Lady Griz back on the road

The Montana women's basketball team will close out January and open February this week with a road trip to Portland State and Sacramento State.

The Lady Griz, who are 1-8 away from Missoula this season, play six of their final 10 regular-season games on the road.

Montana (7-12, 3-5 BSC) will face Portland State (4-12, 1-6 BSC) on Thursday at 8 p.m. (MT) at Viking Pavilion, Sacramento State (10-10, 3-4 BSC) on Saturday at 3 p.m. (MT) at The Nest.

The Lady Griz enter the week in sixth place in the Big Sky Conference standings. The Vikings are in 10th and last place, the Hornets in fifth.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz, who lost 67-66 at home to Montana State on Saturday, will be trying to snap a two-game losing streak and win their first road game since Nov. 21.

Montana has lost its last seven games away from Missoula, only two of those coming by fewer than 10 points. The Lady Griz are 0-3 through their first three Big Sky road games.

At a glance (Portland State): The Vikings, who have the Big Sky's worst NET ranking of 301, have lost three straight and have only one win since November, a 58-52 home win over Northern Colorado.

Portland State, which opened the season 3-2 but has gone 1-10 since, is 3-5 at home this season, with wins over Cal State Fullerton, UC Davis and Northern Colorado.

At a glance (Sacramento State): The Hornets, who surpassed last season's six wins before this season reached Christmas, are 6-2 at home this season, their losses at The Nest both competitive.

Sacramento State lost 69-68 at home to Long Beach State in November, 75-70 to Northern Arizona earlier this month.

More on Montana: The Lady Griz enter the week on a two-game losing streak and are 2-5 in their last seven but are coming off one of their better performances of the season.

Hosting Montana State on Saturday, the team sitting in first place in the Big Sky and on a then 10-game winning streak, Montana lost 67-66 after a potential game-winning shot rolled off the rim.

The Lady Griz shot 45.3 percent and turned the ball over 17 times, more than seven fewer than the Bobcats have been forcing this season. Montana shot 11 for 28 (.393) from the 3-point line.

The Lady Griz led at the end of the first quarter, 14-13, trailed 34-31 at the half and fell behind by 12 late in the third quarter.

Trailing by 10, 56-46, after an MSU 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter, Montana held Montana State to 4-of-13 shooting with three turnovers over the final eight-plus minutes to give itself a chance.

The comeback would be sparked by freshman Avery Waddington, who entered the final period with six points but would finish the game with 21.

She scored 15 of Montana's 22 points in the fourth quarter and hit six of the Lady Griz' seven made field goals, including a 3-for-4 effort from the 3-point line.

She gave Montana the lead, 66-64, with a 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:31 to go, but those would be the final points of the game for the Lady Griz.

Esmeralda Morales, the Bobcats' first-year transfer from Portland State, tied the game with a runner with 1:18 to play, then hit one of two free throws with 4.6 seconds left for the game's final point.

Montana ran a sweet out-of-bounds play from in front of its own bench in its attempt to score the game-winner, but the shot fell off the rim. The Bobcats rebounded and ran off the final few seconds.

Waddington's 21 were a season high, six more than her previous best of 15, scored in a home loss to Idaho.

She became the first Montana freshman to score that many points since Libby Stump did it two seasons ago, also in a home loss to Montana State.

Dani Bartsch scored 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting and grabbed 16 rebounds, one off her career high. It was her 13th career double-double, her 32nd game with 10 or more boards. She also had five assists.

Montana had more assists (21) than turnovers (17), joining Utah as the only teams to have more assists than turnovers against the Bobcats this season. The Lady Griz assisted on 21 of their 24 made shots.

Montana went 11 for 28 from the 3-point line, its eighth time this season with 10 or more makes from the arc. Three of those have come in the last four games under acting head coach Nate Harris.

Bartsch went 2 for 3 from the 3-point line, giving her 105 makes for her career. She is tied for 15th in program history in that category. She would need to reach 122 to crack the top 10.

Bartsch's 16 rebounds put her over 800 for her career (814). She ranks eighth in program history.

Tyler McCliment-Call added 10 points off the bench on 3-of-5 shooting from the 3-point line. Over the last four games she is averaging 11.8 points on 45.7 percent shooting.

