Gfeller, Lady Griz take down Bobcats

Saturday, February 26

Missoula, Mont.

7 PM

Montana

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Montana State

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Montana State

Montana

Photo by: Derek Johnson

2/27/2022 12:28:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Saturday's game wasn't even a minute past completion when Sophia Stiles passed through the postgame handshake line, tears already welling up in her eyes.

The weight of expectations, the pressure to finally accomplish something you've never done in your career, the knowledge that this might be it, the last chance to pull it off, it all weighs on a girl.

So when the final buzzer sounded and Montana had defeated Montana State 71-57 in front of an appreciative crowd of more than 4,000 at Dahlberg Arena on Senior Night, it hit Stiles all at once.

Thus, the tears. They couldn't wait for the locker room.

"I feel like I've been waiting for this moment for five years," she said. "It was relief, happiness, all of the above. All the best emotions, that's what I was feeling. It was a moment I won't ever forget."

The win snapped Montana's seven-game losing streak against Montana State and happened on a court where the Bobcats had won the teams' last three matchups.

Stiles was on a team that defeated Montana State. The Lady Griz knocked off the Bobcats 87-63 four years ago, when Stiles was a true freshman, but she was on the bench that Saturday afternoon, her season having ended three weeks earlier against North Dakota because of a knee injury.

And sitting and watching, unable to participate, just isn't the same.

Ever since, it had been loss after loss, a rivalry for decades tilted heavily in Montana's favor now trending the other way.

The Lady Griz didn't make things right in one night, but it was a start, and it was magical and memorable.

"I was so happy to do it with Abby (Anderson) and everyone on Senior Night," said Stiles, who had 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists. And plenty of help from her teammates, particularly Carmen Gfeller.

Gfeller exploded for 34 points, the second-most ever put up by a Lady Griz against the Bobcats, trailing only the 39 scored by Shannon Cate in the 1992 Big Sky Conference semifinals in Boise.

Only five players have scored more than Gfeller's 34 in program history: Cate, who did it eight times, Lauren Cooper, Ann Lake, Mandy Morales and Jean McNulty.

And to think that Gfeller scored five points on four shots when Montana lost 73-59 at Montana State earlier this season.

That player went into beast mode a few weeks later. Gfeller went 11 for 16, hit five of her seven 3-point attempts and was a terror from the arc to the rim. The Bobcats had no answer.

"It all starts with our point guard. When Sophie drives and is aggressive, they have to come at her and I was able to step into it," said Gfeller of her perimeter shooting.

"When our shooters started hitting shots, I was able to get looks inside, and Abby is one of the best passers on our team, so it's a great setup for us."

Over Montana's last four games, Gfeller is 28 for 44 (.636), a player getting dialed in at just the right time. After all, Tuesday marks the first day of March. And the week after next is the postseason.

"She's been shooting like this the last few games. They gave her good looks, and she was tough in the post tonight," said Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger.

"She's just steadily improving. When you can shoot it and you're that size, that's tough."

But for all of Gfeller's offensive fireworks, this was a game won on the defensive end, where Montana held the Bobcats to 32.8 percent shooting, their second-lowest percentage since early December and to their lowest scoring output since Jan. 1 against Idaho State.

During MSU's seven-game winning streak against Montana, the Bobcats averaged more than 74 points per game.

In the teams' matchup in Bozeman in January, Montana State got uncontested shot after uncontested shot. Clean looks were few and far between on Saturday.

The Bobcats went 4 for 18 from the arc. They were 9 for 17 in the game in Bozeman.

Montana held Darian White, MSU's leading scorer and one of the players on the short list to be named Big Sky MVP, to nine points on 3-of-12 shooting, the team's second-leading scorer, Kola Bad Bear, to seven.

"We made it really hard for them to score tonight. That was the biggest thing, because we didn't shoot the ball particularly well from three," said Holsinger, whose team was 8 for 24 from the arc, when a few makes on opens threes in the first half would have blown the game open early.

