Lady Griz to host unbeaten Rams

The Montana women's basketball team, on a three-game winning streak, will host unbeaten Colorado State on Saturday night, its final home game before opening Big Sky Conference play in late December.

The Lady Griz (3-2) and Rams (7-0) will tip off at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena.

After opening the season with losses to Gonzaga and Washington State, teams that are now a combined 19-3 and both ranked in the top 25, Montana has won three straight.

The Lady Griz won at now 6-2 Grand Canyon, a team whose only losses have come to Oregon and Montana, then returned home for high-scoring wins over Dickinson State and Loyola Marymount.

The Lady Griz never trailed in Wednesday's 82-68 win over LMU in front of nearly 6,000 kids in the annual School Day Game, pulling away with a big second half.

Colorado State is off to a 7-0 start, its best since opening 8-0 in 2000-01. That unbeaten start ended with a three-point home loss to Tulsa.

Led by elite point guard McKenna Hofschild, Colorado State is shooting 47.1 percent, averaging 76.0 points and leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.12.

The Rams are No. 54 in the nation in the first NET rankings that were released on Monday. Montana is 105.

After a break for finals next week, Montana will be off to Southern California for games at Cal Poly and matchups against San Diego and UC San Diego at the USD Winter Classic.

Montana will open league with home games against Weber State and Idaho State on Dec. 29 and 31.

Coverage: Saturday's game will be available on ESPN+ and KGRZ (92.7 FM/1450 AM), KRGZMissoula.com and the Varsity Network app, with Ace Sauerwein calling the action.

Series history: Colorado State has won seven of the teams' 11 matchups, with Montana holding a 3-2 record in games played in Missoula.

Colorado State is one of only six Division I teams that Montana has faced 10 times or more and has a losing record against. The others: Gonzaga, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Wyoming.

The teams first played in 1979-80, a 72-66 CSU win in Bozeman. The most recent matchup was last season, when Colorado State won 82-58 in Fort Collins.

Colorado State has won the last four matchups against Montana by an average margin of 19.5 points.

The Rams won 63-49 in 2016-17, the last time CSU traveled to Missoula. Montana's most recent win in the series was a 68-53 home win in 2008-09.

In last year's matchup in Fort Collins, Hofschild had 18 points and 11 assists (against one turnover) and Colorado State put up 52 points over the second and third quarters to pull away.

Libby Stump scored 15 points off the bench to lead the Lady Griz.

More on Montana:

* After being held to 49 points on 33.9 percent shooting against Washington State on Nov. 14, Montana has averaged 88.7 points on 48.0 percent shooting in its last three, all wins.

* Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, who played four years at Iowa State, scored a collegiate-best 23 points against Dickinson State, then improved upon that with 24 on Wednesday against Loyola Marymount.

Espenmiller-McGraw is 14 for 22 (.636) the last two games while scoring 47 points and has gone 9 for 13 (.692) from the 3-point line.

* Montana has two players ranked in the top eight in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage. Gina Marxen (10 for 18) is tied for fourth (.556), Espenmiller-McGraw (16 for 29) is tied for seventh (.552).

* Espenmiller-McGraw's 16 3-pointers through the first five games of the season are a program record. Torry Hill made 15 through five games in 2013-14, Sonya Rogers 15 through five games in 2007-08.

* Carmen Gfeller is 20 for 28 (.714) during Montana's three-game winning streak. Gfeller's 21 points on Wednesday against LMU were a season high and her 13th game as a Lady Griz with 20+ points.

* Gfeller's 21 points on Wednesday gave her 1,237 for her career, 17th most in program history. Over her next 124 points, she'll pass eight players, four of whom are in the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame.

* Saturday night will be Montana's fifth at home in its first six games to start the season. That hasn't happened since 1986-87 when the Lady Griz played their first six games at home.

* Montana has used the same starting lineup for all five games this season: Mack Konig, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, MJ Bruno, Carmen Gfeller and Dani Bartsch.

* Gina Marxen (9.8/g) ranks third on the team in scoring off the bench behind Espenmiller-McGraw (14.8/g) and Gfeller (11.6/g).

* Montana has outrebounded its last four opponents and is +8.0/g for the season.

* Montana's 108 points against Dickinson State were a program record, surpassing the previous program high of 105.

* In Wednesday's win, Montana scored 82 points despite going 3 for 16 and scoring 10 points in the second quarter. In the other three quarters: 72 points on 25-for-44 (.568) shooting.

* Espenmiller-McGraw (24), Gfeller (21) and Marxen (16) scored 61 of Montana's 82 points. They combined to go 8 for 12 from the 3-point line, 21 for 34 (.618) overall. It was a season high for all three.

* Montana leads the Big Sky in scoring (77.0/g), shooting (.441) and 3-point field goals made (8.8/g). The Lady Griz rank 30th nationally in 3-point field goals made.

More on Colorado State:

* The Rams are a nightmare matchup for an opposing team's defense. They rank first nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.1) and are fifth in 3-pointers made per game (10.3).

* CSU is averaging 76.0 points on 47.1 percent shooting and goes 40.0 percent from the arc. The Rams have won their first seven games by an average of 24.3 points.

* Montana's opponents are shooting 42.4 percent overall this season, 35.6 percent from the arc. The latter percentage ranks 303rd nationally.

* Hofschild was WBCA All-Region last year and an Associated Press honorable mention All-American. The Seton Hall transfer was the Mountain West Newcomer of the Year in 2020-21, the Player of the Year last season.

* Hofschild averages 20.7 points and has dished out 62 assists in seven games while turning the ball over just 11 times. She leads the nation in assists (8.9/g), ranks third in assist-to-turnover ratio (5.64).

* She is Colorado State's only player averaging in double figures. The team's top five scorers all shoot 45.0 percent or better from the arc. Six players have taken at least 20 3-pointers this season.

* Hofschild averaged 20.6 points and 7.2 assists last season as Colorado State went 20-12 and advanced to the WNIT. Eight of CSU's loses a year ago were in overtime or by five points or fewer.

* Last year's trip to the WNIT was Colorado State's seventh to the postseason (six WNIT, one NCAA) under 12th-year coach Ryun Williams.

* Colorado State tied for third in the Mountain West last season with San Diego State and New Mexico at 12-6. UNLV went 18-0 in league, Wyoming 13-5.

* UNLV (8-0) and Colorado State are both off to unbeaten starts this season.

* UNLV collected 24 of 27 first-place votes in this year's preseason poll. Colorado State, with one first-place vote, was second. Wyoming, with two first-place votes, was third.

* Colorado State has gone 5-0 at home this season, with wins over Le Moyne, Alabama A&M, New Hampshire, South Dakota Mines and High Point. Road wins have come at San Francisco and UTEP.

* Average NET ranking for Colorado State's first six Division I opponents: 265. Average NET ranking for Montana's first four Division I opponents: 84.

* The Rams play next weekend at Long Beach State's tournament, then get Mississippi State at home on Dec. 20 before opening Mountain West play on Dec. 30 at San Diego State.

Upcoming: Finals week, then it's off to California for three games in six days against Cal Poly (2-5), San Diego (3-6) and UC San Diego (3-6).

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

MJ Bruno

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw

Carmen Gfeller

Mack Konig

Gina Marxen

Libby Stump

University of Montana Athletics