Lady Griz to face Big Ten opponents on the road

Saturday, November 8

Eugene, Ore.

3 PM (MT)

Montana

Oregon

The Lady Griz plays against the Seattle Pacific Falcons at Dahlberg Arena on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke / University of Montana

11/6/2025 4:50:00 PM | Women's Basketball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's basketball team will play its first away games of the season in the days ahead when it hits the road to face Oregon and Washington.

The Lady Griz (1-0) will open the challenging road trip with a game against the Ducks (1-0) on Saturday at 3 p.m. (MT) at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene.

It will be the teams' first match-up since the 2009-10 season and Montana's first game at Oregon since 2008-09.

Montana will then head to Seattle for a game against the Huskies (1-0) on Monday at 7 p.m. (MT) at Alaska Airlines Arena.

The Lady Griz opened the home-and-home series last year with an 82-68 victory over Washington in Missoula, Montana's first win over the Huskies since the 1987-88 season.

Montana kicked off its season on Tuesday night with an 81-44 home win over Seattle Pacific. Avery Waddington scored 20 points, Mack Konig added 14 points and five assists.

Coverage: Both games of the road trip will stream on Big Ten Plus. Ace Sauerwein's local call can be heard on the Varsity Network and KGRZ 1450 AM/92.7 FM in Missoula.

Montana preseason notes:

* The Lady Griz are under the direction of first-year head coach Nate Harris, Montana's fourth head coach since Robin Selvig retired after the 2015-16 season and 38 years leading the Lady Griz.

Harris, formerly the head coach at NCAA Division II Angelo State, joined Montana as an assistant coach prior to the 2021-22 season and was later elevated to associate head coach.

Harris was named Montana's acting head coach in January, interim head coach in February and head coach in March.

* Montana went 14-18 a year ago and tied for fifth in the Big Sky Conference with an 8-10 league record. The Lady Griz fell in the Big Sky championship game on a last-season shot.

* Montana was picked second behind Montana State in this year's Big Sky preseason coaches' poll. Those two teams met in last year's Big Sky tournament championship game.

* Senior Mack Konig and sophomore Avery Waddington were voted to the six-player Preseason All-Big Sky Conference team last month.

Konig, second-team All-Big Sky last season, led the Lady Griz in both scoring and assists in 2024-25. Her 165 assists were the most for a Montana point guard since 2006-07, the ninth-most in program history.

Waddington's 319 points last season were the second-most for a true freshman in program history, behind Hollie Tyler's 375 in 2001-02.

* Konig and Waddington both were named to the Big Sky All-Tournament team in Boise in March. They are the team's lone returning starters from last season.

* Konig reached 1,000 career points at the Big Sky tournament in March, becoming the 36th player in program history to reach 1,000 points as a Lady Griz.

* Konig is 79 from moving into the top 10 in program history in career assists.

* Six of the players on Montana's 14-player roster are newcomers. Five joined the Lady Griz through the transfer portal, Rae Ehrman joined as the team's lone freshman.

* Newcomers Maggie Hutka and Kennedy Gillette both could reach 1,000 collegiate points scored this season.

Hutka scored 837 points in two-plus seasons at Colorado Christian, Gillette totaled 730 in two seasons at College of Southern Idaho.

* Four of Montana's next five opponents (Oregon, Washington, South Dakota State, Utah) played in last season's NCAA tournament. The other opponent is BYU.

Oregon (Vanderbilt) and South Dakota State (Oklahoma State) both had first-round wins in the NCAA tournament last spring.

* Montana has lost its last 11 Division I openers. The last time the Lady Griz won their first Division I game of the season was a 68-61 home win over Portland in 2013-14.

Recap: Montana 81, Seattle Pacific 44

Avery Waddington and Mack Konig led the Lady Griz to a one-sided victory over the Falcons on Tuesday as Montana opened its season with a win.

Waddington, who would have blown past her career high of 21 had she played more than 20 minutes, scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, with a perfect 5-for-5 performance from the free throw line.

Waddington scored 10 points in the game's opening 3:08 and had 12 in the first quarter as Montana raced out to a 28-8 lead after 10 minutes. The Lady Griz led 45-12 at the half.

Konig finished with 14 points and five assists in less than 22 minutes of court time. She went 4 of 5 from the field, 6 of 7 from the free throw line.

Montana went up 50, 77-27, early in the fourth quarter but did not make a basket over the game's final nine minutes, closing 0 for 11 with five turnovers.

All 14 players on Montana's roster saw action, with Konig and Waddington being joined in the starting lineup by returner Macy Donarski and newcomers Jocelyn Land and Kennedy Gillette.

Ehrman, in her Lady Griz debut, scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting, Aby Shubert went 2 for 3 from the 3-point line, and Draya Wacker had career highs off the bench in both points (8) and rebounds (7).

Montana went 25 for 30 (.833) from the free throw line but only 4 of 22 from the 3-point line.

Layne Kearns, a graduate of Hamilton (Mont.) High, led Seattle Pacific with 20 points.