Mack Konig, who returned to the starting lineup on Saturday after missing one game and coming off the bench in the next two, had six assists. Konig ranks 35th nationally in assists (5.2/g), second in the Big Sky.

Montana leads the Big Sky in 3-point field goal percentage (.340) and ranks second in 3-point field goals made (8.6/g). The Lady Griz rank last in the Big Sky in field goal percentage defense (.416).

Aby Shubert went 2 for 6 from the arc against the Bobcats. She has made multiple threes in each of the last six games, totaling 16 on 43.2 percent shooting from the arc.

Ten Lady Griz have played in 15 or more games for Montana this season. Nine of those 10 players have led the Lady Griz in scoring at least one time.

More on Portland State: On the final day of November, the Vikings were sitting in a nice spot, 3-2 and coming off scoring games of 67, 61 and 66 points.

Since then, while going 1-11, Portland State has surpassed 58 points only once, that coming in a loss, and four times has been held in the 40s.

The Vikings enter the week averaging 54.6 points, which ranks 334th nationally out of 353 Division I teams. PSU ranks 322nd in 3-point shooting (.254)

Even with all that, Portland State could pretty easily be sitting 3-4 in league and with a shot to play itself out of a Saturday-in-Boise first-round game, when the bottom four teams open the league tournament.

In their Big Sky opener, a 76-74 overtime home loss to Sacramento State, the Vikings gave away an 11-point fourth-quarter lead.

Two games later, at Idaho, Portland State led 25-18 at the half and by six in the fourth quarter before the Vandals rallied for a 60-56 win.

PSU's lone Big Sky win was a 58-52 home win over Northern Colorado, a game the Vikings won despite shooting 4 for 23 (.174) from the 3-point line. Inside the arc: 21 for 34 (.618).

Since then it's been three games when the Vikings haven't been able to score enough to keep up: 76-53 against Northern Arizona, 62-48 against Weber State and 66-52 against Idaho State.

Portland State has finished in the bottom half of the Big Sky the last five years, placing last two of the previous three, going 0-20 in league in 2021-22, 3-15 last season.

The Vikings' last winning season in the Big Sky came in 2018-19, when PSU won the Big Sky tournament after finishing fourth in the regular season at 14-6 under previous coach Lynn Kennedy.

Under fourth-year coach Chelsey Gregg, Portland State has gone 12-51 in league games.

The Vikings' best win this season was a 66-61 home win over UC Davis in November, against a team now sitting 12-7 and a game out of first in the Big West Conference.

PSU's other wins have come against teams with current NET rankings of 343 (Seattle), 317 (Cal State Fullerton) and 194 (Northern Colorado).

Senior Alaya Fitzgerald leads the team through volume shooting at 11.9 points. She is shooting 36.0 percent overall, 26.4 percent from the 3-point line.

Senior Rhema Ogele averages 9.3 points on 53.7 percent shooting and 7.0 rebounds.

Series history:

* Montana leads the series against Portland State 55-23 and has 21-15 against the Vikings in Portland.

* Montana has won two in a row over Portland State and six of the teams' last seven match-ups.

* Portland State's last win was a 74-72 overtime victory at Viking Pavilion in 2022-23, a game Montana led by 12 in the third quarter, by four with less than two seconds left in regulation.

* Montana swept the series a year ago, winning 87-46 in Missoula, 76-65 in Portland.

* In Missoula, the Lady Griz went 14 for 27 from the 3-point line and shot 50 percent overall to cruise to an easy victory.

* In Portland, Montana went 13 for 17 in the opening period and led 33-18 after 10 minutes. The Vikings would get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.

More on Sacramento State: After going 6-25 last season, 4-14 in league, the Hornets underwent an offseason of transition.

Out was last year's Big Sky Freshman of the Year Summah Hanson (UC Irvine), in was Jaydia Martin (Eastern Washington) and Katie Peneueta (North Carolina State).

(Peneueta was a one-year member of the Wolfpack, joining the team after two seasons at Sacramento State, to which she then returned.)

The key move was retaining point guard Benthe Versteeg, second-team All-Big Sky last season and a member of the six-player All-Defensive Team.

