Lady Griz bounce back

Saturday, January 7

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

6-9, 2-2BSC

Northern Colorado

8-7, 1-3BSC

Northern Colo.

Montana

Photo by: UM Photo/Tommy Martino

1/7/2023 5:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

It was a moment that would have had many college basketball coaches losing their composure, their focus, their ability to remain in the moment, to lead their team.

Coming off Thursday's disappointing 76-74 home loss to Northern Arizona, Montana's second consecutive Big Sky Conference defeat, the Lady Griz trailed Northern Colorado 11-0 at home on Saturday afternoon at Dahlberg Arena at the first media timeout.

Five minutes in, Montana had taken nine shots and missed nine shots. Northern Colorado had taken six and made four.

Montana's Brian Holsinger coached in his 700th career game on Thursday. That experience shone through on Saturday, in game 701.

With his team around him at that early media timeout, he was nothing but calm and reassuring, and his team responded in kind.

The Lady Griz closed the first quarter making seven of eight shots and locked down the Bears the rest of the game while dominating the final 35 minutes, winning 82-60 to move back to .500 in league.

"I knew we'd work our way through it. I knew we would, so I was pretty calm in that situation. We got good shots, we just didn't make them," Holsinger said.

"There are moments as a coach when you know your team needs to be fired up and there are times when they're just missing shots and you just need to stay calm. If I'm freaking out, they usually freak out, so that was my philosophy at that moment."

It was as complete a performance as Montana has enjoyed this season.

The Lady Griz, who allowed 70.1 points through the season's first 14 games, shaved 10 off that number on Saturday.

Offensively, Montana shot a season-best 53.4 percent. After opening 0 for 9, the Lady Griz went 31 for 49 (.633) over the game's final 35 minutes.

"Over the last 24 hours, we talked a lot about defense," said Holsinger, whose team had allowed 70, 79 and 76 points to its first three Big Sky opponents.

"I'm proud of our kids. Bottom line for us is we have to defend. We just have to defend. Today, we did."

Carmen Gfeller, Gina Marxen and Keeli Burton-Oliver each has her own story of why the season started slowly. Each missed time away from the court, from Burton-Oliver's two years to Marxen's one year to Gfeller's five months.

Playing themselves more and more into form, those three carried the offensive load on Saturday, with Gfeller leading the way with 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting. She hit three 3-pointers and went 5 for 6 from the free throw line.

Burton-Oliver had 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks. Marxen, looking as good as she's looked as a Lady Griz, had 16 points, four rebounds and four assists in a highly efficient 34 minutes. She missed just two shots and didn't turn the ball over.

"She is becoming our floor leader. That's pretty obvious," said Holsinger. "She's feeling more and more comfortable in the system and more and more confident in herself."

One of the game's hidden storylines was that Gfeller played 32 minutes, Burton-Oliver 27. They had no restrictions on their minutes because they combined for just three fouls.

They had seven in Montana's loss at Idaho, both sitting for most of what turned out to be the critical second quarter, and both fouled out in Thursday's two-point loss to the Lumberjacks.

"We've probably given away a few games because of it," said Holsinger. "We're learning."

Sammy Fatkin had eight points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals, Libby Stump and Mack Konig combined for 14 points, four assists and no turnovers off the bench.

Montana had 17 assists, one off its season high, and just seven turnovers against Northern Colorado's zone defense. It was the fewest the Lady Griz have had this season against a Division I opponent.

"We talked about offense for maybe 10 minutes over the last 48 hours, and they roll in here and score 80 points against a good zone," said Holsinger. "We haven't really executed well against a zone all year, but we have a lot of threats out there."

After giving up the game's opening 11 points, Montana held Northern Colorado to just 26 over the game's next 25 minutes while building a 61-37 lead through three quarters.

The Bears, who twice this season have made 15 triples in a game, were just 3 for 18 from the 3-point line. "Our goal was to make sure they didn't make threes and make things hard for them," said Holsinger.

Northern Colorado's leading scorer, junior guard Hannah Simental, one of the nation's top 3-point shooters, scored 19 points, but they came where Montana wanted them to come: inside the arc.

She made seven of her eight shots from inside the arc but went 1 for 7 from outside.

"She is a good player. Our goal was to make her score in the paint, inside the 3-point line. We did a good job of that," Holsinger said.

Coming out of the first-quarter media timeout trailing 11-0, Montana, in less than two minutes, scored the game's next nine points.

After Simental hit her lone 3-pointer to make it 14-9, Fatkin scored and Gfeller closed the period hitting a pair of baskets in the paint to give the Lady Griz the lead after 10 minutes, 15-14.

Simental scored in the paint early in the second quarter to give the Bears an 18-17 lead, but the Lady Griz controlled the rest of the period, closing the first half on a 20-7 run to take a 37-25 lead to the locker room.

Gfeller hit a pair of 3-pointers early in the third quarter and Marxen hit one of her own to make it 48-31, and Montana was on its way to snapping a two-game losing streak.

Montana went 9 for 24 (.375) from the arc, its most makes since the team's win at South Dakota on Dec. 11.

Montana (6-9, 2-2 BSC) will play at Weber State (4-11, 0-3 BSC) on Thursday, at Idaho State (8-6, 3-0 BSC) next Saturday.