Lady Griz to face Bobcats on Monday night

The Montana women's basketball team will try to add to a winning streak and put an end to a losing streak when it faces Montana State on Monday night in Bozeman.

The Lady Griz (12-4, 5-2 BSC) and Bobcats (10-8, 5-2 BSC) will tip off at 7 p.m. inside MSU's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

Montana will enter Monday's game on a three-game winning streak, which has the Lady Griz tied for third in the Big Sky Conference standings, one game in the loss column behind league leader Idaho State and second-place Southern Utah.

On a different front, Montana will try to end a six-game losing streak against Montana State and a seven-game losing streak against the Bobcats in Bozeman.

The Lady Griz have not won in Bozeman since the 2013-14 season. Their last five losses inside Brick Breeden Fieldhouse have come by an average of nearly 19 points per game.

Coverage: Monday's game will air on ESPN+ and SWX. Local radio coverage with Riley Corcoran will be available in Missoula on KMPT 99.7 FM/930 AM and anywhere at 930kmpt.com.

Ten talking points:

1. Montana and Montana State have both put together three-game winning streaks since getting swept on the Idaho State-Weber State road trip. Both teams sit one game in the loss column in the Big Sky standings behind Idaho State (12-6, 8-1 BSC) and Southern Utah (9-6, 5-1 BSC).

2. Monday will mark the debut for first-year Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger in the Montana-Montana State rivalry series, but he has coached in Brick Breeden Fieldhouse before. His second team at Montana Tech, in 2006-07, handed Montana State a 66-57 loss in the Bobcats' season opener in what was then the second year for now 17th-year coach Tricia Binford.

3. Back in the 2014-15 season, when Montana defeated Montana State in Missoula 62-48, the Lady Griz took a 77-22 lead in the series. Since then the Bobcats have gone 11-2 against the Lady Griz. Montana State has won the last six meetings, its longest winning streak in the series.

4. Montana's last win in Bozeman came toward the end of the 2013-14 season, 72-65, with current Lady Griz assistant coach Jordan Sullivan scoring nine points. She went 7-3 against the Bobcats as a player.

5. Tricia (Bader) Binford played at Boise State for June Daugherty. Daugherty would go on to take the Washington job before ending up at Washington State. An assistant coach on her first eight teams in Pullman: Brian Holsinger. Daugherty passed away in August at the age of 64.

6. Nobody on Montana's current roster has played in a game when the Lady Griz have defeated the Bobcats. In Montana's lone win in its last 10 games against Montana State, 87-63 in Missoula in 2017-18, Abby Anderson and Sophia Stiles were both on the bench. Anderson redshirted that season. Stiles was sidelined with a season-ending knee injury.

7. Former Lady Griz coach Robin Selvig went 74-19 against Montana State in his 38-year career, with only two of those 19 losses coming by more than 10 points. His successor, Shannon Schweyen, went 1-7 against the Bobcats. Last year's interim coach, Mike Petrino, went 0-2. Six of their nine losses were by 10 points or more.

8. Montana State swept last year's series, winning 70-46 in Bozeman and 70-60 in Missoula. The former was MSU's largest margin of victory in the series. The largest margin of victory for either team in the series is 43. Montana won 74-31 in Missoula in the 1991-92 season.

9. First-year Montana assistant coach Nate Harris was an assistant coach under Tricia Binford for four seasons, from 2014-15 to 2017-18. The Bobcats went 77-47 with Harris on staff and won two regular-season Big Sky titles and the 2017 Big Sky tournament.

10. Montana State is 9-1 at home this season. MSU's only setback came to BYU, a team that is now 15-1. The Cougars won 89-67 in the Bobcats' final game before Christmas. … Montana is 2-2 in road games this season. The Lady Griz won at North Dakota and North Dakota State in November, lost at Idaho State and Weber State the first two games after Christmas.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz put an end of a 14-day break between games with home wins over Portland State and Northern Arizona on Thursday and Saturday to improve to 8-2 this season at Dahlberg Arena.

In Thursday's lopsided win over the Vikings, Montana built a 43-30 halftime lead, then put up 50 second-half points, the team's third time in the last seven games posting a 50-point half, to pull away for a 93-57 win, one off the most points the Lady Griz have ever scored against PSU.

