Lady Griz open league at home

The Montana women's basketball team will open its Big Sky Conference schedule this week with home games against defending league champion Eastern Washington and Idaho.

The Lady Griz (4-7) will host the Eagles (4-8) on Thursday at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena, the Vandals (8-3) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

They will be the first home games for Montana since the Lady Griz hosted South Dakota State on Saturday, Dec. 7, as part of the Big Sky Conference-Summit League Challenge.

Montana wrapped up its non-conference schedule with losses against No. 15/17 Michigan State and Tulsa before Christmas at the West Palm Beach Classic in Florida.

Happenings: To celebrate the New Year, fans can get two tickets for $25 for Thursday's game against Eastern Washington.

Coverage: This week's games will stream on ESPN+ and can be heard on KGRZ (1450 AM/92.7 FM) and KGRZMissoula.com, with Ace Sauerwein calling the action.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz, who had a winless December, will be trying to snap a four-game losing streak when they take the floor on Thursday night.

Montana played only four games in December, losing to North Dakota State and South Dakota State in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge, then going 0-2 at the West Palm Beach Classic.

The Lady Griz opened play in Florida with a 69-38 setback against No. 15/17 Michigan State, Montana's 17th consecutive loss when facing a ranked opponent.

The Spartans, who improved to 11-0 with the win, forced 30 Lady Griz turnovers, the most for Montana since the 1996-97 season, and converted them into 43 points.

Montana trailed 18-15 after scoring the opening points of the second quarter but got outscored 47-9 from that point to the end of the third quarter, trailing 65-24 entering the final period.

Michigan State had runs of 21-0 in the second quarter and 19-0 in the third.

The Lady Griz outscored the Spartans 14-4 in the fourth quarter but still ended up with their fewest points since a 50-34 loss at Idaho State in 2018-19.

Montana did not make a single trip to the free throw line, the first time that's happened since at least the late 1970s.

Adria Lincoln led Montana with seven points.

One day later, Tulsa employed a pressing defense as well and forced 29 Montana turnovers, which cost the Lady Griz the game, 68-58.

The Lady Griz (.468) shot better than the Golden Hurricane (.403) and out-rebounded them by eight, but Tulsa turned Montana's turnovers into 31 points and outscored the Lady Griz 19-0 in fast-break chances.

Montana trailed 37-31 at the half and fell behind by 15, 52-37, late in the third quarter.

A 12-1 run brought the Lady Griz within four early in the fourth quarter and it was a three-point game for nearly two minutes late in the game before a Delanie Crawford 3-pointer proved decisive.

Crawford hit five 3-pointers and scored 26 points, the third-highest total scored against Montana this season, behind Brooklyn Meyer's 32 (SDSU) and Marisa Frost's 27 (NDSU).

Mack Konig had 15 points and five assists, Avery Waddington, in her first collegiate start, had 10 points and nine rebounds, one board shy of her first double-double.

It marked the sixth time in 11 games this season Montana has shot better than 46 percent. The Lady Griz are just 3-3 in those games.

Montana ranks in the top 50 nationally in free throw percentage (20th, .775) and bench points (32nd, 28.6/g). Konig ranks 30th in assists per game (5.5/g) and leads the Big Sky.

Montana is 3-2 at home this season, 1-2 against Division I opponents, with a win over Washington and losses to Cal Poly and South Dakota State.

Seven different players have led Montana in scoring through the season's first 11 games.

At a glance (Eastern Washington): The Eagles had a season to remember last year, finishing 29-6 and winning the Big Sky regular-season title with a 16-2 league record.

Those two league losses came in overtime at Northern Arizona and by a point at home against Montana State.

Eastern Washington won the Big Sky tournament title in Boise, defeating (9) Weber State, (4) Montana State and (2) Northern Arizona to make its second-ever NCAA tournament, the other coming in 1987.

The Eagles, a No. 14 seed, lost 73-51 at No. 3 seed Oregon State in the first round.

This year's team looks nothing like that championship team, with all five starters gone.

Last year's Big Sky MVP, Jamie Loera, is now an assistant coach with the Eagles, while Aaliyah Alexander is at UNLV, Jaydia Martin is at Sacramento State and Jaleesa Lawrence is at High Point.

The team's eight returners totaled just 342 points last season, or 14.3 percent of last year's scoring.

Fourth-year coach Joddie Gleason addressed those needs by bringing in three transfers, from Cal State Northridge, Seattle and Robert Morris, and five true freshmen, including Missoula's Emily McElmurry.

Peyton Howard, a four-year player and three-year starter at Seattle, leads the Eagles in both scoring (15.2/g) and assists (39).

Senior point guard Alexis Pettis, the leading returning scorer from last year's championship team, is averaging 8.6 points.

Freshman Kourtney Grossman, a six-foot forward from Billings (West HS), is averaging 7.6 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds.

Last year's team won the Big Sky on the strength of its defense, holding opponents to 56.1 points on 37.0 percent shooting. This year's team is allowing 65.2 points on 40.3 percent shooting.

Like Montana, Eastern Washington enters league with four wins, two coming against Division I opponents, two coming against non-Division I opponents.

