Lady Griz looking for more road success

The Montana women's basketball team, coming off a four-game home stand, will get back on the road this week and play at Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona.

The Lady Griz (10-11, 6-4 BSC) will face the Bears (10-10, 3-6 BSC) on Thursday at 6 p.m. inside Bank of Colorado Arena in Greeley, the Lumberjacks (12-10, 6-3 BSC) at 6 p.m. on Saturday at NAU's Walkup Skydome.

Montana's last road game was a 77-68 win at Idaho State on Jan. 14, which completed a sweep. The Lady Griz opened the road trip with a 67-64 overtime win at Weber State.

It was Montana's first sweep of a Big Sky road trip under second-year coach Brian Holsinger.

Montana split the Eastern Washington-Idaho trip in late December. The Lady Griz are 3-1 in league road games, 3-3 at home.

Montana will play five of its next seven games on the road. After hosting Idaho State and Weber State next week, the Lady Griz will play at Montana State, Portland State and Sacramento State.

Montana will wrap up its regular-season schedule with a home game against Idaho on Monday, Feb. 27. The Big Sky Conference tournament will begin the following weekend in Boise.

Trending (Montana): Up. The Lady Griz are coming off an offensive breakout. In their home sweep of then Big Sky leader Sacramento State and Portland State last week, Montana averaged 84.5 points on 48.3 percent shooting, with 42 assists against just 16 turnovers.

Trending (Northern Colorado): Down. After opening league with a home win over Weber State, the Bears are 2-6, with a home win over Portland State, a road win at Idaho. Northern Colorado is averaging just 53.7 points in league on 37.2 percent shooting. Turnovers (17.2/g) have been a problem.

Trending (Northern Arizona): Up. The Lumberjacks have gone 6-2 since opening league with a home loss to Idaho State. Northern Arizona is averaging 77.8 points on the season and has five players scoring between 9.5 and 14.0 points. NAU also allows 76.4 points and an opponent shooting percentage of .427.

Where they stand: Northern Arizona is tied for second at 6-3 in league with Sacramento State, which got swept on the Montana-Montana State road trip last week, losing two games by a total of five points. Everyone is looking up at 8-2 Montana State, the preseason favorite.

Just behind Sacramento State and Northern Arizona are 6-4 Montana and Eastern Washington, making it four teams tied for second in the win column as teams begin jockeying for tournament positioning as the calendar flips to February.

Northern Colorado is tied for eighth place with Idaho State.

Coverage: Both games this week will stream on ESPN+. Fans wanting the local broadcast can catch Ace Sauerwein on KMPT 930 AM/99.7 FM or at 930kmpt.com.

Five things with Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger:

1. Montana shakes up its starting lineup, gets a jolt: After opening a four-game home stand with a one-sided 87-60 loss to Eastern Washington and a 72-63 loss to Montana State, Holsinger changed his starting lineup prior to facing then Big Sky leader Sacramento State on Thursday.

In were freshman Mack Konig and Dani Bartsch. The results were immediate.

Montana rallied from a 14-point third-quarter deficit and down 11 in the fourth quarter, closing the game on a 22-8 run to win 81-77.

Konig had 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting and six assists. She previously scored 20 against Montana State. She became the first true freshman in Lady Griz history to record back-to-back 20-point scoring games since Katie Baker in 2009-10.

After going 12 for 50 (.240) in 15 games between Thanksgiving and Montana State, Bartsch embraced her starting role by going 5 for 8, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and finishing with 13 points and six rebounds. That doesn't factor in her play on the defensive end and in Montana's game-changing press.

Both players backed it up in Saturday's 88-56 win over Portland State. Konig had 10 points, six assists and four rebounds in 25 minutes. Bartsch scored a career-high 14 points and added 10 rebounds for her second career double-double.

"For both of them, it's just their aggressive nature," said Holsinger, who moved Gina Marxen off the ball to bring in Konig. "Gina as a point guard is a little more feel-it-out. There is not a lot of feel-it-out with Mack. Oh, you're going to pressure me? I'm going to go by you every time.

"It was only a matter of time before she was inserted (into the starting lineup). I was kind of waiting for her to take a step defensively, and I feel like she did."

2. Montana gets it rolling from distance: The Lady Griz hit 10 3-pointers in their home loss to Montana State, then hit 10 more against Sacramento State and went 13 for 26 on Saturday against Portland State.

The Lady Griz were 9 for 13 (.692) from the arc in the first half against the Vikings as they raced out to a 52-30 lead through the opening 20 minutes.

Over the last three games Montana is 33 for 76 (.434) from the 3-point line. It's only the second time in program history that the Lady Griz have hit 10 or more 3-pointers in three consecutive games.

The 3-point shot was used on an experimental basis in 1986-87, then fully put in place for 1987-88.

It wasn't until the 1996-97 season that Montana hit 10 3-pointers in a game for the first time, in a 66-40 road win at Cal State Northridge. The Lady Griz would hit 10 or more 3-pointers 37 times under longtime coach Robin Selvig, 13 of those coming in his final three seasons, from 2013-14 to 2015-16.

