Lady Griz to make public debut on Friday

The Montana women's basketball team will make its public debut on Friday evening when it hosts Montana-Western in an exhibition game.

The Lady Griz and Bulldogs (0-1), who lost 70-61 at Dickinson State on Friday in their season opener, will tip off at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena. The game is a ticketed event.

Montana will kick off its regular-season schedule on Tuesday when it travels to Spokane for a game against West Coast Conference favorite Gonzaga.

Coverage: Friday's game will not have radio or ESPN+ coverage or have live stats available.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz, who return three starters in 2024-25, have had two closed-door scrimmages to date, one against a Division I opponent, one against a non-Division I opponent.

Montana is coming off a 23-10 season, its first 20-win campaign since 2015-16. The Lady Griz finished third in the Big Sky Conference with a 13-5 league record.

No. 3 Montana defeated No. 6 Idaho in the Big Sky tournament quarterfinals in Boise in March, its first tournament victory since 2018, then fell 74-67 to No. 2 Northern Arizona in the semifinals.

The Lady Griz were selected to play in the WNIT, their 28th national tournament appearance, their first since advancing to the NCAA tournament in 2014-15.

Montana defeated Boise State 92-66 in the first round before falling 72-63 at North Dakota State in the round of 32.

The Lady Griz lost three of their four leading scorers from that team to graduation: Carmen Gfeller (13.4/g), Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw (12.2/g) and Gina Marxen (10.8/g).

That team made 357 3-pointers, a program record and the fifth-most makes in Big Sky history. The Lady Griz ranked second nationally in 3-pointers made per game (10.8) behind only Iowa.

Montana returns three starters. Senior Dani Bartsch and junior Mack Konig started all 33 games a season ago. Senior MJ Bruno started the season's first 22 games before coming off the bench the rest of the season.

Bartsch (10.4/g) led Montana and the Big Sky in rebounding last season, and ranked 25th nationally. She has a chance to break Hollie Tyler's program record of 952 career rebounds by season's end with similar numbers in 2024-25.

Bartsch was voted second-team All-Big Sky last season and to the league's first-ever All-Defensive Team.

Konig was named to the Big Sky All-Tournament Team after going for 34 points on 50 percent shooting against Idaho and Northern Arizona in Boise.

Montana was picked third in both preseason polls earlier this month, with Bartsch making the six-player Preseason All-Big Sky team.

The Lady Griz return only two other letter-winners from a season ago, junior Alex Pirog and sophomore Adria Lincoln.

Fourth-year coach Brian Holsinger brought in six newcomers, three transfers and three true freshmen.

The transfers are fifth-year senior Tyler McCliment-Call (Stephen F. Austin), redshirt junior Izabella Zingaro (Iowa State) and sophomore Aby Shubert (Xavier).

The freshmen are Chloe Larsen (Missoula, Mont./Hellgate HS), Kavanah Lene (Christchurch, New Zealand/St. Andrew's College) and Avery Waddington (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho/Lake City HS).

At a glance (Montana-Western): The Bulldogs lost 70-61 at Dickinson State on Friday, shooting 35.4 percent and turning the ball over 19 times.

Western went 17-13 last season under then first-year coach Britt Cooper and finished third in the Frontier Conference with an 8-7 league record.

The Bulldogs were picked fifth out of six teams in this year's preseason Frontier poll, behind Providence, Carroll, Rocky Mountain and MSU Northern.

Providence (2), which lost in the national championship game last season, Carroll (8), which advanced to the national semifinals, and Rocky Mountain (21) are ranked in the preseason NAIA national poll.

Former Lady Griz Joelnell Momberg, a senior guard, made the seven-player Preseason All-Frontier Team, joining other former Lady Griz Kyndall Keller and Willa Albrecht, both of Carroll.

Western lost its top two scorers from a year ago, Jordan Sweeney (20.6/g) and Shainy Mack (14.6/g). Momberg averaged 12.2 points while shooting 38.4 percent from the 3-point line, hitting 61 from the arc.

Joelnell Momberg scored 18 against Dickinson State, Kyla Momberg added 13.

The Bulldogs will host Dickinson State and Southeastern (Fla.) University on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8-9. Southeastern will play at Montana on Sunday, Nov. 10, its third game in three days.

Storylines:

* First-year Lady Griz assistant coach Lindsay Woolley was the head coach at Montana-Western for 11 seasons, from 2012-13 to 2022-23. He led the team to the 2019 NAIA national championship.

* A starter on Woolley's 2019 national championship team was Britt Cooper, now in her second year as head coach at Western.

* Cooper got her start in coaching at Angelo State in 2019-20, where she was a two-year graduate assistant under Nate Harris, now Montana's associate head coach.

* Cooper was Woolley's assistant coach at Montana-Western in 2022-23, his final year at the school before spending the 2023-24 season at Utah State.

* Montana-Western junior Keke Davis was a high school classmate of Lady Griz junior Lauren Dick at Hellgate High. As seniors in 2021-22, they led the Knights to the Class AA state championship game.

Upcoming: Montana will be tested right out of the gate on Tuesday when the Lady Griz open the season against Gonzaga, which has played in 15 NCAA tournaments since 2006-07.

The Bulldogs, who went 32-4 last season and have won 36 straight games at home, need to replace four starters but have 6-foot-1 forward Yvonne Ejim to build around.

Ejim, who averaged 19.7 points and 8.7 rebounds last season, was named to the 50-player Naismith Trophy Women's College Player of the Year Watch List on Monday.

The Lady Griz have not defeated the Bulldogs since the 2006-07 season.

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

MJ Bruno

Lauren Dick

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw

Carmen Gfeller

Mack Konig

Chloe Larsen

Kavanah Lene

Adria Lincoln

Gina Marxen

Tyler McCliment-Call

Alex Pirog

Aby Shubert

Avery Waddington

Izabella Zingaro

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