Lady Griz to face Coyotes on Sunday

The Montana women's basketball team, which lost a tight game against Grand Canyon in Missoula on Thursday night, will return to the court on Sunday for a game at South Dakota.

The Lady Griz (2-6) and Coyotes (4-5) will tip off at 11 a.m. (MT) inside USD's Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Both teams will enter the game on a four-game losing streak.

Montana lost to Grand Canyon on Thursday night. The Lady Griz led 27-25 at the half and 48-46 after three quarters before the Lopes outscored the home team 25-15 in the fourth to rally for the victory.

After Sunday's game, Montana will have just two remaining before Christmas. The Lady Griz will host Montana Tech on Sunday evening, Dec. 18, and play at Gonzaga on Wednesday, Dec. 21.

Montana will open Big Sky Conference play at Eastern Washington on Thursday, Dec. 29.

Coverage: Sunday's game will have video coverage through GoYotes.com. The Lady Griz broadcast, with Riley "Ace" Sauerwein, will be available on KMPT 930 AM/99.7 FM or 930kmpt.com.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz' losing streak reached four games when Montana couldn't close out Grand Canyon at Dahlberg Arena on Thursday night.

The Lady Griz led by four early in the fourth quarter and had a pair of good looks from the arc to extend the lead to seven but both missed.

The Lopes scored the game's next eight points, and Montana never regained the lead over the final 7:16.

Montana limited high-scoring Grand Canyon to just 25 first-half points on 32.1 percent shooting, matching the fewest points allowed in a half to a Division I opponent this season.

The Lopes then nearly doubled that output in the second half, putting up 21 points in the third, 25 in the fourth. The 46 points given up was the highest-scoring half allowed this season by Montana.

Grand Canyon closed the game making eight of its final 11 shots to defeat Montana for the first time in three meetings between the programs.

Grand Canyon shot 43.6 percent for the game. It was the sixth time in seven games this season against a Division I opponent that the Lady Griz have allowed their opponent to shoot better than 40 percent.

That happened just seven times all of last season under then first-year coach Brian Holsinger, whose team ended the season ranking 13th nationally in field goal percentage defense (.355).

His current team, through eight games, ranks 262nd at 41.9 percent.

Freshman Libby Stump had 14 points off the bench to lead Montana in scoring for the third time this season. Sammy Fatkin, Carmen Gfeller and Gina Marxen all scored 10.

Montana has lost its last two games but was red-hot from the 3-point line against Washington State and Grand Canyon, going 20 for 41 (.488).

The Lady Griz went 14 for 16 from the free throw line against the Lopes. Montana has gone 79 for 100 (.790) the last seven games after opening the season going 13 for 25 against North Dakota State.

The four-game losing streak is Montana's longest under Holsinger, who led the Lady Griz to 19 wins last winter in his first season in Missoula.

It's Montana's longest losing streak since ending the 2020-21 season with four consecutive losses.

Sophomore Haley Huard hit three 3-pointers against Grand Canyon, the sixth time in her career she has hit three or more, freshman Mack Konig dished out a season-high six assists.

Over the last four games, Stump is averaging 11.5 points on 50 percent shooting. She has started her collegiate career going 9 for 9 from the free throw line.

Montana led 27-25 at the half on Thursday. The Lady Griz are now 1-3 this season when leading at the half.

At a glance (South Dakota): The Coyotes have qualified for the last four NCAA tournaments and last spring made a memorable run to the Sweet 16, where they lost 52-49 to Michigan.

That team was led by a number of experienced fifth-year seniors and a coach, Dawn Plitzuweit, who became a hot commodity and ended up at West Virginia.

USD's last three head coaches have used the Coyotes as a springboard.

Ryun Williams (2008-09 to 2011-12) is at Colorado State. Amy Williams (2012-13 to 2015-16) is at Nebraska. Plitzuweit (2016-17 to 2021-22) is in Morgantown.

Plitzuweit was the most successful of them all. Her six teams went 84-10 in the Summit League and, importantly, went 9-7 against South Dakota State.

Her first two teams advanced to the WNIT, her last four teams to the NCAA tournament.

Replacing Plitzuweit in April was Kayla Karius, an assistant on Plitzuweit's first two USD teams who then spent three years at Wisconsin and last season at Drake.

Karius not only had to take on the weight of expectations that her predecessors established, she took over a team without a single returning starter.

Even so, South Dakota was picked second behind South Dakota State in the Summit League preseason poll, with the Coyotes picking up four first-place votes.

Sophomore Grace Larkins, who averaged 6.5 points and 2.7 rebounds of the bench last season, was voted second-team preseason All-Summit League in October.

Larkins leads South Dakota in both scoring (16.3/g) and rebounding (7.1/g) and also leads the Coyotes in 3-pointers (16), assists (34) and steals (19).

Guard Madison Grange, who played four seasons at Utah Valley before transferring to South Dakota in the offseason, averaged 11.0 points on 56.3 percent shooting through the season's first five games.

She was lost for the season last month due to injury.

After opening the Karius era with a 106-41 victory over Midland, South Dakota lost 74-51 at home to Creighton, which is now 7-1 and ranked 18th nationally.

After improving to 4-1 with wins over Bradley, Bellevue and Saint Louis, South Dakota has lost four straight for the first time since the 2013-14 season, all since Grange's injury.

The Coyotes lost by 25 and 13 points to Santa Clara and Fordham at the Las Vegas Holiday Classic, lost 72-65 at Northern Colorado and on Tuesday lost 83-54 at home to Drake.

South Dakota shot 28.4 percent and got outscored 60-22 in the paint. Drake outscored South Dakota on its home floor 28-5 in the second quarter and never looked back.

Of South Dakota's four wins, two came against non-Division I's, the others came against Bradley, now 3-5, and Saint Louis, now 3-10.

South Dakota has a NET ranking of 217. Montana is 246.

Sunday's game is the second of five straight at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center for South Dakota. USD hosts UT Martin next week, then opens Summit League play hosting Kansas City and Oral Roberts.

The Sanford Coyote Sports Center opened prior to the 2016-17 season. South Dakota is 80-7 at home since it opened.

Series history: Montana and South Dakota have played just twice, both coming during the height of the Plitzuweit era.

South Dakota won 64-41 in Missoula in 2018-19 in what would be Plitzuweit's first NCAA tournament team.

Montana got crushed 96-64 in 2019-20 in Vermillion as the Coyotes shot 58.5 percent, went 15 for 26 from the arc and committed just eight turnovers.

That South Dakota team would win the Summit League with a 16-0 record, three times defeat South Dakota State and be 30-2 when the NCAA tournament was canceled before it started.

Upcoming: Montana will begin finals week on Monday. The team's next game will be against Montana Tech on Sunday, Dec. 18, at 6 p.m. at Dahlberg Arena.

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Players Mentioned

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Haley Huard

Mack Konig

Gina Marxen

Libby Stump

University of Montana Athletics