Montana has now hit 10 or more 3-pointers 52 times in its history. Nearly 20 percent of those (10) have come from Holsinger-coached teams.

"It spaces the floor," said Holsinger. "One of the reasons our offense is successful, we have inside and outside. That kind of spacing creates good offense. I don't care what level, if it's high school or it's WNBA. You're always trying to get good spacing.

"When you don't make threes, everything gets tighter and harder. When you do, it spaces everything out and makes everything easier."

What it's done is give Montana five players who are averaging 10 or more points through 10 Big Sky games: Carmen Gfeller (14.8), Sammy Fatkin (11.0), Gina Marxen (10.4), Mack Konig (10.4) and Libby Stump (10.0). All have scored 20 or more points in a game in their collegiate careers.

"Do you double the post? Do you give up threes? What do you give up? It makes it tough when any of our kids on any given night could score 20," said Holsinger.

3. Sammy Fatkin, superstar: The fifth-year senior averaged 10.0 points and 5.0 rebounds in last week's sweep of Sacramento State and Portland State while playing a team-high 31.9 minutes. She took just 13 shots. Konig, Gfeller and Bartsch all outscored her.

But no one was more valuable.

Against the Hornets, Fatkin was +16 when she was on the floor. That Montana won by four means the Lady Griz were -12 in the three minutes, 51 seconds she spent on the bench. Montana averaged 2.19 points per minute with her on the floor, 0.52 when she sat.

Remarkable for a player who took only four shots in the game.

For Fatkin, it was about timing. She hit the momentum-changing 3-pointer with 3:13 to go that cut Sacramento State's 72-67 lead to two. She then stole the inbounds pass and fed Bartsch for a lay-in to tie the score. Fatkin had three steals and three assists in the final period.

Against Portland State on Saturday, Montana was +33 with Fatkin on the floor, outscoring the Vikings 72-39 and averaging 2.61 points per minute. When she sat for 12-plus minutes, Portland State outscored Montana 17-16.

"I thought it was the best weekend of basketball she's had since she's been here. Rebounding, assists, scoring when we needed it, big shots. That's what you hope a senior would be," said Holsinger.

"She wants to be a professional basketball player, and if you're a professional basketball player, you have to be able to do everything. You have to be able to see the floor, you have to be able to have an impact in other ways."

4. Montana-Northern Colorado, part II: When the Lady Griz and Bears met in Missoula on Jan. 7, UNC led 11-0 at the first-quarter media timeout. That would be the highlight of the game for the visitors.

Montana led 15-14 after one quarter, 37-25 at halftime and 61-37 through three periods. After hitting four of their first six shots, the Bears went 10 for 29 through the end of the third quarter.

The game came two days after a disappointing 76-74 loss to Northern Arizona.

"I was really frustrated after the loss to NAU. We really challenged them on the defensive end to be different, to have a sense of urgency. That was kind of our game, okay, we have to really improve this side of the ball if we're going to be successful this year," said Holsinger.

Northern Colorado put up 23 points in the fourth quarter on 9-of-14 shooting to get to 60 points for the game.

"Of course, we come out and get behind 11-0, but we had gotten good shots and they hit a couple tough ones," said Holsinger. "I remember thinking, we'll be okay. Then we got rolling. Our second and third quarters were really, really good.

"They run a lot of stuff. They run a lot of sets. They run you off a ton of back screens, a ton of flares, stuff you have to be really aware and you have to play really good defense positionally to stop. It was a good challenge."

5. Montana-Northern Arizona, part II: When the Lumberjacks won in Missoula on Jan. 5, it was NAU's first win at Dahlberg Arena over the Lady Griz since 2007 and it gave Northern Arizona its first-ever three-game winning streak over Montana.

Two of those games have been one-possession outcomes, NAU's 60-59 win in Flagstaff last season and the Lumberjacks' two-point win in Missoula last month.

The game last month was one Montana led 16-4 six minutes in, but Northern Arizona came back to take a 35-33 halftime lead. Neither team led by more than five points through an intense second half.

Montana went up 72-70 with 1:54 to go on a basket by Keeli Burton-Oliver. It would be the final basket of the game for the Lady Griz, who went 0 for 3 with a turnover down the stretch.

Northern Arizona scored 42 points in the paint and turned 15 Montana turnovers into 23 points.

"We started fantastic. Our bench came in and we didn't execute in the transition game, and they are a transition team," said Holsinger. "That's what they do. They get out and run and kick it ahead to try to get easy baskets.

"It's a maturity thing with our team, how important that is with every possession. We didn't realize how important it was. Then it's a close game and they made one more basket than us. We've adjusted a lot since then and have gotten better."

Montana notes:

* The Lady Griz have upped their 3-point shooting percentage for the season to .347. If that were to hold, it would be the team's best percentage since 2008-09.

* Montana's 88 points on Saturday against Portland State were a season high and the most points for the Lady Griz since last year's home matchup against the Vikings, a 93-57 win.

* Montana went 5-3 in January, its first month of the season with a winning record.

* Last week's results gave Montana a 9-2 record when scoring 70 or more points. The Lady Griz are 1-9 when failing to reach 70 points.

