Stiles scores 29, leads Lady Griz to tournament bye

Friday, March 4

Sacramento, Calif.

8 PM (MT)

Montana

19-10, 12-8BSC

Sacramento State

14-15, 10-10BSC

Montana

Sacramento State

Photos: Sacramento State Athletics

Stiles scores 29, leads Lady Griz to tournament bye

3/4/2022 11:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

When her best was needed, when her team had to have a road win to avoid a first-round game in Boise next week, Sophia Stiles delivered in a big way.

The senior point guard scored 17 second-half points, a career-high 29 for the game, to lead Montana to a gutsy 59-53 victory over Sacramento State on Friday night at The Nest.

The win gives the Lady Griz (19-10, 12-8 BSC), the No. 5 seed, a quarterfinal matchup against No. 4 Northern Arizona (15-13, 12-8 BSC) on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.

The teams split their regular-season games by a total of seven points, each team winning on its home floor.

The matchup in Boise came about because Stiles refused to lose on Friday in Sacramento.

With the score tied 48-48 in the fourth quarter, Stiles scored eight straight points for Montana to give the Lady Griz a 56-50 lead, an advantage they would hold through the final buzzer.

Stiles scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. Her career game came on 13-of-25 shooting.

"I told her before the game, if you have to take 40 shots for us to win, you take 40 shots," said Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger, who has his first team within one win of 20 victories.

"She took 25, hit 13 of them. That's a really good percentage for our team. When she's that way, we're a different team. I'm really proud of her."

Stiles and her teammates out-dueled Sacramento State's Big Two of point guard Lianna Tillman and center Isnelle Natabou, who scored 46 of their team's 53 points.

Natabou had 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting. Tillman had 21 on 8-of-28 shooting. She went 4 for 17 in the second half.

"Those kids are tough, but defense wins," said Holsinger, whose team held the Hornets (14-15, 10-10 BSC) to 32.8 percent shooting on their home floor on Senior Night.

The win came 48 hours after losing 72-64 in overtime at Northern Colorado, a game Montana led by seven going into the final minute of regulation.

The Lady Griz have lost back-to-back games just twice this season and have not had a losing streak longer than two.

"Our kids, their will today and their fight was better. We weren't perfect by any means, but our will was really, really strong," said Holsinger.

"There were a lot of reasons they could have been disappointed, but we came in here on their senior night and really fought like crazy. I'm super proud of the Lady Griz tonight."

Unlike a number of other road contests the last two months, Montana was on its game from the opening tip.

Stiles scored eight points in the first five minutes to spark her team to an early 10-2 lead.

Sacramento State would score the final six points of the opening period to make it 12-12 at the first break. Montana scored the final five points of the second quarter to make it 28-24 at the half.

The Hornets went up 39-36 on a Tillman 3-pointer midway through the third quarter. Montana answered with 3-pointers by Stiles and Nyah Morris-Nelson to retake the lead.

It would remain tight until Stiles put her stamp on the game in the fourth quarter and helped her team build a lead it would never give up, a lead that gives them an extra day of rest in Boise.

"You're fighting, you're clawing, you're doing everything you can to get in this kind of position," said Holsinger.

"I'm so proud of our kids. Every time we've had a weird, kind of tough loss, our kids have responded so well."

Carmen Gfeller added 13 points, Abby Anderson had six points, six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and only two fouls while being matched up against Natabou.

The unsung hero was Katerina Tsineke, who only scored two points and played less than 13 minutes, but Montana was +12 when she was on the floor, a bulk of it in the second half when Tillman struggled.

Sacramento State shot 4 for 19 over the final 10 minutes as Montana pulled away for the victory.

"Kat was a game-changer for us on the defensive end," said Holsinger. "She was tough. She was defending and working and making it really tough on them."

Playing nearly 11 minutes was Sammy Fatkin, back on the court for the first time since Feb. 5, when she was injured in Montana's home loss to Idaho State.

She hit a 3-pointer and grabbed three rebounds.

"I wanted to keep her around 10 minutes tonight and see how she looked," said Holsinger. "She looked better than I was expecting, so I was really encouraged by that."

Haley Huard grabbed a season-high eight rebounds and hit her only shot of the game, a 3-pointer. Montana was +14 when she was on the court, the team's best +/- rating.

The Big Sky tournament will open on Monday with three first-round games. The Montana-Northern Arizona winner will advance to play in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.