Freshman Haley Huard went 6 for 9 from 3-point range to lead both teams with 18 points, her season high.

It was the most 3-pointers in a game for a Lady Griz since Taylor Goligoski went 6 for 8 from the arc in Montana's 98-45 home win over MSU Northern in the 2019-20 season opener and the most 3-pointers by a true freshman in program history.

Montana hit 12 3-pointers in the win, its third time this season hitting a dozen or more. This is the first team in Lady Griz history to hit 12 or more 3-pointers three times in a season.

Four of five starters were in double figures. The other starter was Sophia Stiles, who dished out five assists without a turnover.

On Saturday, Northern Arizona turned 18 offensive rebounds and 15 Montana turnovers into 76 shot attempts, 23 more than the Lady Griz took. But Montana's defense held firm, holding NAU, the Big Sky's top shooting team, to 30.3 percent.

It was the Lumberjacks' lowest shooting percentage of the season. Only Washington State and Arizona, who held Northern Arizona to 54 and 55 points, respectively, have limited NAU to fewer points this season.

Montana took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Huard midway through the third quarter. The Lady Griz went 10 for 13 from the line in the fourth quarter, 22 of 28 for the game, to lead by four or more the entirety of the fourth quarter.

Carmen Gfeller had her third double-double of the season, the fourth of her career, with 18 points and 13 rebounds, one rebound off her career high. She went 12 of 14 from the line. Sammy Fatkin added 13 points, Huard 11, giving her consecutive double-figure scoring games for the first time in her career.

Khiarica Rasheed and Regan Schenck combined for 30 points on 13-of-28 shooting. The rest of the team went 10 for 48 (.208).

At a glance (Montana State): The Bobcats have won three straight, all at home, knocking off Idaho (79-69), Northern Arizona (88-73) and Portland State (71-56).

In Thursday's win over the Lumberjacks, Montana State grabbed 23 offensive rebounds, its most this season against a Division I opponent, and turned those into 24 critical second-chance points. MSU's bench also outscored NAU's bench 23-6.

In Saturday's win over the Vikings, Montana State limited the visitors to 26.9 percent shooting.

Junior point guard Darian White, preseason All-Big Sky along with Montana's Carmen Gfeller, is the rare collegiate player to lead her team in scoring (16.1/g), rebounding (5.4/g) and assists (4.4/g).

Summary:

First-year Montana coach Brian Holsinger is no stranger to a classic rivalry game. He had Washington when he was an assistant at Washington State, Oregon when he was an assistant at Oregon State.

On Monday he'll coach in his first Montana-Montana State game, and he's not about to downplay it by saying its just another game on the schedule, just one of 20 league games this season and that it counts the same as all the others.

Mathematically that would be correct. Emotionally is isn't.

"You acknowledge it. If you don't, that's just fake," he said on Sunday on his way to Bozeman. "It's just a bigger game, so you have to acknowledge it."

He will, but he'll also prepare his team just like he will the other 28 times Montana will play this regular season. The opponent has strengths and weaknesses, players who have to be keyed on, special situations that need to be prepared for.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to execution. Whether we win or we lose, that's what it will come down to," he said.

"It doesn't matter if you step on the court with more emotion than usual, what matters is if you execute on offense and score points and stop the other team so they can't score points. It's pretty simple."

As every coach knows who prepares to face Montana State, Darian White is a priority. If something happens for the Bobcats, White is usually involved in some way.

"Obviously Darian White is an excellent player," Holsinger said. "She's proven that. We're going to do our best to limit her in every way, shape and form, and that means being very smart and disciplined."

On Monday she will renew a rivalry within a rivalry, against Montana's Sophia Stiles, giving the game two of the Big Sky's top point guards.

White, who reached 1,000 career points on Thursday, carries more of a scoring burden for her team. Stiles now ranks seventh nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.88, with 75 assists, 26 turnovers.

Junior forward Kola Bad Bear, at 10.4 points, is Montana State's only other player averaging in double figures. She has scored 10 or more in nine of the Bobcats' last 10 games, making her one of the keys to MSU's recent surge.

