Lady Griz to face Toreros, Tritons at USD Winter Classic

The Montana women's basketball team, which has won four of its last five games, will face San Diego and UC San Diego this week at the USD Winter Classic in San Diego.

The Lady Griz (4-3) opened their three-game road trip to California with a come-from-behind 67-65 win at Cal Poly on Saturday night.

This week's games will be the last before Christmas for Montana, which opens Big Sky Conference play on Dec. 29 and 31 against Weber State and Idaho State.

The Lady Griz will face the Toreros (4-6) at 3 p.m. (MT) on Wednesday, the Tritons (3-6) at 3 p.m. (MT) on Thursday. Boise State is the fourth team at the USD Winter Classic.

The games will take place at USD's Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Coverage: Both of Montana's games will be streamed on ESPN+ and can also be heard on KGRZ (92.7 FM/1450 AM), KGRZMissoula.com and the Varsity Network, with Ace Sauerwein calling the action.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz improved to 2-0 on the road this season and won for the fourth time in five games when they pulled out a 67-65 victory at Cal Poly on Saturday night.

Montana held the lead for less than six minutes in the game but came through when it mattered, outscoring the Mustangs 19-11 over the final 5:01 to rally for the victory.

Carmen Gfeller scored 21 points, her 14th career game with 20 or more points, her 69th with 10 or more. Gina Marxen added 17 points, five rebounds and five assists off the bench.

Montana gave up 24 first-quarter points, fell behind by eight in the second quarter before pulling within 36-34 at the break.

Cal Poly's lead was seven, 45-38, in the third quarter and 54-48 with just over five minutes to go in the fourth before Montana ended the game on a 19-11 run.

Marxen (8), Gfeller (6) and Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw (2) scored 16 of Montana's 19 game-ending points, with Dani Bartsch hitting a big 3-pointer with 37 seconds left to give the Lady Griz a 64-63 lead.

Gfeller found Espemiller-McGraw for the game-winning layup with 16.7 seconds left.

Montana's senior class of Gfeller (13.1/g), Espenmiller-McGraw (13.1/g) and Marxen (10.9/g) is now averaging in double figures through seven games on combined 48.9 percent shooting.

At a glance (San Diego): The Toreros, who are 2-0 against the Big Sky this season, snapped a four-game losing streak with an 85-61 road win at CSU Northridge on Sunday afternoon. USD led 70-32 after three quarters.

San Diego defeated Portland State 71-43 and Weber State 56-53 earlier this season, both at Jenny Craig Pavilion.

San Diego has been a successful program that you probably didn't know has been a successful program under coach Cindy Fisher, who has been at USD since the 2005-06 season.

Over the last 11 full seasons, the Toreros have averaged nearly 20 wins per season (19.8) and have played in eight WNITs and one NCAA tournament since Fisher arrived.

One of those WNIT trips was in 2014, when the Toreros, who would go 24-9 that season, won a second-round game 60-57 over Montana in Missoula to advance to the WNIT round of 16.

San Diego advanced to the WNIT second round in 2021-22, the round of 16 again last season with wins over Long Beach State and UC Irvine.

San Diego finished third in the WCC last season at 11-7 in league, behind Gonzaga and Portland. The Toreros were picked fifth out of nine teams in this year's preseason poll.

In addition to defeating Portland State, Weber State and CSU Northridge this season, San Diego also has a victory over Chapman. The Toreros are 3-3 at Jenny Craig Pavilion this season.

Sophomore playmaker Veronica Sheffey, named to the WCC All-Freshman Team last year, leads USD in scoring (12.3/g) and assists (54).

Series history: Montana and San Diego have played just once before, in the second round of the 2014 WNIT in Missoula, a 60-57 victory for the Toreros.

San Diego led 36-32 at the half and built a 12-point second-half lead before Montana tied it at 55 with 1:03 to play.

USD's Amy Kame, with the shot clock running low, hit a clutch jumper, part of her 25-point game, to give the Toreros the lead for good.

Kellie Cole led Montana, which was done in by 21 turnovers, with 16 points.

At a glance (UC San Diego): The Tritons were one of the nation's top NCAA Division II overall athletics programs until beginning their four-year transition to Division I in 2020. It ends in July.

