Lady Griz knock off Huskies

Sunday, November 17

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

2-2

Washington

4-1

Washington

Montana

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Mo

11/17/2024 6:49:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Lady Griz went from the agony of defeat to the thrill of victory, from frustrating loss to perhaps a season-altering win in a span of less than 72 hours, from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon, the lows and the highs all taking place inside the theater that is Dahlberg Arena in Missoula.

On Thursday night, Montana lost 65-55 to Cal Poly, a soul-searching type of result. "We played one of maybe the worst-executed games," said fourth-year coach Brian Holsinger. "I took a lot on myself for that one.

"We followed that with a really hard practice. I was really tough on them, so I didn't know what we were going to get (from the team today) to be honest."

What he got was maybe Montana's best win of the Holsinger era, if not in terms of emotional fulfillment – victories over Montana State will do that, same with wins over Boise State in the WNIT – then at least in terms of execution against a high-level opponent.

The Lady Griz did nearly everything better on Sunday than the Huskies, who entered the day with a record of 4-0 and an average margin of victory of 35 points.

Montana raced out to a 22-10 lead after 10 minutes, built its advantage to 19 points in the second quarter, then did all the right things in the second half to hold off the high-powered Huskies, winning 82-68 for its first victory over Washington since the 1987-88 season.

It was Montana's first win over a power-conference opponent in more than a decade, its first win over a team from the Big Ten since knocking off Illinois in Cancun early in the 2008-09 season.

"It's a credit to this team's resiliency. We had a really hard practice the other day, and they really bonded together. I'm really proud of how we responded," said Holsinger.

"It's one of the bigger wins since I've been here, but beyond that, from what happened the other night to today is what I'm really proud of. To be able to execute against a good team that has beaten a lot of people badly is pretty special."

It's the chance at redemption that makes sports what they are, having a rough game one day but being able to give it another go while the sting still lingers.

But did it have to be Washington next up on the schedule? The Huskies entered the game averaging more than 88 points while shooting better than 50 percent, holding opponents to less than 53 points on sub-35-percent shooting.

They went 43 for 100 from the 3-point line through their first four games, lighting it up from the arc when they weren't scoring in transition, intimidating statistics across every category.

"They are a really good team," said Holsinger. "We couldn't give them too much transition and we couldn't give them easy threes. They feed off the 3-pointer."

Not on Sunday, the Huskies didn't. Washington hit just two 3-pointers in 14 attempts and had only 11 fast-break points. The Huskies had 33 points at the half, 68 at the final horn, more than 20 below their early-season average.

"How we guarded the three, we executed, which we hadn't done up to this point," said Holsinger, whose team allowed Gonzaga, Southeastern and Cal Poly to go 28 for 58 (.483) from the 3-point line.

But it isn't simply an outstanding defensive performance that makes a complete-game effort. The offense has to do its part, and Montana was firing on all cylinders on Sunday, at times almost unstoppable with Mack Konig running the show.

The Lady Griz shot better than 56 percent in the first half, better than 57 percent in the second to finish at 56.9 percent for the game, the second-highest percentage for Montana under Holsinger in four seasons.

Orchestrating the offense like an experienced maestro, the ball her baton, Konig went for 24 points, two off her career high, on 11-of-18 shooting to go along with four assists.

She attacked from the start, getting into the paint and to the rim when needed, when Washington was left with a big to try to slow down Montana's point guard, stopping and popping a pair of 3-pointers when that's what the situation begged for.

"She's a good player," said Holsinger, which we all know. "They decided to switch (ball screens) and she went at them. We really executed our on-ball (screens). We wanted to attack on-balls and attack them from the inside."

Montana would score 50 points in the paint against a team that started players 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-4, and had 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-6 coming off the bench. "I thought we executed the game plan."

Adria Lincoln had a final stat line – seven points on five shots – that doesn't jump off the final box score, but in her first career start, she was a tone-setter, scoring those seven points in the opening quarter on perfect 3-of-3 shooting.

She hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute, finished an aggressive take to the basket in the game's second minute.

The message that Montana sent throughout the opening period? That game on Thursday? Yeah, that wasn't us. And we're going to prove it.

And they kept doing it, building their lead to an is-this-really-happening? 19 points, 35-16, midway through the second quarter, leading 42-33 at the half after shooting 10 for 18 in the opening period, 8 for 14 in the second.

But the Huskies were going to come. Everyone knew it, and come Washington did, opening the second half on a 10-2 run to close within an uncomfortable single point, 44-43.

Izzy Zingaro answered to make it a three-point game, and it would remain three for nearly two minutes, the only point of the game when it felt like Montana was holding on rather than in control, Washington going 0 for 5 with a turnover when the lead – and maybe the game – was hanging in the balance.

Then Zingaro scored inside to up the lead to five, then Macy Donarski, in her best performance of her young career, read an on-ball screen to perfection, stopping and hitting a 3-pointer to make it 51-45, then MJ Bruno about brought down the roof with an and-one that made it 54-45.

If Washington was going to rally one more time, the comeback had to start in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, the Huskies down 58-49 with 10 minutes to go.

Instead, Montana forced Washington into five straight misses to open the fourth quarter, with Konig scoring twice, Pirog once to push the lead to 15, 64-49.

It was the game's final test, and Montana aced it, then rode it out with a lead of at least 11 points the rest of the way. The Lady Griz led for 38 minutes, 35 seconds of the 40-minute game.

"We got refocused. We weren't doing the right things on defense," Holsinger said about the huddle before the fourth quarter. "It was more about the defense at that point, doing the right things and getting rebounds."

Bruno, playing a team-high 36 minutes, finished with 11 points, the only other player, along with Konig, in double figures, showing the team-ness of the win. All 10 players who stepped foot on the court scored.

But all 15 on the roster got to celebrate, as did the 2,145 in attendance, all of them wondering at the opening tip what might be in store this time around. What they saw was a win for the ages, the Lady Griz, this Montana team, in full.