Three games in five days as Lady Griz make their return

The Montana women's basketball team will put an end to a two-week gap between games when it hosts Portland State on Thursday night at Dahlberg Arena.

The Lady Griz have not played since defeating Eastern Washington in Missoula on Jan. 6.

Montana is scheduled to host Northern Arizona on Saturday, then travel to Bozeman for a game against Montana State on Monday at 7 p.m. That game was originally scheduled for Jan. 8.

To make up for postponed contests, Thursday will start a stretch of 10 games in 24 days for Montana, with its six road games taking place in six different states.

The Lady Griz (10-4, 3-2 BSC) and Vikings (5-7, 0-4 BSC) will tip off at 7 p.m. on Thursday. Montana and Northern Arizona (7-6, 4-1 BSC) will play at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

At a glance (Montana): After making their post-Christmas return to league with road losses at Idaho State and Weber State, the Lady Griz got back on the winning track with a 68-50 home victory over Eastern Washington on Thursday, Jan. 6.

The Lady Griz closed the first quarter on a 16-0 run to take a 22-4 lead after the opening period and led by 14 points or more the rest of the way.

Carmen Gfeller had 15 points to lead Montana in scoring for the eighth time this season. It was her 12th time in 14 games with 10 or more points.

Sammy Fatkin went 3 for 4 from the 3-point line and finished with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists as Montana went 9 for 19 from the arc, its fourth-highest makes total of the season.

The Lady Griz outrebounded their opponent for the 12th time in 14 games and turned the ball over just nine times, their second-lowest turnover total of the season.

Montana limited Eastern Washington to 30.2 percent shooting to lower its season field goal percentage defense to .343, a percentage that leads the Big Sky and ranks seventh nationally.

The victory extended Montana's winning streak over Eastern Washington to five games and improved the Lady Griz to 6-2 this season on their home floor.

At a glance (Portland State): The Vikings had four post-Christmas Big Sky games postponed and went from Dec. 19 and Jan. 15 between games.

Portland State ended that break with a 70-58 home loss to Sacramento State on Saturday, its first game since defeating Simpson before Christmas.

The Vikings opened a five-game road trip with a 68-44 loss at Eastern Washington on Monday night. PSU will play at Montana on Thursday, at Montana State on Saturday, at Idaho on Monday and at Southern Utah next Thursday.

In Monday's loss to the Eagles, Portland State got outscored 22-6 in the first quarter, fought back to within five by the end of the third quarter, then got outscored 22-3 in the fourth quarter.

Winless in four Big Sky games this season, Portland State dropped league matchups at home to Idaho State, 83-40, and Weber State, 85-57, in early December.

Portland State went 12-13 and finished eighth in the Big Sky at 7-11 last season. The Vikings defeated No. 9 Eastern Washington at the Big Sky tournament in the first round, then lost 66-50 in the quarterfinals to Idaho State.

In March former coach Lynn Kennedy decamped for McNeese State. Two weeks later PSU announced that Chelsey Gregg, Kennedy's assistant, was being elevated to the head job.

Portland State has three starters averaging in double figures: freshman Esmeralda Morales (14.0/g), senior Savannah Dhaliwal (11.1/g) and junior Jada Lewis (10.3).

Montana-Portland State history:

* Montana leads the all-time series with Portland State 50-22 and has gone 30-6 against the Vikings in Missoula.

* PSU has gone 6-4 against the Lady Griz in the teams' last 10 matchups.

* The teams played a two-game series in Missoula last winter, with Portland State winning the opener 61-60 and Montana taking the second game 76-63.

* In the opener, Montana led for more than 36 minutes but Portland State won it in the closing seconds with a drive to the basket by Kylie Jimenez.

* Desirae Hansen, who followed Kennedy to McNeese State, scored a game-high 22 points.

* Two days later Montana led from start to finish to win by 13. The Lady Griz built a 38-30 lead at the break, then outscored the Vikings 24-11 in the third quarter to pull away.

* Carmen Gfeller went 9 for 12 to finish with 19 points.

At a glance (Northern Arizona): The Lumberjacks, who have had a pair of post-Christmas postponements, will open their three-game road trip with a game at Montana State on Thursday night.

After playing Montana on Saturday afternoon, NAU will continue on to Eastern Washington for a makeup game against the Eagles on Monday night in Cheney.

Half of Northern Arizona's six losses this season have come against Pac-12 opponents (Washington State and Washington on the road, home against Arizona).

