Northern Arizona tops Montana at Dahlberg

Thursday, February 8

Missoula, Mont.

7 PM

Montana

15-7, 7-4BSC

Northern Arizona

17-6, 9-1BSC

Northern Ariz.

Montana

Photo by: Tanner Ecker/University of Montana

2/8/2024 10:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

In a battle of two of the top teams in the Big Sky Conference on Thursday night inside Dahlberg Arena in Missoula, it was first-place Northern Arizona that looked the part.

Sophie Glancey scored 30 points on 14-of-21 shooting and the Lumberjacks (17-6, 9-1 BSC), who outscored Montana 36-12 in the paint, dominated everything inside the arc on their way to a 69-60 victory.

Unlike the teams' first meeting in Flagstaff last month, when the Lady Griz (15-7, 7-4 BSC) put up 89 points in a five-point win, Northern Arizona, a team not known for it, played suffocating defense this time around.

Montana got its 3-point shots, hitting 11 of 28, but hit just six shots inside the arc on 27 attempts to finish with a season-low shooting percentage of .309 as the Lady Griz got outrebounded for only the fourth time all season.

Northern Arizona fought its way to 13 offensive rebounds and didn't allow Montana a single second-chance point, a death knell for a team shooting in the low 30s.

"I didn't have them ready. We didn't come ready to play," said coach Brian Holsinger. "We weren't ready for the fight today. That's really disappointing here at home, a big letdown.

"Credit to them. They played like they were in first place and we played like we weren't. That's what happens when you do that."

Mack Konig had 13 points, Dani Bartsch finished with an 11-point, 15-rebound double-double, Carmen Gfeller had 11 points, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw added 10.

It was a struggle for both sides in the first half, the two highest-scoring teams in the Big Sky both shooting under 33 percent as they went to the break tied at 31.

Montana didn't score a basket inside the arc over the final 17 minutes of the first half, relying on eight made 3-pointers, and Northern Arizona opened the second quarter going 1 for 14.

The game was there for the taking midway through the third quarter, after Gfeller scored inside to give Montana a 45-42 lead, but it was Northern Arizona that went out and grabbed it.

The Lumberjacks closed the third period on a 10-2 run to go up 52-47, scored the opening basket of the fourth quarter and never looked back, winning in Missoula for the second straight season and for only the fifth time ever.

Glancey, a second-year player, scored 24 of her 30 points in the second half on 11-of-13 shooting.

"We got dominated inside by a sophomore," said Holsinger, whose team held the rest of the Lumberjacks on Thursday to 13-of-49 (.265) shooting. "We didn't do things we were supposed to do and I don't have an answer for that.

"We were supposed to take away her left shoulder and we continued to let her go over her left shoulder. If she goes over her left shoulder, she makes every one of them."

Macey Huard hit a 3-pointer, Montana's 240th of the season, a new program record, with 4:33 to go to pull the Lady Griz within six, 60-54, but Leia Beattie got a friendly bounce on a 3-pointer on NAU's next possession and Glancey followed with her final basket of the game to push the lead to 11, 65-54.

Montana had nine turnovers in the second half while shooting 8 for 25. The team's 17 made baskets were a season low.

"Maybe I need to say something different. I don't know. I'm going to have to look in the mirror and see why we were so bad. We got outrebounded like crazy, we didn't make shots. I don't have answers at this point," said Holsinger, whose team hosts Northern Colorado on Saturday.

"I'll talk to my assistant coaches and try to figure it out and bounce back."

Montana will host the Bears (10-11, 5-5 BSC), who lost 61-40 at Montana State on Thursday, at 2 p.m. on Saturday.