Lady Griz to host Lions for School Day Game

The Montana women's basketball team will resume its nonconference schedule on Wednesday when it hosts Loyola Marymount at 11 a.m. at Dahlberg Arena in the program's fifth School Day Game.

The Lady Griz (2-2) will enter the game on a two-game winning streak, including last Monday's record-setting 108-57 victory over Dickinson State.

The Lions (2-5) have already played seven games. Their lone Division I victory came against now 1-6 Denver. LMU's most recent game was a 78-73 overtime home loss to South Dakota on Sunday.

Montana will turn around and host undefeated Colorado State on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Rams, who host High Point on Tuesday, are 6-0 for the first time since 2001-02.

The Lady Griz won't play again at home until opening their Big Sky Conference schedule against Weber State and Idaho State on Dec. 29 and 31.

Montana will wrap up its pre-Christmas schedule with a road game at Cal Poly (Dec. 16) and matchups against San Diego (Dec. 20) and UC San Diego (Dec. 21) at the USD Winter Classic.

Coverage: Wednesday's game can be watched on ESPN+ or heard on KGRZ (92.7 FM/1450 AM), KGRZMissoula.com or the Varsity Network app with Ace Sauerwein calling the action.

Because of the number of kids who will be in attendance on Wednesday – nearly 6,000 are expected – the game is not open to the general public.

The School Day Game is back: Wednesday's matchup against Loyola Marymount will be the fifth School Day Game in program history.

The first School Day Game at Montana was played during the 2017-18 season, when a nearly full house of 7,018 watched Seattle rally for a 78-64 victory over the Lady Griz.

Montana held a two-point lead early in the fourth quarter before the Redhawks hit seven of eight shots on a decisive 14-0 run, with the kids cheering every made basket, regardless of team.

Not surprisingly, the next three School Day Games came against non-Division I opponents.

In 2018-19, Montana defeated Providence (MT) 90-45 in front of a crowd of 6,610, a game connected to this season because it marked the collegiate debut of then freshman Carmen Gfeller, who scored 15 points in 20 minutes off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting.

In 2019-20 Montana rolled to a 98-45 victory over MSU Northern in front of a crowd of 7,205. Taylor Goligoski scored 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the 3-point line.

COVID and a coaching change put the game on hold for two seasons. It returned last year, a 71-43 Montana victory over Providence (MT) with Sammy Fatkin delighting the crowd of 5,321 with 24 points.

At a glance (Montana): After opening the season with home losses to Gonzaga and Washington State, the Lady Griz have rebounded with wins over Grand Canyon and Dickinson State.

Gonzaga is 8-2 with losses against two ranked teams: Washington State and Louisville. On Sunday in Spokane, the Bulldogs raced past No. 3 Stanford 96-78.

Washington State is 9-1, its only loss to Wisconsin-Green Bay in Cancun.

Montana's 76-71 win at Grand Canyon on Nov. 20 grows more impressive by the day. The Lopes, the favorites to win the Western Athletic Conference, responded to that loss with four straight victories to improve to 6-2.

Grand Canyon has held its last four opponents to 43.5 points per game while winning by an average of 21 points. Montana is the only team to have scored more than 64 points this season against the Lopes.

A week after win No. 1, Montana made it two straight with a 108-57 victory over Dickinson State, a point total that broke the single-game program record of 105.

The previous record was initially set by the 1989-90 team in a 105-69 road win at Weber State, later matched by the 2005-06 team in a 105-55 home-court victory over Idaho State.

Last Monday was the sixth time in program history the Lady Griz have reached 100 points in a game. The most recent 100-point game was a 103-80 home-court victory over Utah State in December 2021.

Against the Blue Hawks, Montana led just 24-13 after the first quarter but put up 72 points over the second and third quarters on 27-of-43 (.628) shooting, going 10 for 18 (.556) from the 3-point line.

Montana had five players in double figures for the second consecutive game, with Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, who played four years at Iowa State, scoring a collegiate best 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting. She went 5 for 6 from the arc.

Espenmiller-McGraw's previous collegiate high was 20 points as a freshman when Iowa State won 89-67 at home over Kansas in 2019-20. She went 7 for 10 in that game and hit six of her eight 3-point tries.

