Lady Griz open Big Sky tournament with Vandals

The Montana women's basketball team, after wrapping up a 21-win regular season, will take the No. 3 seed to Boise for the Big Sky Conference Championship, which opens on Saturday at Idaho Central Arena.

The Lady Griz (21-8), who closed the regular season winning six of their last seven, will open the tournament with a quarterfinal game against No. 6 Idaho (15-15) at 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

Montana won both of the teams' regular-season matchups, 79-68 in Moscow and 64-48 last Saturday in Missoula.

The Lady Griz, who haven't won a Big Sky tournament game since 2018 and have gone 2-8 since the league went to an all-in, neutral-site setup, first in Reno, now in Boise, take their highest seed into the postseason since Montana's 2014-15 team was the No. 1 seed and hosted the tournament.

The winner of the Montana-Idaho game will advance to the semifinals and play either (2) Northern Arizona, (7) Idaho State or (8) Sacramento State at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

The championship game will be played at 3 p.m. on Wednesday on ESPNU.

Coverage: Ace Sauerwein's local call can be heard on KGRZ (92.7 FM/1450 AM), KGRZMissoula.com or the Varsity Network. All tournament games will stream on ESPN+ with the championship game on Wednesday getting additional coverage on ESPNU.

Montana on a roll: The Lady Griz closed the regular season winning six of their last seven to move to 21-8 and finish third in the Big Sky behind Eastern Washington and Northern Arizona at 13-5.

This is the 32nd 20-win season in program history but the first for the Lady Griz since Robin Selvig's final team, in 2015-16, went 20-11.

Montana's 13 league wins are the most since the 2014-15 Lady Griz team went 14-4. Third is the best league finish since that 2014-15 team finished first and Montana hosted the Big Sky tournament.

Four Lady Griz recognized by Big Sky: Montana had four players earn recognition from the Big Sky when the league announced its individual award winners and all-league teams on Thursday.

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, who transferred to Montana from Iowa State, was voted the Newcomer of the Year, while Gina Marxen, who came off the bench the first 22 games this season, was named Top Reserve.

Espenmiller-McGraw becomes Montana's second-ever Newcomer of the Year, joining Vicki Austin, who received the award in 1988-89 after transferring from Long Beach State.

Montana won the then Outstanding Sixth Player award four straight seasons between 1994-95 and 1997-98, and Simarron Schildt won in 1999-2000. Marxen is Montana's first winner of the award since Schildt, the program's sixth overall.

Carmen Gfeller was named first-team All-Big Sky for the second time in her career, All-Big Sky for the fourth time.

Gfeller becomes Montana's first two-time first-team selection since Kellie Cole nearly a decade ago. She was voted third-team All-Big Sky in 2020-21, first-team in 2021-22 and second-team last season.

Espenmiller-McGraw and Dani Bartsch were named to the second team, with Bartsch being named to the six-player All-Defensive Team.

The previous meetings: In Montana's 79-68 win over Idaho in Moscow last month, the Lady Griz raced out to a 45-21 halftime lead, then held on as the Vandals pulled within six in the fourth quarter.

Montana gave up 47 second-half points on 56.3 percent shooting.

The Lady Griz buried the Vandals from the 3-point line, going 9 for 14 in the first half, 14 for 22 for the game and shooting 53.1 percent overall.

Last Saturday in Missoula, Idaho limited Montana to 6-of-29 shooting from the 3-point line, so the Lady Griz looked inside and scored 36 points in the paint, their most since early January, on their way to a 64-48 victory.

Montana, which had five players score 10 or more points, led 12-11 after the first quarter, 34-27 at the half, 51-39 after three quarters. The Lady Griz held the Vandals to 21 second-half points on 33.3 percent shooting.

Kennedy Johnson scored 26 points for Idaho in the first meeting on 11-of-19 shooting and added 19 more on Saturday on 9-of-17 shooting.

Series history: Montana is 47-17 all-time against Idaho with three straight wins.

The teams have met three times previously in conference tournaments, with Montana winning two of the three games. They have not met in the postseason since the 1990 Big Sky championship game in Missoula.

Idaho won 80-57 in the Mountain West Athletic Conference championship game in Moscow in 1985, Montana defeated the Vandals in back-to-back Big Sky Conference championship games in Missoula, winning 63-49 in 1989 and 64-49 in 1990.

The teams have just one neutral-site game in their history, a 53-41 Idaho win in an Eastern Area Qualifying game in 1976.

Conference tournament history: Montana has gone 56-20 all-time in conference tournament games, with a bulk of that success being built on a home record of 40-2 from the days when Montana would win the regular-season title then host and regularly win the tournament on its home court.

The Lady Griz have never missed their conference tournament and have walked away with the championship 21 times, including 14 times in 18 seasons between 1982-83 and 1999-2000, 13 of those coming at home.

Montana has gone 16-18 in conference tournament games away from home, 2-4 in road games, 14-14 in neutral-site games.