* Carmen Gfeller's 13 made free throws on Saturday were the most for Montana since Kayleigh Valley hit 15 against Northern Colorado during the 2015-16 season.

* Montana's 13 3-pointers on Saturday were three off the program record of 16 set against Idaho State in 2005-06.

* Montana's 24 assists on Saturday were a season high by six and the most since the Lady Griz had 26 in last year's 103-80 demolition of Utah State.

* Sammy Fatkin is averaging 5.8 rebounds this season. Her previous career high was 4.1 last season.

* After scoring eight points on 2-of-10 shooting in home losses to Eastern Washington and Montana State, Carmen Gfeller put up 31 in wins over Sacramento State and Portland State.

* Dani Bartsch in last week's two wins: 13.5 points on 57.9 percent shooting, including 4 for 7 from 3-point range, and 8.0 rebounds. She had one turnover in more than 54 minutes played. It was the first time in her career she's had back-to-back games of 10 or more points.

* Haley Huard hit four 3-pointers in the 10 games between Gonzaga and Sacramento State. She came off the bench on Saturday to go 3 for 7.

* Lauren Dick scored her first points as a Lady Griz when she hit a pull-up jumper on the baseline late in Saturday's win.

* In her first 17 collegiate games, Mack Konig scored 10 or more points four times. She has scored 10 or more points in Montana's last four games while going 23 for 45 (.511).

* Montana's 52 first-half points on Saturday matched the Lady Griz' 52 second-half points they put up on North Dakota in November's 82-77 home win.

* Montana put up 28 first-quarter points against Sacramento State on Thursday on 11-of-16 shooting. The Lady Griz put up 27 first-quarter points against Portland State on Saturday on 8-of-16 shooting.

At a glance (Northern Colorado): The Bears were 8-4 after opening league with a home win over Weber State on Dec. 29. UNC is 2-6 since.

Preseason All-Big Sky selection Hannah Simental is averaging 10.2 points in league as teams key on her. She is shooting 34.5 percent and is 14 for 44 (.318) from the 3-point line.

She totaled 13 points on 3-of-19 shooting during a three-game stretch against Sacramento State, Portland State and Eastern Washington.

Simental ranks third nationally in free throw percentage. She is 68 for 72 (.944) on the season. She went 35 for 35 from the line from Nov. 17 to Dec. 16.

Six-foot-three junior forward Delaynie Byrne is averaging 11.3 points and 6.9 rebounds in league, both team highs.

Northern Colorado's most recent game was a 62-59 overtime loss at home to Northern Arizona on Saturday.

The Bears scored the final six points of regulation to force overtime but went just 1 for 6 in the extra session. The Lumberjacks won despite going 1 for 8 in overtime.

Montana-Northern Colorado history: The Lady Griz are 21-15 against the Bears, 9-8 in Greeley.

Montana has won four of the teams' last six matchups, which followed a seven-game winning streak by Northern Colorado.

The Lady Griz have dropped their last two games in Greeley, both in overtime.

At a glance (Northern Arizona): The Lumberjacks are 5-2 at home this season, with losses in Flagstaff to Idaho State and Portland State.

NAU's last two games have been decided in overtime, a 96-89 loss at Eastern Washington and a 62-59 win at Northern Colorado.

Idaho State transfer Montana Oltrogge, this week's Big Sky Player of the Week, leads Northern Arizona in scoring (14.0/g) and rebounding (8.5/g). She had a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double in Missoula.

Point guard Regan Schenck ranks sixth nationally in assists (7.1/g). She ranks second on the team in scoring at 12.3 per game.

Freshman Sophie Glancey was the x-factor in the game in Missoula. She scored 22 points on 10-of-12 shooting off the bench. Montana held the rest of the team to 30.3 percent shooting.

Montana-Northern Arizona history: The Lady Griz are 61-17 against the Lumberjacks, 25-10 in Flagstaff. Montana has lost its last two games in Flagstaff.

In last year's 60-59 setback, Sophia Stiles appeared to hit the game-winning jumper with less than a second to play to make it 59-57.

Inbounding from in front of her own bench, Nina Radford threw a lob to the basket, where Khiarica Rasheed caught and finished in one motion while getting fouled. Her free throw was the clincher.

Thursday in the Big Sky Conference: UM at UNC, MSU at NAU, SAC at EWU, PSU at UI … Sacramento State tries to end a season-high two game losing streak against the surprising Eagles, who are 8-3 in Cheney.

Saturday in the Big Sky Conference: UM at NAU, MSU at UNC, PSU at EWU, SAC at UI, ISU at WSU … Idaho State travels to Ogden on a six-game losing streak. Weber State is coming off its first league win, a surprising 68-65 home victory over Eastern Washington.

Upcoming: It will be Robin Selvig Week as Montana hosts Idaho State on Thursday and Weber State on Saturday. Thursday's game will be the last one on the playing surface that will be named Robin Selvig Court at a Friday-evening ceremony.

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

Keeli Burton-Oliver

Lauren Dick

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Haley Huard

Mack Konig

Gina Marxen

Sophia Stiles

Libby Stump

University of Montana Athletics