The Eagles' two Division I wins have come against CSU Bakersfield, which is 356 in the latest NET rankings, and UC Santa Barbara, which is 253rd.

Eastern Washington has a NET ranking of 271, second-lowest of the Big Sky, ahead of only Weber State (308).

The Eagles played a strong non-conference schedule, facing Washington State, Washington, Portland, South Dakota State, North Dakota State and Gonzaga.

With all the turnover in personnel from last season to this year, Eastern Washington was picked eighth out of 10 teams in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series against Eastern Washington 77-29 and has gone 45-10 against the Eagles in Missoula.

Eastern Washington has won the teams' last four meetings, five of the last six and has won two straight in Missoula.

The teams played two thrillers last season, the Eagles pulling out tight wins both at home and at Dahlberg Arena.

At Cheney, the Lady Griz had two free throws to tie the game with 52 seconds left but hit one of two and the Eagles pulled away for a 61-56 victory.

Loera had 19 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals. Mack Konig led Montana with 16 points.

In the rematch in Missoula, Montana led 27-21 at the half and by six with four minutes left but got outscored 9-2 down the stretch to lose by a point.

With the Eagles trailing by two, Loera had a steal with 29 seconds left, then the game-winning assist on a 3-pointer with 20 seconds to go to make the final 56-55, with Montana missing a shot at the buzzer.

Montana is 2-5 against Eastern Washington under coach Brian Holsinger, including a loss at the 2023 Big Sky tournament in Boise.

At a glance (Idaho): Like the Eagles, the Vandals underwent an offseason of transition, starting in April when then coach Carrie Eighmey departed for the same position at South Dakota.

Arthur Moreira, on Eighmey's staff at Idaho for one season, was promoted to head coach in June, giving the program its third head coach in three seasons.

In July, the Vandals announced the addition of transfers from Pacific, Oklahoma, Louisiana Tech, Utah Tech and New Mexico.

The team's five starters, who also are the team's five leading scorers, are all first-year Vandals after transferring into the program.

Hope Hassmann (Cal State Fullerton) leads the team in both scoring (12.6/g) and assists (37).

Rosie Schweizer (Pacific) and Olivia Nelson (Central Missouri) also are averaging in double figures at 11.4 and 10.8 points per game, respectively.

Other starters are Jennifer Aadland (Augustana) and Anja Bukvic (Louisiana Tech).

The Vandals have put together an impressive body of work, including a 74-54 victory at Cal Poly, a team that won in Missoula over the Lady Griz, 65-55.

After opening the season with competitive losses at BYU, 67-62, and Washington State, 71-60, Idaho rolled to seven straight wins before falling at home to UC Davis.

The Vandals went into Christmas with a 68-52 road win at Cal State Northridge.

Picked seventh in the preseason coaches' poll, Idaho has the Big Sky's third-best NET ranking, coming in at No. 106.

Idaho plays at Montana State on Thursday night.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series against Idaho 48-17 and has gone 30-3 against the Vandals in Missoula.

The Lady Griz have won the teams' last four match-ups, including a three-game sweep last season, the third game a 73-61 victory in Boise in the Big Sky quarterfinals, Montana's first tournament win since 2018.

Montana has gone 5-2 against the Vandals under coach Brian Holsinger.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Pre-league NET rankings: Montana State (67), Northern Arizona (93), Idaho (106), Northern Colorado (145), Montana (192), Sacramento State (200), Idaho State (201), Portland State (270), Eastern Washington (271), Weber State (308).

* Half the teams in the Big Sky came through non-conference with winning records: Montana State (10-2), Idaho (8-3), Northern Arizona (9-4), Northern Colorado (7-4) and Sacramento State (7-6).

* Northern Arizona and Montana State were picked first and second in both preseason polls.

* Montana State's only losses came at Utah, 72-53, and at Oral Roberts in overtime, 82-80. The Bobcats won 58-49 at Florida Gulf Coast in mid-December, snapping the Eagles' 37-game home winning streak.

* Northern Arizona was 8-1 after hosting and defeating Oral Roberts in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge but went just 1-3 to close out its non-conference schedule.

* The Lumberjacks lost 84-79 at South Dakota and 66-55 at Fresno State, both against former Big Sky coaches. On Sunday, NAU lost 79-70 at now 13-2 Grand Canyon.

* Thursday schedule: EWU at UM, UI at MSU, NAU at ISU, UNC at WSU

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Idaho at Montana State. The Bobcats (54.8/g) and Vandals (56.3/g) rank first and second in scoring defense in the Big Sky. They also both have top-three scoring offenses.

* Saturday schedule: UI at UM, EWU at MSU, UNC at ISU, NAU at WSU, SAC at PSU

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Northern Colorado at Idaho State. Nobody in the Big Sky is shooting the ball better this season than the Bears (.463). Few teams play better defense than the Bengals.

Upcoming: A big-time road trip for the Lady Griz, who will play next week at Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado. It will be Montana's first matchup of the season against NAU, the preseason favorite.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mack Konig

Adria Lincoln

Avery Waddington

University of Montana Athletics