The UC San Diego women's basketball program went 132-23 in its last five years as a Division II program, from 2015-16 to 2019-20. The Tritons are 35-46 during their reclassification to Division I.

Overseeing that transition has been coach Heidi VanDerveer, younger sister of legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer. She's been coaching the Tritons since 2012-13.

Heidi VanDerveer was the head coach at Eastern Washington for three seasons, from 1994-95 to 1996-97, going 24-56, 1-6 against Montana.

The Tritons have been members of the Big West since beginning the move to Division I. They went 13-17 overall last season and finished sixth in the Big West with a 10-10 league record.

UC San Diego tied for fifth in this year's preseason poll, two spots ahead of Cal Poly, which Montana defeated by two points on Saturday.

UC San Diego, which plays Boise State on Wednesday, is 3-6 with one Division I win this season, 77-71 in overtime at San Diego State. The Tritons' other wins have been against Life Pacific and La Sierra.

UCSD lost at home to Northern Arizona, 74-69, last month and enters the USD Winter Classic with back-to-back losses to Fresno State, 71-52, and Arizona, 81-38.

Freshman guard Sumayah Sugapong leads the Tritons in scoring (14.1/g). Junior center Katie Springs has grabbed 83 rebounds through nine games (9.2/g) while scoring 21 points (2.3/g).

Eight-game starter Rosa Smith, a 5-foot-7 guard, played last year, her freshman season, at Idaho. She averaged 9.2 points and had a 30-point game in a loss at Sacramento State.

Series history: Montana and UC San Diego have never met, though Montana went 6-1 against VanDerveer while she spent three seasons at Eastern Washington in the mid-90s.

Lady Griz assistant coach Joslyn Tinkle played for Tara VanDerveer at Stanford.

Montana notes:

* Carmen Gfeller and Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw both lead the team with 92 points (13.1/g) this season. Both are shooting 50 percent from the field.

* Averaging 22.9 minutes off the bench, Gina Marxen ranks third on the team in scoring (10.9/g) and leads Montana with 19 assists.

* Montana has outrebounded its last six opponents and is +8.2/g on the boards for the season.

* The Lady Griz shot 47.4 percent at Cal Poly, their best shooting performance this season against a Division I opponent.

* Montana went 10 for 23 (.435) from the 3-point line on Saturday against the Mustangs. It was the fourth time in seven games the Lady Griz have hit 10 or more.

* Montana is 33 for 38 (.868) from the free throw line the last three games and shooting 78.1 percent for the season. That ranks 22nd in the nation.

* Montana leads the Big Sky in field goal percentage (.435) and ranks 40th in the nation in 3-point field goals (8.4/g).

* Gina Marxen (.516) ranks sixth nationally, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw (.500) is tied for 11th in 3-point field goal percentage.

* The Lady Griz, at 108, are hanging just outside the top 100 in the NET rankings. Only Eastern Washington (63) ranks higher from among Big Sky teams.

* Dani Bartsch, who leads Montana in rebounding (8.3/g), blocks (8) and steals (13), ranks third in the Big Sky in rebounding.

* Carmen Gfeller moved past Kenzie De Boer and into 14th place on the Lady Griz career scoring list. She has 1,271 points. She is 100 points from passing Kellie Cole, Sonya Rogers, Jean McNulty, Ann Lake and Marti Leibenguth. The last three on that list are in the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame.

* Gina Marxen's five assists at Cal Poly were a season high for the Lady Griz. … Montana's three free throws made on five attempts were both season lows. … Montana's 21 turnovers at Cal Poly were a season high and the most for the Lady Griz since losing at Washington State last season.

* Carmen Gfeller has scored in double figures in six straight games since opening the season with four points against Gonzaga.

* The combined record of the teams that have handed Montana its three losses: 31-5.

* After scoring 72 points (18.0/g) over Montana's four previous games, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw was limited to a season-low three shot attempts against Cal Poly.

* Montana's bench has outscored the opponent's in six of seven games this season. … The Lady Griz won at Cal Poly on Saturday despite leading for 5:46 and never holding a lead of more than three points.

Upcoming: A short Christmas break, then the start of Big Sky Conference play.

Lady Griz to face Toreros, Tritons at USD Winter Classic

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw

Carmen Gfeller

Gina Marxen

University of Montana Athletics