goal percentage (.541). ... Stiles ranks second in the Big Sky in free throw percentage, fourth in steals (2.0/g), eighth in assists (3.0/g).

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Idaho State took its 14-1 record to Moscow last week and came away with a road split against Idaho, winning 63-58 and falling 73-56 after leading the latter by 10 at the half, 40-30. The Bengals got outscored 43-16 in the second half on Saturday.

* Idaho State remains atop the standings at 11-1 in league. Montana State has won eight straight and is now in second place at 10-2. Those two teams play each other this week, in Pocatello on Thursday night, in Bozeman on Saturday.

* Idaho, which plays a home-and-home with Portland State this week, is in third at 11-3 and plays at Montana State next week.

* Southern Utah is in fourth by winning percentage at 3-2. The Thunderbirds have six games remaining on the schedule and will need to play at least five of them to qualify for a seed at the Big Sky tournament. Otherwise SUU will get dumped to No. 11, which would be an unfortunate break for No. 6.

* Every other league team has met the 10-game requirement needed for a seed.

* Montana is in fifth, trailed by Northern Colorado (8-7 BSC), Portland State (6-6 BSC) and Northern Arizona (7-9 BSC). Northern Colorado and Portland State play each other next week in Portland.

Thursday's games: EWU at UM, MSU at ISU, PSU at UI, WSU at NAU, SUU at SAC

Saturday's games: UM at EWU, ISU at MSU, WSU at NAU, UI at PSU, SUU at SAC

Upcoming: Montana will host the current Big Sky leader, Idaho State, next week in the final home games of the season for the Lady Griz.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Kylie Frohlich

Carmen Gfeller

Taylor Goligoski

McKenzie Johnston

Kyndall Keller

Sophia Stiles

University of Montana Athletics