The Lumberjacks had one of the Big Sky's best out-of-league wins when they thumped UNLV in Flagstaff in November, 84-62. UNLV is currently 13-4.

Senior guard Lauren Orndoff, who sat out the 2020-21 season, is back and leading the team in scoring (11.2/g).

Junior guard Nina Radford, who also missed 2020-21, is averaging 10.4 points and is 26 for 54 (.481) from 3-point range this season.

Fifth-year forward Khiarica Rasheed was one of six players named to the preseason All-Big Sky team in the fall, along with Lady Griz junior Carmen Gfeller.

Saturday will be a matchup of two of the Big Sky's top point guards, Sophia Stiles for Montana, Regan Schenck for Northern Arizona.

Schenck leads the Big Sky and ranks eighth nationally in assists (6.2/g). Stiles leads the Big Sky and ranks 16th in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.68).

Northern Arizona opened league in early December with a pair of come-from-behind victories, 83-79 over Weber State and 81-74 in overtime over Idaho State. That's the only league loss of the season for the Big Sky-favorite Bengals.

After picking up a 76-63 win at Idaho on Dec. 30, NAU dropped its first league game to Southern Utah, 70-61 in Flagstaff. The Lumberjacks got back in the win column with victory at Sacramento State on Jan. 10.

Playing without a full squad in 2020-21, Northern Arizona went 15-14 and finished seventh in the Big Sky at 10-10. NAU was one of only two teams to not miss a league game last season because of cancelations.

The No. 7 Lumberjacks lost 67-53 to No. 2 Idaho in the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals in March in Boise.

Northern Arizona, under fifth-year head coach Loree Payne, was picked fourth in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll behind Idaho State, Montana State and Idaho, one spot ahead of No. 5 Montana.

Montana-Northern Arizona history:

* Montana leads the all-time series against Northern Arizona 60-14 and has gone 33-3 against the Lumberjacks in Missoula.

* The Lady Griz have won 12 straight over NAU at home.

* In a series that's been played since 1987-88, Northern Arizona's three wins in Missoula all came within a three-season window, from 2004-05 to 2006-07.

* The teams played a two-game series in Flagstaff last season, with Montana winning the first game 83-74, NAU winning the second 89-76.

* In the opener, Montana shot 55.2 percent in the first half, 55.6 percent in the second and led for more than 34 minutes. The Lady Griz closed the game on a 10-0 run after falling behind 74-73 with two minutes to play.

* In the second game, Northern Arizona put up 29 points in the first quarter and closed with 28 in the final period while shooting 56.9 percent for the game, the highest percentage Montana allowed all season.

Summary:

When Montana returns to the court on Thursday night after a two-week hiatus, it will be against a Portland State team seeking its first Big Sky win after a 0-4 start to league.

It was just three seasons ago that Portland State was winning the Big Sky tournament in Boise and advancing to the NCAAs, but then Lynn Kennedy, the coach of that team, left in March for McNeese State.

The program retained some stability by elevating Chelsey Gregg to head coach, but there were some heavy personnel losses. Desirae Hansen joined Kennedy at McNeese State and point guard Kylie Jimenez headed to Nevada.

The result: four of top six scorers on this year's team are freshmen. It will be a team that mirrors in a lot of ways the Eastern Washington squad that was in Missoula two weeks ago. New coach, a lot of youth.

"They are trying to retool things," said Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger. "She's doing a good job. They have a very young team, very similar in a lot of ways to Eastern Washington."

Montana won't know until Thursday night how its approach to two weeks without a game worked out.

The Lady Griz were supposed to face Montana State in Bozeman on Sunday, Jan. 9, but that game got postponed. Then last week's lone game at Southern Utah was postponed as well.

"We've tried to just work on ourselves. We've played a lot more, kept practices shorter but more intense, more game-like," said Holsinger.

"We've scrimmaged a lot more for sure. That's the best you can do to prepare for these kinds of things."

On Saturday Montana will face an experienced Northern Arizona team that is averaging more than 73 points per game on Big Sky-best 45.7 percent shooting.

The Lumberjacks have a season shooting percentage that is higher than any team has shot against the Lady Griz this season in 14 games.

It will be strength on strength when Northern Arizona is in possession of the ball.

"It will be a great challenge for us, one of the better offensive teams against one of the better defensive teams. It will be an interesting matchup to see who gets the upper-hand," said Holsinger.

