Lady Griz get second shot at Bobcats

The Montana women's basketball team, tied for second in the league standings, will face Big Sky Conference leader Montana State on Saturday afternoon in Bozeman.

The Lady Griz (13-12, 9-5 BSC) and Bobcats (18-8, 11-3 BSC) will tip off at 2 p.m. inside Worthington Arena.

Montana State won the teams' first matchup, played in Missoula on Jan. 21, 72-63. Up 37-35 at the half, the Bobcats outscored the Lady Griz 25-14 in the third quarter to pull away.

Montana will close its regular-season schedule with a road trip to Portland State and Sacramento State next week, then host Idaho for Senior Night on Monday, Feb. 27.

The five-day Big Sky Conference tournament will open on Saturday, March 4, in Boise.

Trending (Montana): Up. Since dropping back-to-back home games to Eastern Washington and Montana State last month, the Lady Griz have won five of six, the only loss since changing their starting lineup a 55-54 setback against Idaho State on Thursday on two free throws with 0.9 seconds left.

Trending (Montana State): Up. Since losing at home to Northern Arizona on Jan. 7 to drop to 2-2 in league, the preseason favorites have won nine of 10 to build a two-game lead in the Big Sky standings. The only loss in that 10-game run was a 79-50 thumping at Northern Arizona.

What's at stake: Montana State is in position to win its fourth regular-season Big Sky championship in the last eight years. The Bobcats are two games up in the loss column on their nearest pursuers.

A win would give Montana State its fourth season sweep of Montana in the last five years.

Montana is tied for second with Northern Arizona at 9-5, two games behind Montana State, with Sacramento State, at 8-5, tied with the Lady Griz and Lumberjacks in the loss column.

The top two seeds at next month's Big Sky tournament get the advantage of having to win three games over four days to win the championship. Seeds 3 through 6 have to win three games in three days, seeds 7 through 10 have to win four games over five days.

Coverage: Saturday's game will be available on ESPN+ and locally on KMPT 930 AM/99.7 FM and 930kmpt.com with Ace Sauerwein. The game will also be available on the Montana Television Network with Tom Wylie and Krista Redpath.

The first meeting: Montana State won the start of both halves when the teams met in Missoula on Jan. 21, and that was enough to pull away for a 72-63 win over Montana.

The Bobcats built a 10-point lead in the first quarter, led 37-35 at the half, then scored the first nine points of the third quarter. Montana State led by at least nine points the final 17 minutes of the game.

Darian White was able to do Darian White things, scoring 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting and grabbing seven rebounds. Kola Bad Bear had 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting, seven rebounds and three steals, and Grace Beasley came off the bench to score 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

Montana State outscored Montana 44-14 in the paint.

Montana shot 35.2 percent and turned the ball over 18 times. The team's five starters combined to score 18 points on 5-of-25 shooting. Libby Stump scored 21 points and Mack Konig 20 points off the bench. They combined to go 8 for 12 from the 3-point line.

History: Montana leads the all-time series 80-35 and has gone 28-21 against Montana State in Bozeman.

Montana State has won eight straight over Montana in Bozeman by an average of 15.6 points. The Lady Griz' last win in Worthington Arena was a 72-65 victory on March 3, 2014.

Montana State has won 13 of the teams' last 16 matchups overall.

Five storylines with Montana coach Brian Holsinger

1. After Montana lost at home to Montana State last month, which came five days after the Lady Griz lost 87-60 at home to Eastern Washington, second-year Lady Griz coach Brian Holsinger made a change to his starting lineup.

He inserted freshman Mack Konig and sophomore Dani Bartsch, and the Lady Griz haven't looked back. They scored 78 or more points in their first four games with their new look and have won five of six overall.

The change sparked Montana offensively. Prior to the adjustment, the Lady Griz were averaging 69.1 points on 41.4 percent shooting. The last six games: 74.3 points on 45.5 percent shooting.

The bigger impact has been on the defensive end. Through the Montana State game, Montana was allowing 70.1 points on 41.9 percent shooting. The last six games: 62.2 points on 37.9 percent shooting.