Martin, who memorably (for her, anyway) had a 33-point game against Montana in 2022-23, leads the Hornets in scoring (14.5/g), while Versteeg is averaging 10.8 points and leads the Big Sky in assists (106).

The only weakness in Versteeg's game is the 3-point shot. She is 3 for 26 (.115) this season, but she makes up for it by getting to the free throw line, which she's done a team-high 81 times this season.

Peneueta, who didn't play her first game until Nov. 29, is averaging 7.9 points on 46.5 percent shooting. She has gone 19 for 48 (.396) from the 3-point line. She leads the team in rebounding (5.3/g).

Sophomore Lina Falk (10.9/g) gives Sacramento State three players who are averaging more than 10 points per game.

The Hornets are 10-10 overall but rank sixth among Big Sky teams in the NET rankings at No. 204 because of a strength of schedule that ranks 293rd.

(Montana's strength of schedule is 34th nationally, highest in the Big Sky.)

None of the opponents who make up Sacramento State's eight Division I wins currently has a winning record. That group is 56-100.

But the Hornets are ahead of the Lady Griz in the Big Sky standings thanks to wins over Portland State, Northern Colorado and Idaho State and one fewer losses in league.

After winning at home over Northern Colorado, 51-48, Sacramento State went on the road and won at Idaho State last Thursday, 72-63, closing the game on a 15-2 run.

The Hornets lost at Weber State on Saturday 68-52 after falling behind 28-12 at the half. The Wildcats held Martin to 2-of-13 shooting and forced Versteeg into seven turnovers.

Coach Aaron Kallhoff is in his second year leading the Hornets.

Series history:

* Montana leads the all-time series against Sacramento State 49-9 and has gone 19-7 against the Hornets in Sacramento.

* The Lady Griz won the first 27 games they played against the Hornets, from 1997 to 2010.

* Montana has won two straight over Sacramento State and has won 12 of the teams' last 14 match-ups.

* The Hornets' last win over the Lady Griz was a 63-56 home-court victory at the end of the 2022-23 season.

* Montana swept the season series a year ago, winning 84-57 at home, 58-57 at The Nest.

* In Missoula, Montana went 19 for 41 from the 3-point line to set a new program record for makes in a game. Forty-one of the team's 61 shots were from the arc, with six players making multiple threes.

* At Sacramento, the Hornets built a 26-18 halftime lead, a 10-point third-quarter advantage and led by five, 57-52, with 30 seconds left in regulation.

Two Gina Marxen free throws with 27 seconds left and a Carmen Gfeller 3-pointer with 14 seconds to go tied the game. MJ Bruno made one of two free throws with 0.7 seconds left to steal the victory.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Montana State ran its winning streak to 11 games with Saturday's win in Missoula and remains atop the Big Sky standings at 8-0. The Bobcats have the Big Sky's top NET ranking of 65.

* Northern Arizona won last week's big match-up against Idaho in Flagstaff between teams that had each lost only one league game.

* Against a team allowing 56 points per game, the Lumberjacks did 50 better than that, blitzing the Vandals 106-76 in a game that was never close.

* That leaves NAU, which has a NET ranking of 86, a game behind Montana State at 7-1, with those teams scheduled to play in Bozeman next week. Idaho is in third place at 6-2.

* Second-year Weber State coach Jenteal Jackson has the Wildcats in fourth place in the Big Sky at 4-3 after home wins last week by a combined 30 points against Portland State and Sacramento State.

* Thursday in the Big Sky: UM at PSU, MSU at SAC, ISU at EWU, WSU at UI

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Weber State at Idaho. How do the Vandals respond to Saturday's loss? How well do the Wildcats handle three road games in five days (at IU, EWU and NAU)?

* Saturday in the Big Sky: UM at SAC, MSU at PSU, WSU at EWU, ISU at UI, UNC at NAU

* Monday in the Big Sky: ISU at UNC, WSU at NAU

Upcoming: Montana will host Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona next week at Dahlberg Arena.

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

MJ Bruno

Carmen Gfeller

Mack Konig

Gina Marxen

Tyler McCliment-Call

Aby Shubert

Libby Stump

Avery Waddington

University of Montana Athletics