Alex Pirog (17 points, 12 rebounds) and Adria Lincoln (13 points, nine rebounds) both had breakthrough performances off the bench against Dickinson State.

Carmen Gfeller added 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting, four assists and three blocks, Libby Stump scored 10 points off the bench.

Montana's 32 3-point attempts against the Blue Hawks were one off the program record. The Lady Griz had 24 assists, just six turnovers.

Espenmiller-McGraw leads the team in scoring (12.5/g) and is shooting 54.5 percent both overall and from the 3-point line. Montana's next six leading scorers average between 6.5 and 9.3 points.

Montana's scoring average of 75.8 leads the Big Sky.

At a glance (Loyola Marymount): The Lions, who are 34-91 since the start of the 2019-20 season, enter Wednesday's game with a record of 2-5.

LMU went 7-23 last year and finished last in the West Coast Conference with a 4-14 league record. Loyola Marymount was picked to finish last in the nine-team WCC this year.

The Lions picked up their first win of the year at home against Biola in mid-November, 66-36, then hosted and defeated Denver last week 79-61 for their first Division I win of the season.

LMU had an opportunity to pick up a nice victory over South Dakota on Sunday afternoon but couldn't finish off an eight-point fourth-quarter lead, falling 78-73 in overtime to the Coyotes.

Senior forward Alexis Mark, who began her career at Boise State, leads Loyola Marymount in both scoring (12.4/g) and rebounding (8.0/g).

Senior forward Amaya Oliver, who began her career at USC, is averaging 10.0 points and 7.4 rebounds. LMU has eight players who began their collegiate careers somewhere else.

One of those players is senior guard Sydney Gandy, who played three years at Idaho and has started all seven games this season for Loyola Marymount. She was a one-year teammate at Idaho with Montana's Gina Marxen.

LMU is coached by Aarika Hughes, who is in her third year as head coach of the Lions.

Series history: Montana and Loyola Marymount have played just one time previously, a 49-47 Lady Griz victory in Los Angeles in the 2013-14 season as part of LMU's tournament.

Carly Selvig had 12 points and Montana, which trailed by seven in the second half. The Lady Griz held the Lions to 29.8 percent shooting on their home floor to rally for the two-point victory.

Montana played in Loyola Marymount's tournament last November but didn't face the Lions. The Lady Griz lost to both Wichita State and California.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Eastern Washington leads the Big Sky with a 5-2 nonconference record and looks the part of preseason favorite.

* The Eagles had a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer last week that could have knock off Gonzaga, with the Bulldogs hanging on for an 82-80 win in Cheney.

* EWU bounced back with a 64-43 home victory over Boise State on Sunday with one of the most unusual box scores you'll ever see. The Broncos outscored the Eagles 35-21 over the first and third quarters, EWU outscored BSU 43-8 in the second and fourth periods.

* Eastern Washington comes in at an impressive 57 in the first NCAA NET rankings of the season. Montana is the second-ranked Big Sky team at 106, with Montana State (134), Idaho (167) and Northern Arizona (184) also in the top 200.

* Portland State has won two straight, over Seattle and on the road at Fresno State, to improve to 4-2. The Vikings next play on the road at Oregon, which is 4-3 and lost 91-60 at Portland last week.

* Idaho and Northern Arizona are also above .500 at 4-3. One of NAU's wins was against Portland in Las Vegas, the Portland team that defeated Oregon by 31. Oregon defeated Northern Arizona earlier in the year 81-48.

* Sacramento State (1-6) picked up its first win of the season, 58-48 at home over CSU Northridge on Saturday, giving first-year coach Aaron Kallhoff his first victory with the Hornets.

* Weber State, at 0-7, is the last winless team in the league.

* The Big Sky's three leading scorers are Portland State's Esmeralda Morales (21.3/g), the Big Sky preseason MVP, Northern Colorado's Delaynie Byrne (18.5/g) and Eastern Washington's Aaliyah Alexander (16.7/g).

Upcoming: A big showdown with Colorado State on Saturday night.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Adria Lincoln

Gina Marxen

Alex Pirog

Libby Stump

University of Montana Athletics