Montana to host mid-major power South Dakota State

The Montana women's basketball team will play its second of two games in the Big Sky Conference-Summit League Challenge on Saturday when it hosts mid-major power South Dakota State.

The Lady Griz (4-4) and Jackrabbits (6-2) will tip off at 2 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena, where Montana is 3-1 this season.

Montana lost its Challenge opener on Wednesday night, falling 83-74 at North Dakota State.

The Lady Griz trailed 30-15 at the end of the first quarter, 51-31 at the half and not even 58.6 percent shooting in the second half could get Montana closer than six points in the fourth quarter.

It was Montana's first Challenge loss after going 2-0 last year in the first edition of the event, picking up wins over South Dakota and Omaha.

It was the fourth straight year Montana has faced North Dakota State, the Bison winning the last three meetings, including last year's victory in Fargo in the second round of the WNIT.

South Dakota State opened the Big Sky-Summit Challenge on Wednesday night with an 81-58 home victory over Eastern Washington.

The Jackrabbits led 37-29 at the half, then blew the game open in the third quarter, going 10 for 14 and outscoring the Eagles 28-8 in the period.

It was the third straight victory for South Dakota State, which has ranked wins this season over Creighton and Oregon, and a 22-point win over Wisconsin.

The Jackrabbits' only losses have come against then No. 16 Duke, by four points, and Georgia Tech, by 14 points, in Hawaii. Those two teams are a combined 16-2 this season.

In this week's CollegeInsider.com mid-major top 25 poll, South Dakota State ranks No. 1. In Friday's NET rankings, SDSU is No. 43 nationally.

The Jackrabbits have played in either the NCAA tournament or the WNIT every full season since 2006-07. They made the Sweet 16 in 2019 and won the WNIT in 2022.

The teams have met just twice previously, both times at neutral sites, in Cancun in 2008-09 and in Iowa City in 2016-17.

Saturday is Montana's only home game in December. The Lady Griz won't play at home again until opening Big Sky play against Eastern Washington on Thursday, Jan. 2.

Montana's only other December games will come against Michigan State and Tulsa at the West Palm Beach Classic on Dec. 19-20.

The Spartans are 8-0 and No. 5 nationally in the NET rankings. Tulsa, which shared the American Athletic Conference regular-season title last season and played in the WBIT, is 3-5.

Happenings: Saturday will be Montana's Grizmas game, with fans encouraged to wear holiday or ugly sweaters. The first 100 students through the gates will receive a Grizmas t-shirt.

Coverage: Saturday's game will stream on ESPN+ and on KGRZ 1450 AM/92.7 FM and KGRZMissoula.com, with Scot Gladstone on the call.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz lost 83-74 to the Bison on Wednesday night in Fargo, continuing a pair of early-season trends.

1. Montana fell behind 30-15 after the first quarter as North Dakota State went 11 for 14 (.786), hit a pair of 3-pointers and got to the free throw line 10 times.

In Montana's four losses this season, the Lady Griz allowed big first quarters to Gonzaga (31 points), Cal Poly (22), Minnesota (29) and North Dakota State (30).

Those four teams shot 60.3 percent in the first quarter against Montana and all four had leads of at least 20 points during their victories over the Lady Griz.

2. Montana led for just 17 seconds in Wednesday's game, 5-2 after an early Dani Bartsch 3-pointer. North Dakota State answered with a 13-0 run and never looked back.

Those 17 seconds were the only time Montana held a lead in its four losses. The Lady Griz never led against Gonzaga, Cal Poly or Minnesota.

Conversely, the Lady Griz trailed for less than three minutes in their four wins, falling behind for 52 seconds against Washington and for 85 seconds at North Dakota.

Not surprisingly, Montana is 4-0 when leading at the half, 0-4 when trailing at the half.

Wednesday's result also went against a historical trend under coach Brian Holsinger. The fourth-year coach's teams had been 44-5 prior to Wednesday when scoring 70 or more points.

After falling behind 51-31 at the half, Montana scored the first nine points of the third quarter and trailed by 12, 66-54, entering the fourth quarter.

Montana's best chance at making a real run at North Dakota State came when an MJ Bruno basket with 6:46 left made it 68-60.

NDSU freshman Marisa Frost answered with one of the game's biggest shots, a 3-pointer, to extend the Bison lead back to 11.

Montana would pull within six points three times with under 90 seconds left but would get no closer.

Frost finished with 27 points off the bench, hitting 7 of 8 shots, including all three of her 3-pointers, and going 10 for 12 from the free throw line. It's the most points scored against Montana this season.

North Dakota State had four players in double figures, Frost (27), Abbie Draper (17), Avery Koenen (13) and Abby Krzewinski (10). Those four players shot 22 for 31 (.710).

Izabella Zingaro had the breakout game everyone was expecting after Montana signed the transfer from Iowa State. She hit 10 of 12 shots, all within feet of the basket, and scored 25 points.

Her previous collegiate best had been 12 points. She had 13 against the Bison by halftime and is now 29 for 36 (.806) this season.

With Zingaro leading the team in scoring on Wednesday, Montana has now had six different players lead it in scoring through eight games.

Mack Konig played all 40 minutes and finished with 23 points and five assists, three points off her career high and her eighth career game of 20 or more.

Her five assists still have her ranked in the top 40 nationally. She sits 36th at 5.2 per game.

With Zingaro scoring 25 points off the bench and Tyler McCliment-Call adding 13, Montana's reserves put up 42 points.

Montana's bench has outscored the opponent's bench in seven of eight games this season. The Lady Griz are averaging 34.4 points off the bench, a figure that ranks 10th nationally.