"We're a completely different team as far as how things are clicking," said Holsinger. "Our consistency on both ends of the floor is much improved, and when you look at the numbers on the defensive end since we changed our lineup, they are drastically different."

Prior to the change, Montana had 28 more turnovers than assists. The last six games: 98 assists, 67 turnovers. Konig has six or more assists in four of the last six games and had 14 against Idaho State and Weber State last week.

"It's a completely different look. We space the floor with a bunch of shooters, then have a point guard who can really attack, so we're harder to guard," Holsinger said.

"Then off the bench we have some scoring and some post play. I like where we're at, and I think we can keep improving."

2. Since getting inserted into the starting lineup, Dani Bartsch is averaging 10.8 rebounds per game. The last three games she has had 17, 12 and 14 rebounds. Her 17 at Northern Arizona were three off the program record and tied for 10th in program history.

Her activeness and versatility on the defensive end have also sparked Montana.

Both of those have helped the Lady Griz address an area that had plagued them in the start of league: slow starts. Montana fell behind Northern Colorado 11-0, Eastern Washington 10-0 and Montana State 14-6.

"We weren't getting very good starts, and Dani is somebody who prides herself on defense and rebounding, and that's something we hadn't been great at," said Holsinger.

"Did I expect her to rebound the way she is? No, she's exceeded expectations. She's filled that role fantastically. She's brought so much energy on the defensive end and to our rebounding, and I think she is just at the tip of the iceberg of what she can do."

3. Gina Marxen is looking like the Idaho-era Gina Marxen, and that's a good thing considering she was the Big Sky Freshman of the Year in 2018-19, first-team All-Big Sky in 2019-20 and second-team All-Big Sky in 2020-21.

Holsinger said it would take time for Marxen after sitting out last season, time to learn a new system, time to integrate herself into a new team on the court.

He was right. Her assist numbers early on were solid, but she wasn't the confident shooter who hit 199 3-pointers in just three seasons as a Vandal and scored 954 points.

Over Montana's last six games, she is 14 for 23 from the arc. She went 5 for 7 from distance against Idaho State on Thursday and scored 17 points, her highest scoring game since November. She went 3 for 5 against Weber State on Saturday.

She is the rare 3-point shooter who is being convinced by her coach that she needs to shoot MORE to best help the team.

"I'd like her to shoot even more because she shoots such a high percentage. I'm working on it," Holsinger said. "You can see her comfort level has increased dramatically even the last two weeks.

"She is the shooter and playmaker that we thought she would be, which took time."

4. When Montana split with Montana State last season, it was because the Lady Griz did the job keeping Darian White and Kola Bad Bear, both of whom would be voted All-Big Sky at season's end, mostly under wraps.

They got loose last month in Missoula and made Montana pay, combining for 35 points on 14-of-25 shooting.

That will be a key to watch for on Saturday, as will the first five minutes of the first and third quarters. During its eight-game losing streak in Bozeman, Montana has fallen behind 15-0 every game. (Not really but that's been the early-game vibes. The snowball has gotten rolling, then taken off.)

"We have to be composed at the beginning. More than anything, we have to do a better job on their seniors," said Holsinger. "Last year we did a good job on Darian and Kola. They kind of got away from us in the first game at home.

"We have to make adjustments to make sure they don't get as comfortable as the first game."

5. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Montana State is 44-8 at home, 31-4 in Big Sky games in Worthington Arena. On the other hand, the Lady Griz are 5-1 in Big Sky road games this season, a nice improvement from last year's 3-7 mark.

After last year's game at Bozeman, a 73-59 Montana State win, Holsinger talked about how his team didn't play like itself, like it played with the weight of history on its shoulders.

Most of this year's Montana team doesn't have that burden, which does nothing to change Montana State's excellent home record or run of really good teams but does, hopefully, allow the Lady Griz to look more like themselves.