The Lady Griz are 50-7 all-time as the higher seed, 6-4 as a No. 3 seed and 7-6 in quarterfinal games.

This is the ninth year that the Big Sky has put on an all-in, neutral-site tournament, three years in Reno, now six in Boise. Montana has gone 2-8 in the first eight neutral-site tournaments.

Montana picked up a 78-63 win in the 5-12 game over Northern Arizona in Reno in 2016 under Selvig, then defeated Sacramento State 87-80 in the 8-9 game in 2018 under coach Shannon Schweyen.

Since then, Montana has lost six straight postseason games, three of those coming as the higher seed. The Lady Griz are 0-5 in Boise, including last year's loss to No. 4 Eastern Washington as the No. 5 seed, 72-64 in the quarterfinals.

Montana loves the three: The Lady Griz rank third nationally in 3-pointers made (10.8/g), seventh in attempts (28.3/g) and seventh in 3-point percentage (.381).

Montana entered the season with a program record for made threes of 239. The Lady Griz currently have 313 makes, the 10th most for a season in Big Sky history.

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw has made 71 3-pointers, four shy of matching the program record of 75, set by McCalle Feller in 2015-16. Feller made her 75 on 209 attempts (.359). Espenmiller-McGraw's 71 have come on 166 attempts (.428).

Montana has never had a season with two players making 50 or more 3-pointers. This season the Lady Griz could have four. Espenmiller-McGraw has made 71, Gina Marxen 58, Dani Bartsch 49 and Mack Konig 47.

Dani Bartsch, rebounding machine: The junior has a per-game average of 10.2, which leads the Big Sky and ranks 25th nationally.

If she maintains a rebounding average of 10.0 or better, she would become only the fourth player in program history to average 10 or more for a season, the first since Greta Koss in 1996-97 and only the second since 1981.

With 296 rebounds on the season, Bartsch has a chance of breaking the Montana single-season record of 318, set by Jill Greenfield in 1980-81.

Fun with history: Montana is currently shooting 43.1 percent on the season. If that holds, this will be the best shooting team since the 2007-08 Lady Griz shot 44.1 percent.

Montana is currently averaging 72.3 points per game. If that holds, this will be the highest-scoring Lady Griz team since that same one in 2007-08 averaged 74.8.

Montana collected its 10th true road win of the season on Monday night at Idaho State. It's the first season with 10 or more road wins since 2008-09 and only the fourth since 1992-93.

Third-year coach Brian Holsinger won his 53rd game at Montana against Idaho on March 2 to become the second-winningest coach in program history, surpassing Shannon Schweyen, who went 52-69 in four seasons. Robin Selvig collected most of the wins – 865 – in program history.

Game notes:

* Gina Marxen enters the postseason with 1,573 collegiate points scored, with three seasons at Idaho, the last two at Montana. Carmen Gfeller has 1,569 points.

* Big Sky Conference NET national rankings entering the tournament: Eastern Washington (78), Montana (97), Northern Arizona (119), Montana State (150), Northern Colorado (167), Idaho (176), Idaho State (205), Weber State (284), Sacramento State (303) and Portland State (328).

* Montana did not allow one offensive rebound in its victory on Saturday over Idaho, a program first. It was the third time this season the Lady Griz have not allowed a single second-chance point in a game.

It was the fifth time this year that the Lady Griz have allowed five or fewer offensive rebounds in a game, the 19th time with fewer than 10.

* Montana ranks in the top 50 nationally in: fewest fouls per game (13.8, 24th), fewest turnovers (13.1/g, 33rd), free throw percentage (.766, 35th), rebound margin (+5.9/g, 44th) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.1, 49th).

* Montana's home loss to Eastern Washington on Thursday, Feb. 29, was its first this season when leading with five minutes to play (18-1), when leading with two minutes to play (18-1) and when outshooting its opponent (15-1).

* Mack Konig's 26 points at Idaho State on Monday night were a career high and the most scored by a Lady Griz since Sammy Fatkin scored 28 in a win at Idaho State last season.

* Carmen Gfeller has averaged 10.3 rebounds over the last four games.

* Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw has scored 10 or more points in eight straight games and has scored 15 or more points in the last five. She takes a streak of 15 straight games with a made 3-pointer into the postseason. In 13 of those 15 games, she has made multiple 3-pointers.

* Like Espenmiller-McGraw, Gina Marxen has made at least one 3-pointer in 15 straight games entering the postseason. … Marxen had 68 assists and 22 turnovers in 18 league games.

* Marxen (2.92) ranks fifth nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio, Espenmiller-McGraw (.428) ranks 17th in 3-point percentage.

* Over the final three games of the regular season, Dani Bartsch totaled four points and 38 rebounds. Bartsch's five assists in Monday's win at Idaho State matched a career high.

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw

Sammy Fatkin

Carmen Gfeller

Mack Konig

Gina Marxen

University of Montana Athletics