"I thought if we would have hit a few more, we would have really spaced them in the first half."

Montana has now held seven of its last eight opponents to a shooting percentage below 39 percent.

"We're a team that's a scout-based team. We're going to force people to do things they're not comfortable doing as much as possible," said Holsinger.

"How I run the defense takes your mind, not just your body. You have to think, and that takes time to get better at. We've continued to improve all season at that, and we're playing our best defense right now."

The game had the same edge to it that all Montana-Montana State games do, and the play on the court reflected it. The Bobcats led 4-2 at the first media timeout, more than five minutes into the game.

Montana led 9-8 after the first quarter when the teams combined to shoot 7 for 31.

The Lady Griz would hold the lead the rest of the game but made a frustrating habit of allowing the Bobcats to keep hanging around.

Montana's first chance to pull away came late in the second quarter, when the lead grew to nine, 32-23.

Anderson, who would finish with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting, five rebounds, five assists and three blocks, took an elbow to the face from Bad Bear and had to leave the game for the remainder of the half.

Montana State scored the final five points of the half and trailed just 32-28 at the break in a game that felt like Montana should have been up by at least a dozen.

"We got a little disjointed and they made a run, so I was mad going into half," said Holsinger. "I felt like we had a lead and we kind of took our foot off the gas. I was a little upset, and I think they felt it."

The start of the third quarter was going to be key. Stiles sensed it and put her stamp on the game. She hit a 3-pointer on Montana's first possession, then went strong to the rim on the very next possession to make the lead a more comfortable nine.

"She's our leader," said Holsinger. "I told her, take what they give you. You don't have to force it. If they help, you kick it. If they don't, drive it and score. It's really that simple. She runs the show for us and she was awesome."

The lead reached double figures midway through the third quarter on one of the game's signature plays.

Anderson closed out on Bad Bear, who had stepped out to the arc to attempt a three. Anderson got more than just a piece of it and took off the other direction. Gfeller grabbed the rebound and passed ahead to Anderson, who finished with a lay-in to make it 42-32.

The lead reached 17 a few minutes later on a Gfeller 3-pointer.

The crowd helped, but there was no secret to Montana's success. The Lady Griz shot 50 percent, defended the Bobcats until they were miserable and won the rebounding battle by eight.

Rivalry game or not, that's just good basketball.

"We executed better (than we did in the game in Bozeman)," said Holsinger. "We took away threes, our transition defense was better, our rebounding was tougher. Those are things that win. It's not rocket science, it's just execution."

Montana led by 10 or more the final eight minutes of the game, never by more than 14. It didn't allow for a more a scripted moment, when the seniors could be taken off one at a time to a deserved ovation. They didn't seem to mind.

Even on Senior Night, especially this one, the result was what mattered, not the recognition.

"I'm proud of our seniors. They deserved it. They've been through a lot," said Holsinger, the third head coach for both Stiles and Anderson. "For the seniors to flip the script a little bit and get a win is a big-time deal.

"It wasn't given to us. They've worked for it. They've gotten better and better. Our defense has gotten better, our execution has gotten better. That's why you get to win games like this."

The win was Montana's second straight, its fourth in five games, a streak that would be five had the Lady Griz held on to a 14-point, third-quarter lead at Idaho on Monday, a game they lost 70-69.

Montana has shot better than 45 percent in five straight games.

"We're getting better as a team, and that's obvious by the results," said Holsinger. "The results aren't by accident. It's because we're doing things right."

But Saturday was at home, in front of a boisterous crowd. The rest of the way will be on the road, with games at Northern Colorado and Sacramento State next week, the Big Sky tournament in Boise to follow.

"We need to prove to ourselves that we can go play the right way on the road," said Holsinger, "because we don't get to win the conference tournament at home.

"This win is one of those things you check-mark and you're proud of, but we have a lot to play for still. We'll enjoy this one tonight, then we'll get them refocused."