There is a tie between Holsinger and NAU coach Loree Payne: June Daugherty.

Daugherty coached Payne at Washington, where Payne was a 1,675-point scorer. After Daugherty was let go by Washington, she was hired by Washington State. Holsinger was on Daugherty's staff from Year 1.

"I was laughing the other night watching (Northern Arizona) on film. How good her teams are on offense just reminds me how good she was," said Holsinger.

"Loree does a good job, especially offensively. They are very versatile and like to play fast. They have a lot of different players with different skill sets, and that makes them hard to guard."

Thursday's game will be the start of 10 games in 24 days for Montana, courtesy of a pair of cancelations earlier this month.

"You have to be flexible and you have to have a feel as a coach for how the players are doing," Holsinger said. "I like a very set schedule, but when you run into things like this, you have to have a feel for how the girls are feeling, how they're doing physically and how they're doing mentally.

"Do we need to take a day off here? Do we need to lessen practice here? A lot of that will be by feel as we go along to keep them ready and keep them fresh. It will be a challenge. We'll learn as we go and adjust and be flexible. That's what good teams do."

Montana notes:

* Montana has been outrebounded just once this season (Gonzaga) … The Lady Griz are 7-1 when they score more bench points than their opponent … Montana is 8-0 when scoring 62 or more points.

* Abby Anderson had one blocked shot against Eastern Washington. At 171 for her career, she is in fifth place in Lady Griz history, four from matching Angella Bieber (1994-98) for fourth.

* Sophia Stiles had 68 assists last season, 61 turnovers. She has 67 assists so far this season with only 25 turnovers. She's among the nation's leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio.

* Sammy Fatkin is 8 for 14 from the 3-point line the last four games. She went 3 for 3 against Utah State before Christmas, 3 for 4 against Eastern Washington.

* Kylie Frohlich grabbed a season-high nine rebounds against the Eagles, a season high by five and one off her career high. She had 10 in last year's season-ending loss to Sacramento State.

* Nyah Morris-Nelson is 15 for 31 from 3-point range over Montana's last nine games, during which she's averaged 6.1 points off the bench. Her six rebounds against EWU were a career high.

* Carmen Gfeller went 2 for 3 from the arc against Eastern Washington and is now 15 for 30 from the 3-point line on the season. She went 14 for 53 as a freshman and sophomore.

* Gfeller leads the team in scoring at 14.4 points despite averaging fewer than nine shot attempts per game.

* In three games since Christmas, Montana, which entered the break with a 103-point game against Utah State, is shooting 34.8 percent and averaging 61.7 points.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Southern Utah (9-5, 5-0 BSC) remained unbeaten in league and won for the ninth time in 10 games with a 67-63 overtime victory at Northern Colorado on Tuesday night.

* On Monday night, Eastern Washington won at home over Portland State, 68-44, and Montana State won at home over Idaho, 79-69.

* Trailing Southern Utah in the standings in the loss column are once-defeated Idaho State (10-6, 6-1), which is on an eight-game winning streak, and Northern Arizona (7-6, 4-1 BSC).

* Montana (10-4, 3-2 BSC) and Montana State (8-8, 3-2 BSC) both have two losses. Every other team is either winless in league or has four losses.

* Idaho State is showing its experience. On its eight-game winning streak, six of ISU's victories have come by 10 or fewer points.

Thursday games: PSU at UM, NAU at MSU, UI at UNC, WSU at ISU, EWU at SAC

Non-Montana game to monitor: Weber State at Idaho State. It wasn't that long ago that the Wildcats were riding high, when they improved to 3-1 in league on Jan. 1 with a home victory over Montana. Since then WSU has lost three straight, starting with a one-point loss to ISU in Ogden.

Saturday games: NAU at UM, PSU at MSU, EWU at UNC, SUU at ISU, UI at SAC

Non-Montana game to monitor: Southern Utah at Idaho State. If the Bengals get past the Wildcats on Thursday, Saturday's matchup in Pocatello will feature 5-0 SUU against 7-1 Idaho State. The top of the Big Sky standings will be on the line.

Upcoming: Montana will play at Montana State on Monday night, then leave on Wednesday for the Idaho-Eastern Washington road trip.

University of Montana Athletics

Three games in five days as Lady Griz make their return

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Abby Anderson

Sammy Fatkin

Kylie Frohlich

Carmen Gfeller

Nyah Morris-Nelson

Sophia Stiles

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