Gina Marxen went 2-0 against Montana State in Bozeman while she played at Idaho. Mack Konig and Libby Stump, as freshmen, have never lost there. Sammy Fatkin scored 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting in last year's game at Worthington Arena.

This Montana team won at Idaho State last month, the program's first win in Pocatello since 2015. One way to unload baggage from a program, after all, is to rely on players who don't carry any.

"There is less stuff from the past with this team," Holsinger said. "We beat Idaho State there for the first time since whenever. They kind of expect to play well on the road.

"We'll approach Saturday the same way we approach any of our road games. There is a reason this team does really well on the road. There are fewer distractions and we just kind of band together."

Montana notes:

* Carmen Gfeller played in her 100th career game on Saturday against Weber State. In that game, she made her 400th career basket, took her 800th career shot and scored her 1,100th career point.

* Gfeller is 29 for 31 from the free throw line the last seven games. She is shooting 87.3 percent on the season, which ranks third in the Big Sky, 27th nationally. Her career percentage of 83.4 would rank fourth in program history.

* In her last two games against Montana State, Gfeller has scored 34 points, in Montana's home win last season, and two points, in Montana's home loss this season. In the six games since being held to two points by the Bobcats, Gfeller is averaging 14.5 points.

* Gina Marxen went 5 for 8 from the free throw line in Montana's 65-63 season-opening loss to North Dakota State. Since then, she is 68 for 76 (.895). Her season percentage of 86.9 ranks fourth in the Big Sky, 33rd nationally. She hasn't missed more than one free throw in a game since facing the Bison.

* Montana's five leading scorers – Gfeller, Fatkin, Marxen, Stump and Konig – all have a 20-point scoring game this season.

* Dani Bartsch has grabbed 10 or more rebounds in three straight games. The last Montana player to do that was Jace Henderson, who had 10 or more in four straight games in 2018-19.

* The last three games, Bartsch has grabbed 43 rebounds and taken only 14 shots. She is her team's 1997-98-era Dennis Rodman.

* Since moving into the starting lineup, Mack Konig has a six-game assist average of 5.2/game. That would rank second in the Big Sky behind Northern Arizona's Regan Schenck, who ranks eighth nationally at 7.0/game.

* Libby Stump is averaging 10.3 points. The last true freshman to average at least 10 points for a season for Montana was Katie Baker, who averaged 11.5 points in 2009-10, though she missed the final 14 games with an injury. The last true freshman to average at least 10 points while playing an entire season was Hollie Tyler (12.9/g) in 2001-02.

* Montana has shot 80 percent or better from the free throw line each of the last five games to raise its season percentage to 77.2. That would rank third in program history. … The Lady Griz are at 80.1 percent in 14 Big Sky games.

* Montana's 22-point first half against Idaho State on Thursday was its lowest scoring half since putting up 17 in the second half against California at Loyola Marymount's Thanksgiving tournament.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* After hosting Montana on Saturday, Montana State will need to navigate the Sacramento State-Portland State road trip. The Bobcats close with Eastern Washington at home.

* Tied with Montana for second place, Northern Arizona has a favorable close to its schedule: home for Eastern Washington, Idaho and Northern Colorado, at Weber State.

* Fourth-place Sacramento State plays at Weber State and Idaho State this week, then plays three straight at home: Montana State, Montana and Portland State.

* If the season ended today, Montana would be the No. 3 seed and play No. 6 Eastern Washington in Boise at the Big Sky tournament.

* Thursday games: UI at UNC, PSU at ISU, SAC at WSU, EWU at NAU … The Eagles have been without leading scorer Jaydia Martin since Jan. 28, the Lumberjacks have been without leading scorer Montana Oltrogge since Feb. 6.

* Saturday games: UM at MSU, EWU at UNC, SAC at ISU, PSU at WSU, UI at NAU … Lady Griz. Bobcats. The rest is secondary.

Upcoming: Montana will play at Portland State and Sacramento State next Thursday and Saturday, then host Idaho in the regular-season finale on Monday, Feb. 27.

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Mack Konig

Gina Marxen

Libby Stump

University of Montana Athletics