New-look Lady Griz make their public debut

The Montana women's basketball team, under second-year coach Brian Holsinger, will make its public debut on Tuesday when the Lady Griz hold their annual Maroon-Silver scrimmage inside Dahlberg Arena.

The women's scrimmage will tip off at 5 p.m. That will be followed by the men's scrimmage, which will start between 6:30 and 7 p.m. Both scrimmages are free of charge.

Holsinger's first team won 19 games, the most since the Lady Griz won 20 in 2015-16 in what was Robin Selvig's final season. Montana tied for fourth in the Big Sky with a 12-8 league record, matching its best Big Sky finish since winning the conference outright in 2014-15.

Montana's season came to an end with a loss to Northern Arizona in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky tournament in Boise.

The Lady Griz return three starters from that team: seniors Sammy Fatkin and Carmen Gfeller, and sophomore Haley Huard.

A three-time Big Sky Player of the Week last winter, Gfeller was voted first-team all-league after averaging 13.9 points on 51.4 percent shooting and 6.7 rebounds.

She won't be playing on Tuesday as she continues recovering from an injury that has burdened her since her days as a Bulldog at Colfax High.

Fatkin was leading the team in scoring last season at more than 13 points per game when she suffered an ankle injury on Feb. 5. She missed a month, then returned for Montana's final two games of the season. The Lady Griz went 6-6 from the time of her injury through the end of the season.

Huard, then a true freshman, moved into the starting lineup in mid-December and stayed there the rest of the season. She averaged 5.4 points and led the team with 41 3-pointers.

Montana lost a pair of starters in Abby Anderson and Sophia Stiles. Anderson is playing professionally in Spain, Stiles, second-team All-Big Sky last year, is playing her final season of college basketball at Florida Gulf Coast.

In addition to Fatkin, Gfeller and Huard, Montana returns four other players: senior Katerina Tsineke and sophomores Willa Albrecht, Dani Bartsch and Lisa Kiefer.

Tsineke, who made 13 starts, played more than 17 minutes per game and averaged 5.3 points while leading the team in steals. Bartsch played in 29 of 30 games, averaging 3.9 points on 50.6 percent shooting and 4.2 rebounds.

Kiefer saw action in eight games last season, Albrecht played in six games in November and December before missing the rest of the season with an injury.

Montana's seven returners are matched by its seven newcomers, two transfers and five true freshmen.

The most high-profile new face is Gina Marxen, who scored 954 points and hit 199 3-pointers in three seasons at Idaho before sitting out last year.

She was voted the Big Sky Freshman of the Year in 2018-19 and named first-team All-Big Sky as a sophomore, second-team as a junior. She has two years of eligibility remaining.

The other transfer is forward Keeli Burton-Oliver, who spent the 2020-21 season at Arizona State, the 2021 fall semester at Washington State before enrolling at Montana last winter.

Both took their accolades – Marxen at Idaho and Burton-Oliver as the Washington Class 4A player of the year as a junior and senior at Eastlake High in Washington – and set them aside for lengthy breaks.

Marxen hasn't played in a college basketball game since Feb. 20, 2021. Burton-Oliver has yet to play a college basketball game. Her last high school game was played in February 2020.

"They are similar situations in a lot of ways. I always tell them, give yourself some grace. You're not going to click your heels and be what you used to be," said Holsinger.

After her final game as a Vandal, Marxen didn't touch a ball for more than a year while attending school at Idaho. Once she decided in April that she wanted to give college basketball another shot, she had a long list of interested programs.

She chose Montana over some Power 5 suitors and joined the Lady Griz in June for offseason workouts.

"She literally did not touch a ball (for more than a year), so it's a process of getting back in shape and learning the timing and getting your shot back," Holsinger said. "She's just gotten better and better and better.

"As the season goes on, she'll continue to improve and get the feel back. She's very talented and a good teammate. She is going to provide some much-needed decision-making, no question."

Burton-Oliver signed with Arizona State but never got the opportunity to play for the Sun Devils because of a health concern. She was cleared to play at Washington State last fall but stepped away before the season began.

She spent the spring semester at Montana and started practicing with the Lady Griz on a limited basis toward the end of last season.

"Keeli is in a similar spot, but she didn't play for two years," said Holsinger. "Talk about a talented player. It's probably been the last week when she's had her most consistent practices. She's really been a force in practice."

The other five newcomers are freshmen. Mack Konig (Milton, Ontario), Alex Pirog (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Libby Stump (Ferndale, Wash.) and Draya Wacker (Melstone, Mont.) signed National Letters of Intent last fall. Lauren Dick (Missoula, Mont.) joined the team as a walk-on in September.

Wacker will miss the upcoming season after suffering a knee injury at practice in September.

"I've been pleasantly surprised. You know they're talented and what their rankings were, what programs they came from and the successes they had, but you don't really know how that translates to college until you start practicing," said Holsinger.

"As people watch us play, it will be very evident that they are going to add a lot to the future of the Lady Griz. They are all ahead of where I thought they'd be at this point. They are very talented."

Montana led the Big Sky last season in both field goal percentage defense (.355) and scoring defense (60.6/g). The Lady Griz ranked 13th nationally in the former.

Holsinger's teams will continue to be tough defensively. That's nonnegotiable.

What he has this year is more offensive weapons, players who can score both in system and when the shot clock is running down and someone has to make an individual play.

That can make all the difference in a tight game, which Montana had plenty of last season. The four games the Lady Griz lost in February came by a total of 15 points. Two were one-point setbacks.

Montana opened March with an overtime loss at Northern Colorado, a game the Lady Griz led by seven going into the final minute of regulation.

Over that last minute and five more of overtime, Montana got outscored 20-5, a 59-52 lead turning into a 72-64 loss when maybe one play – or player – would have made all the difference.

"We are more gifted and deep offensively. We have a lot more people who can make plays. If something breaks down in the offense, we have people who can make shots and make something happen," said Holsinger.

Montana, which had a closed-door scrimmage against an out-of-state Division I opponent over the weekend and has one more upcoming, will open the regular season with a home game against North Dakota State on Monday, Nov. 7.

Montana will play Washington State, South Dakota and Gonzaga on the road in December. All three teams received votes in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 that was released last week.

The Lady Griz will open league with games at Eastern Washington and Idaho in late December.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Willa Albrecht

Abby Anderson

Dani Bartsch

Keeli Burton-Oliver

Lauren Dick

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Haley Huard

Lisa Kiefer

Mack Konig

Gina Marxen

Alex Pirog

Sophia Stiles

Libby Stump

Katerina Tsineke

Draya Wacker

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