At a glance (Oregon):

* The Ducks have scored 100 or more points in both of their outings this season, topping Western Oregon 113-36 in an exhibition and opening with a 100-59 victory over West Georgia on Monday.

* Oregon went 20-12 last season and tied for eighth in the Big Ten with a 10-8 league record.

* The Ducks, a No. 10 seed, defeated 7-seed Vanderbilt 77-73 in a first-round game of the NCAA tournament in March before falling 59-53 at 2-seed Duke in the second round.

* Oregon lost its top four scorers from a season ago. The Ducks return two starters in senior guard Elisa Mevius and senior forward Amina Muhammad.

* Oregon added five newcomers, three transfers and two freshmen. Nine of the team's 14 players are six-foot or taller.

* Senior guard Astera Tuhina totaled 770 (8.0/g) points in three seasons at Washington State. Senior forward Mia Jacobs averaged 18.3 points last season as Fresno State.

* In Monday's win over West Georgia, Jacobs had 16 points, Mevius 15 points. Sophomore guard Katie Fiso had a 10-point, 10-assist double-double. The Ducks forced 32 turnovers.

* Assistant coach Lisa O'Meara, also the team's Director of Creativity, is in her third season on Oregon's staff. She was previously on staff at Montana.

* Oregon coach Kelly Graves, who spent 14 years turning Gonzaga into a mid-major power, is in his 12th season with the Ducks.

* In his first 11 years with the Ducks, he led Oregon to eight 20-win seasons, three 30-win seasons. His 2018-19 team made the Final Four. His 2019-20 team was 31-2 before COVID arrived.

* In the last 22 seasons, between Gonzaga and Oregon, Graves-coached teams have failed to play in a national postseason tournament just three times.

* Graves faced Montana a dozen times while he coached at Gonzaga. His teams went 9-3 against the Lady Griz.

Series history:

* Oregon leads the series with Montana 11-3 and has gone 6-1 against the Lady Griz in Eugene.

* The teams played six times in the late 70s and early 80s while members of the former Northwest Women's Basketball League.

* Montana defeated Oregon 101-69 on Dec. 16, 1991, when the Ducks were ranked 22nd in the AP poll, one of Montana's 12 all-time wins against ranked opponents.

* Montana's lone win in Eugene was its last trip there, a 60-52 win in 2008-09. Mandy Morales led the Lady Griz with 14 points and seven assists.

* That was the last season for Oregon coach Bev Smith, who was replaced by Paul Westhead. Westhead lasted five years, one of which was a 4-27 finish, before he was replaced by Graves.

* The teams' most recent match-up was in Westhead's first year, in 2009-10. Oregon won 86-81 in Missoula, coming back from a 75-74 deficit with four minutes left.

At a glance (Washington):

* The Huskies have their best team yet under fifth-year coach Tina Langley, who was hired away by Washington after going 126-61 at Rice.

* Washington returns four starters, all upperclassmen, and added impact transfer Avery Howell from USC.

* The Huskies opened the season by smothering Seattle on Monday 90-43, shooting 52.2 percent while holding the Redhawks to 28.3 percent shooting.

* Junior guard Sayvia Sellers, voted Preseason All-Big Ten by the league's coaches, led Washington with 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting and six assists.

* Howell, in her Washington debut, went 4 for 4 from the 3-point line and finished with 18 points.

* Senior guard Elle Ladine, voted Preseason All-Big Ten by the league's media, did not play against Seattle. Ladine averaged a team-high 17.0 points last season.

* Freshman guard Sienna Harvey, of Australia, scored 15 points off the bench against Seattle.

* Washington, which does not play between Monday games against Seattle and Montana, was the first team outside the top 25 in the preseason AP poll.

* Washington follows its game against Montana with a trip to Salt Lake City to face a Utah team the Lady Griz will host later in November. The Huskies play seven of their first eight games this season at home.

* Washington went 19-14 a year ago, finishing 12th in the Big Ten with a 9-9 league record. The Huskies got into the NCAA tournament as an 11 seed and lost a First Four game to 11-seed Columbia 63-60.

* Last season was the Huskies' first NCAA tournament appearance since making the Sweet 16 in 2016-17 in their final season under coach Mike Neighbors, their 20th overall.

Series history:

* Montana and Washington have met 21 times previously, 19 of those coming in the 70s and 80s. Three of the match-ups in the 80s came when Washington was ranked.

* The Huskies lead the series 12-9 and have gone 7-1 against the Lady Griz in Seattle.

* The teams have met just twice since 1989, Washington winning 69-54 at home in 2018-19 and Montana winning 82-68 in Missoula last season.

* In that game, Montana shot 56.9 percent and led for more than 38 minutes. Mack Konig scored 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting.

* The Lady Griz held the Huskies to 35.5 percent shooting. Sellers had 22 points but Ladine and Hannah Stines had just 13 between them on 5-of-29 shooting.

Upcoming: The schedule will remain a challenge with Montana facing South Dakota State in a neutral-site match-up in Rapid City on Saturday, Nov. 15.

The Jackrabbits, the Summit League preseason favorites, opened their season with an impressive 78-62 road win at Creighton behind 33 points from Brooklyn Meyer.