Montana
11-4, 3-1BSC
Northern Arizona
10-6, 2-1BSC
Lady Griz come through on the road
1/13/2024 5:55:00 PM | Women's Basketball
On the back end of the Big Sky Conference's longest road trip and coming off a disappointing result on Thursday, the Montana women's basketball team showed every ounce of its mettle on Saturday afternoon in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Trailing by four early in the fourth quarter, the Lady Griz put up a 31-point final period and outscored Northern Arizona down the stretch to win 89-84 at the Walkup Skydome, their eighth win in their last nine games.
"You come on the road, we got delayed yesterday on our flight, barely had a practice last night, then we came out and just gutted it out," said coach Brian Holsinger, whose team is 11-4, 3-1 in league. "We had some adversity, but we stepped up and hit big shots. I'm proud of them."
Mack Konig (24), Carmen Gfeller (18) and Dani Bartsch (11) all were in double figures and all had critical stretches that allowed Montana to hang around against the Big Sky's highest-scoring team.
Konig scored 10 of her career-high 24 points in the third quarter, which allowed Montana, down two at the half, to go into the fourth quarter facing the same manageable deficit.
Gfeller scored 12 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, which set up Bartsch to hit back-to-back 3-pointers that broke the game's 11th and final tie, 73-73, gave Montana a 79-73 lead and sent the Lady Griz to their sixth victory in seven games away from home this season.
"This team knows how good it can be. When we buckle down and we stay focused and we're locked in, we do a pretty good job," said Holsinger. "I'm really, really pleased."
Gina Marxen added 12 points and MJ Bruno hit maybe the shot of the game, a high-arcing 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:10 left after the Lumberjacks (10-6, 2-1 BSC) had cut Montana's lead to a single point.
"Shout out to MJ. That was a gigantic 3-pointer in the corner. People stepped up. Big-time win by the Lady Griz," said Holsinger.
Indeed. Northern Arizona had been 43-4 when scoring 80 or more points since the 2018-19 season, 28-1 at home, with that one loss coming in double overtime against South Dakota State.
Most teams don't try to go point for point with the Lumberjacks, especially in Flagstaff, but the Lady Griz did and came away with the victory.
Montana went 14 for 34 from the 3-point line, the fourth-most makes in program history, and shot 47.5 percent overall after being held to 57 points on 37.7 percent shooting in Thursday's 67-57 loss at Northern Colorado, a game Montana led by 12 at the half.
Montana got off to a good start, leading 18-16 after the first quarter, and never allowed Northern Arizona to get ahead by more than six points. Every time the Lumberjacks got something going, the Lady Griz had an answer.
Even with Gfeller on the bench for most of the first half with two fouls, the contributions came from everywhere. A good example: Macey Huard came off the bench and scored nine first-half points. It was an all-hands-on-deck kind of game. And all those hands did their own lifting in their own way.
It was 41-39 at the half, NAU with the lead, then Konig kept her team close with her big third quarter. She answered Northern Arizona's biggest lead of the game, 58-52 late in the third quarter, with one of her four 3-pointers, which matched a career high.
Her 24 points came on 10-of-17 shooting and she added a season-high seven assists, one off her career high. She was confident, looking for her shot, looking for open teammates. She did it all. It was Mack at her best, when that designation has come and gone this season.
"I talked to her before the game. Hey, it's been up and down, let's be up today," Holsinger said. "I need to say that every game.
"She just sticks with it and that's a hard thing mentally when you have up and downs. She was just locked in today. I'm really proud of her and how she just stayed in it mentally. She was an attacker for us. She created a bunch of stuff."
After turning the ball over 11 times in the first half, Montana had just four over the final 20 minutes. That allowed the Lady Griz to go 16 for 33 (.485) in the second half, 7 for 16 from the arc, and put up 50 points over the final 20 minutes.
"We took care of the ball in the second half. I knew if we did that, we'd shoot it really well," said Holsinger.
Still, Northern Arizona led 62-58 after scoring the opening points of the fourth quarter. Then it was Gfeller's turn. She hit four straight shots from the 8:08 mark to 5:48 to give Montana a 71-69 lead.
"That's a credit to her experience," said Holsinger. "I asked her, where do you want the ball?" She got it between the free throw line and the top of the key and went to work. "She had her own little five-minute clinic against a good defender.
"She was really the difference in that little stretch. She gave us some confidence. She took over when we really needed it."
After Northern Arizona tied it at 73-73, Bartsch hit a 3-pointer, then hit another one less than two minutes later. All of a sudden Montana led by six, 79-73.
Bruno's 3-pointer made it 82-78 with 70 seconds left, and Montana went 7 for 8 from the free throw line to close it out.
The Lady Griz went 10 for 17 in the fourth quarter, 4 for 8 from the arc and turned the ball over one time, and still had to hold on after being whistled twice for fouling a 3-point shooter in the final two minutes.
"Every game down here is crazy. We seem to want to make it tight," said Holsinger, whose team lost 60-59 on a last-second shot two years ago on his first trip to Flagstaff with the Lady Griz. Last year Montana won 80-76 in overtime.
Bartsch added 14 rebounds for her third double-double of the season, the seventh of her career. Leia Beattie led Northern Arizona with 22 points.
With three road games down and two more still to go, Montana will play at Montana State (8-9, 2-2 BSC) next Saturday in Bozeman, then head to Ogden to face Weber State (5-12, 2-2 BSC) on Monday, Jan. 22.
The Bobcats, who lost 88-73 at Northern Arizona on Thursday, fell 58-53 at Northern Colorado on Saturday in Greeley, allowing the Bears to end the game on a 7-0 run.
