Lady Griz pick up win No. 1 of 2022

Thursday, January 6

Missoula, Mont.

7 PM

Montana

10-4, 3-2BSC

Eastern Washington

2-9, 0-2BSC

Eastern Washington

Montana

1/6/2022 10:29:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The road to becoming a championship program is going to have nights like Thursday, when Montana couldn't be stopped and couldn't be scored on. The Lady Griz looked dominant, at least for stretches.

And then there were times that very same team struggled to score and to get defensive stops, and Montana looked somewhat ordinary, and all of this took place within a 40-minute window.

Same players, same court, same opponent but an up-and-down performance.

But the end result, at least on this night, was a 68-50 victory over Eastern Washington at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula that snapped a two-game losing streak for the Lady Griz (10-4, 3-2 BSC).

"I'm still trying to get these young women to understand what it takes to be champions. We are very inconsistent," said first-year coach Brian Holsinger.

"There are times we look really, really, really good and there are times that I'm like, what happened to our team? We're a work in progress, and when you're a work in progress, it's always nice to get a good victory at home. That's the bottom line."

Montana used a suffocating defensive effort in the first half to build a 33-12 lead at the half, then played even in the second half with the Eagles (2-9, 0-2 BSC), who were missing their head coach and one starter.

"Thanks to Eastern for coming. They didn't have their head coach tonight and another player. They've had COVID issues like crazy. Kudos for them for coming to play," said Holsinger.

Carmen Gfeller scored 15 points, Sammy Fatkin had 12 and Nyah Morris-Nelson and Katerina Tsineke both had eight points off the bench.

It was from the bench that Kylie Frohlich emerged in the first quarter, and she spent the rest of the night making her mark on the game.

She finished with five points, a team-high nine rebounds and three assists in just 17 minutes of work. Montana was +19 when she was on the court.

"It's not a coincidence she comes in and plays great," said Holsinger. "She's done that in practice. If you play well in practice during the week, then you come in and that's what you do in the game.

"She practiced hard all week. The way we're rebounding, she's going to get more minutes because I value that. She played really well."

It was a sluggish start for both teams, with Eastern Washington playing its first game since Dec. 21 and Montana coming off a 0-2 road trip to Idaho State and Weber State last week.

The Lady Griz led just 6-4 six minutes into the game. Then the dominant Montana revealed itself.

The Lady Griz hit six of their final seven shots of the first quarter, four of those coming from 3-point range, two of those from Morris-Nelson, and Montana played its way to a 22-4 lead after one, closing the period on a 16-0 run.

It's the same lead Montana would hold at the final buzzer, 18 points.

"We're very streaky on offense, no question. We're not consistent in any way, shape or form," said Holsinger, whose team would go 0 for 7 with three turnovers while going scoreless through the first six minutes of the second quarter.

Luckily Montana had its defense, and the first 20 minutes was a clinic worthy of an instructional video, of taking a game plan and bringing it to life on the court.

The Lady Griz made things miserable for the Eagles. It wasn't that Eastern Washington was just missing shots. The Eagles weren't getting shots they were comfortable taking and it was obvious.

They went 1 for 15 in the first quarter, 3 for 13 in the second and had just a dozen points at the break on 4-of-28 shooting. They missed all 11 of their 3-point attempts.

"We held them to 12 points the first half. That's unbelievable. Defensively we were locked in and we executed the game plan really, really well," said Holsinger. "Our defense was fantastic the first half."

Most notable was the work Montana did on EWU freshman Jaydia Martin, who entered the game averaging more than 16 points per game, second in the Big Sky.

She had two in the first half on two free throws. She missed all six of her shot attempts.

At the final buzzer she was sitting on 21 points.

"That's the disappointing part. That's where the lack of focus comes into play," said Holsinger. "A lack of focus, a lack of consistency on executing the game plan.

"She took 23 shots so she was going to score some points, but we let her get going in the second half. We're relaxing right now, and when you relax, good teams take advantage every single time. We're just not there yet."

Eastern Washington scored four points in the first quarter, eight in the second, 16 in the third and 22 in the fourth on 9-of-18 shooting.

What could have been more of a blowout was a 16-point game on three occasions in the final period. The victory was never in jeopardy but …

"Every win's a good win, and it's a conference win at home, but it didn't feel like an 18-point win. It didn't feel so good in the fourth quarter," said Holsinger.

Montana had just nine turnovers, its second-lowest total of the season and held Eastern Washington to 30.2 percent shooting, after Idaho State and Weber State both shot better than 43 percent last week.

The Lady Griz outrebounded another opponent, this time by five, and went a healthy 9 for 19 from the arc, the team's fourth-highest total of the season.

Fatkin hit three, Gfeller and Morris-Nelson two each. And Montana needed them. The Lady Griz were just 11 for 37 (.297) inside the arc.

"Nine for 19 is good shooting," said Holsinger. "They were fronting us in the post and when you front, you have to have help. Ball fakes and skips to the corner is why we got easy threes.

"Then they stopped helping and we stopped being tough in the post and finishing inside."

The good, the bad, the in-between. All part of the process.

Montana won't play again until facing Southern Utah next Thursday in Cedar City.