The only other statistic in which Montana ranks in the top 50 is free throw percentage, 27th at .769.

At a glance (South Dakota State): The Jackrabbits will be one of the best teams to play at Dahlberg Arena over the last 15 years. Others to consider:

Gonzaga, 2010-11: Courtney Vandersloot at her very best (27 points, seven assists, four steals) for a team that would advance to the Elite Eight.

South Dakota, 2018-19: Dawn Plitzuweit's teams in 2018-19 and 2019-20 would go 58-8.

Arizona, 2019-20: The Wildcats would lose to Stanford in the national championship game one season later.

Gonzaga, 2023-24: The Bulldogs would go 30-2 during the regular season.

Now arrives South Dakota State, which went 27-6 a year ago, was unbeaten in the Summit League at 16-0 and has played in a national tournament every full season since 2006-07.

It's been a remarkable run for two reasons.

1. South Dakota State went 32-3 and won the NCAA Division II national championship in 2002-03, made the Elite Eight a year later, then began the transition to Division I in 2004-05.

Even with that transition, the Jackrabbits have won 19 or more games every season since 2001-02 and haven't won fewer than 21 since 2010-11.

2. It's all been done under one head coach, Aaron Johnston, who took over as interim head coach late in the 1999-2000 season when Nancy Neiber, intense and highly strung, stepped aside for her own health.

Johnston accepted the Wisconsin-Green Bay job in April 2007, reconsidered on his way to his introductory press conference and has been all in on the Jackrabbits ever since.

South Dakota State has dominated the Summit League, going 245-36 since joining in 2007-08.

Since the 2017-18 season, the Jackrabbits have gone 105-7 in league, six of those losses coming to Plitzuweit's excellent teams at South Dakota. The only other loss came against Denver.

After the Coyotes defeated the Jackrabbits 56-45 in the Summit League championship game in 2022, SDSU won six consecutive home games to win the WNIT.

That offseason, Plitzuweit left for West Virginia and South Dakota State hasn't been challenged since, going 34-0 in league the last two seasons and winning both Summit League tournaments.

Johnston, who got his foot in the door at SDSU as an assistant coach for the men's team, is now 604-193 in his 25th season overseeing the women's program in Brookings.

With four starters back, it came as no shock that South Dakota State topped the Summit League preseason poll in October, claiming 34 of 36 first-place votes.

Junior Brooklyn Meyer, last year's Summit League Player of the Year after averaging 16.8 points on 58.8 percent shooting and 7.6 rebounds, was voted this season's Preseason Player of the Year.

Senior Paige Meyer, first-team All-Summit League last year and MVP of the Summit League tournament, joined Brooklyn Meyer on the preseason first team. Junior Haleigh Timmer was voted second team.

Though eight games, those three lead the Jackrabbits, with Brooklyn Meyer averaging 15.8 points and 6.3 rebounds, Timmer 13.0 points and Paige Meyer 10.5 points and 41 assists.

Four of South Dakota State's five leading scorers are shooting better than 51 percent.

The Jackrabbits opened the season in exciting fashion, rallying from 10 points down with five minutes to go to win 65-63 at Rice on a Timmer 3-pointer with eight seconds left.

SDSU then won home games against No. 21/20 Creighton and Wisconsin before hosting No. 16 Duke.

With the game tied at 59-59 in the fourth quarter, the Blue Devils held the home team without a point for nearly four minutes to pull away, winning 75-71.

Playing at the Hawaii North Shore Showcase in late November, South Dakota State lost 71-57 to Georgia Tech, then knocked off a ranked Oregon team.

The Jackrabbits opened December with a really good road win at Ball State before returning home to handle Eastern Washington on Wednesday.

Series history: The teams have met just twice previously, in Cancun in 2008-09 and in Iowa City in 2016-17.

The first meeting was an incredible matchup between what would be two NCAA tournament teams, the Lady Griz going 28-5 that season, the Jackrabbits 32-3.

Montana led 35-30 at the half on 53.8 percent shooting but was held to 7-of-29 (.241) shooting in the second half as South Dakota State rallied for a 64-59 win.

The stars shone that evening at Moon Palace Resort, Mandy Morales leading the Lady Griz with 20 points, SDSU's Jennifer Warkenthien going for 21 points and 18 rebounds.

The other meeting between the teams, in Iowa City, was a one-sided 84-43 victory for the Jackrabbits at Iowa's tournament.

South Dakota State was coming off a season when it went to the second round of the NCAA tournament, Montana was playing in its first season after long-time coach Robin Selvig retired.

In its second game of the season, Montana started two true freshmen, two redshirt freshmen and a junior with 143 career points scored in 65 games played.

The game went accordingly. South Dakota State led 26-8 after the first quarter, 43-16 at the half and shot 53.1 percent for the game.

Big Sky-Summit Challenge update: The Big Sky won five of the nine games played against the Summit League on Wednesday.

Northern Arizona, Montana State, Idaho State and Sacramento State all won at home, while Northern Colorado won on the road.

The Challenge will have nine more games on Saturday.

Upcoming: It will be a week of finals for the Lady Griz, then off to West Palm Beach, Fla., for the West Palm Beach Classic, with games against Michigan State and Tulsa.

Also competing in at the Classic will be Richmond, Tennessee and Alabama. The tournament is being played at Rubin Arena at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Big Sky Conference play will start on Jan. 2 and 4 when Montana hosts Eastern Washington and Idaho.

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

MJ Bruno

Mack Konig

Tyler McCliment-Call

Izabella Zingaro

University of Montana Athletics