Lady Griz pull away from Fire, win 72-60

Sunday, November 10

Missoula, Mont.

3 PM

Montana

1-1

Southeastern University

Southeastern (FL)

Montana

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

11/10/2024 7:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Welcome back, Dani.

Montana's do-everything senior, who is in the early stages of returning to form after offseason surgery, hit five 3-pointers and scored 19 points on Sunday afternoon as Montana defeated Southeastern University 72-60 at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula.

With the Lady Griz (1-1) up by just a single point, 49-48, early in the fourth quarter, Bartsch hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give Montana the separation it would hold through the finish to pick up win No. 1 of the season in the first game of a three-game home stand.

"Most of it is just getting comfortable again," said Bartsch, who was limited, by design, to 19 minutes in Tuesday's 82-69 loss at Gonzaga. She took just one shot and grabbed one rebound against the Bulldogs after getting only a handful of practices leading up to the opener.

"Gonzaga was my first game back. I was pretty slow mentally getting my body to do the things my mind was telling me. This game, the second one under the belt, things were just a lot faster for me, getting more into rhythm, being more confident.

"I wasn't super confident at Gonzaga. I was in no place mentally to be a leader for the team. I realized that needed to change. That was something I focused on heading into today."

With Bartsch back to looking more like the player voted second-team All-Big Sky Conference last season and preseason All-Big Sky this year, Montana raced out to an 8-0 lead on the Fire, who were playing their third game in three days after facing Montana Tech and Montana Western in Dillon.

A Bartsch 3-pointer late in the first quarter made it 20-10, but Southeastern refused to go away quietly, hanging around enough to pull within six at the half, 33-27.

A 14-4 run to start the second half upped Montana's cushion to 16 points, 47-31. Southeastern answered with a 17-2 run to close to within a point early in the fourth before Bartsch's back-to-back 3-pointers proved to be the defining shots of the game.

Bartsch saw her minutes on the court tick up to nearly 24 on Sunday, and her team was the better for it. Montana was +29 when she was on the floor.

"I'm proud of our kids for how we responded," said coach Brian Holsinger. "It got kind of tight there. It was good to see Dani get back to more normal. It's amazing what a week of practice will do. That makes a huge difference. She looked like herself, which I'm excited about."

Montana shot 50 percent at Gonzaga on Tuesday and had 19 assists on 26 made baskets, numbers that point toward an efficient, effective night on the offensive end. It was more of the same on Sunday. The Lady Griz shot 48.1 percent and had 20 assists on 26 field goals.

Montana reached 20 assists just three times all of last season. "Our goal every game is 16 or more," said Holsinger. "We had 19 at Gonzaga, 20 today. We're sharing the ball great."

Yet Montana lost by 13 at Gonzaga (the twin culprits: rebounding and a defense that allowed 31 first-quarter points) and had to fight until the final minutes on Sunday before finally securing the win against the NAIA Fire.

For as well as the Lady Griz are sharing it, they turned the ball over 18 times on Sunday, which led to 21 Southeastern points. "We just don't value it enough yet at this time of the year. We'll get that point across," said Holsinger.

"We just have to continue to do the simple things well. Set good screens, drive it to the paint, find open people and dominate the paint."

Montana hit five 3-pointers on Tuesday at Gonzaga, half as many as the Lady Griz averaged last season when they ranked second in the nation at 10.8 per game.

Montana looked more like itself on Sunday, going 5 for 10 from the arc in the opening 10 minutes and finishing 13 for 32 for the game, a cool 40.6 percent.

Bartsch went 5 for 7 from the arc, Tyler McCliment-Call 3 for 8, with Aby Shubert hitting two off the bench, including the dagger with 3:21 left that turned a six-point game into a 67-58 lead with 3:21 left.

"Proud of our team when it got close," said Holsinger. "These games shouldn't be close but it happened to be and we responded the right way. Credit to them as well. They hit some hard shots."

Southeastern shot 40 percent, hitting eight 3-pointers. "We made a lot of mistakes the other night against Gonzaga defensively. We're working on being more accurate. For most of the game, we were fairly accurate."

Alex Pirog, who is 8 for 10 through two games, approached a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. She also had three blocks, which matched a career high. Mack Konig, who had seven assists at Gonzaga, had 10 on Sunday, a new career high.

Montana will host Cal Poly (1-1) on Thursday at 8 p.m., Washington (3-0) next Sunday at 2 p.m.