"A key player is Kola Bad Bear. She's been playing really well. She's a big key for them. When she plays well, I think the team is better, so we've got to limit her," Holsinger said.

"They are a talented team, as talented a team, maybe other than Gonzaga, as we've played. Anytime your opponent has that kind of talent, you have to play well to win."

Montana ranks 27th nationally in rebound margin (+7.9/g) and has been outrebounded just once this season, by Gonzaga.

Montana State is -2.4 on the season but +30 in its last three games, with an eye-opening 47-29 advantage on Thursday against Northern Arizona.

"They've really hit the offensive glass hard," said Holsinger. "It goes with our game plan in every game, but we need to rebound the ball at the defensive end of the floor.

"Then we've got to limit their 3-point shooting. They have some kids who can really shoot it."

Montana isn't going to score 93 points, like the Lady Griz did on Thursday at home against Portland State. Monday's game between two well-coached teams is more likely to be more like Saturday's 66-60 win over Northern Arizona, when nothing came easily.

"You need games like that, when you're not at your best at one end of the floor," said Holsinger, whose team was locked in defensively but struggled to find ways to score.

"I think we executed our defensive game plan maybe as well as we have all season. We were really solid and really disciplined. I was really proud of that area.

"On the offensive side of the ball, we had to grind out points and find ways to score, because everything wasn't free-flowing. Credit to Northern Arizona. They defended well."

Montana notes:

* The Lady Griz now rank sixth nationally in field goal percentage defense at .341. They rank fourth in defensive rebounds (31.1/g), ninth in personal fouls (12.6/g).

* Montana has shot below 30 percent from the 3-point line four of the last five seasons. The Lady Griz are shooting 35.4 percent this season, which ranks 31st in the nation.

* In addition to Stiles ranking seventh nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio and 40th in assists (5.0/g), Abby Anderson ranks 32nd nationally in blocks (2.0/g), Carmen Gfeller ranks 42nd in free throw percentage (.857).

* Anderson, who leads the Big Sky, blocked five shots in two home games last week to give her 176 for her career and move alone into fourth in program history. She is now looking up at the Big Three: Hollie Tyler (297), Carly Selvig (258) and Lisa McLeod (237).

* Gfeller has attempted 142 free throws the last two seasons. She's made 123 of them (.866).

* Montana has shot a better percentage than its opponent in 13 of 16 games this season. … The Lady Griz are 10-0 this season when scoring 62 or more points.

* Sammy Fatkin has scored in double figures in six straight games, a career high. She is 5 for 9 from the 3-point line the last three games. … Fatkin grabbed a career-high seven rebounds on Thursday against Portland State. Then she matched it with seven more on Saturday.

* Gfeller has scored 10 or more points in 14 of 16 games this season.

* Dani Bartsch scored nine points against Portland State to match her season high. … Huard went 8 for 15 from the arc in two home games last week. Her three blocks on Saturday upped her season total from one to four.

Around the Big Sky:

* Even playing without Callie Bourne, Idaho State moved atop the Big Sky standings on Saturday with an 80-60 home victory over previously unbeaten Southern Utah.

* The preseason favorite Bengals are now 8-1 in league and have won 10 straight overall. The Thunderbirds dropped to 5-1.

* Montana, Montana State and Sacramento State are all on three-game winning streaks. The Hornets won at Portland State, then swept Eastern Washington and Idaho at home last week.

* Northern Colorado picked up its first league win of the season on Saturday, 62-54 at home over Eastern Washington.

* Portland State, at 0-6, is the last team without a league win.

* Monday night will feel like a Thursday night or Saturday afternoon with four games on the schedule: UM at MSU, SUU at WSU, NAU at EWU, UNC at SAC.

* Southern Utah tries to bounce back while Weber State tries to end a four-game losing streak, Northern Arizona tries to avoid a 0-3 road trip, Sacramento State tries to make it four straight.

Upcoming: Montana will be right back on the road later this week for games at Idaho and Eastern Washington.

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Players Mentioned

Abby Anderson

Dani Bartsch

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Taylor Goligoski

Haley Huard

Sophia Stiles

University of Montana Athletics