Lady Griz open league on the road

The Montana women's basketball team will open its Big Sky Conference schedule this week, facing Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado on the road.

The Lady Griz (3-8) will play the Lumberjacks (4-9) on Thursday at 6 p.m. in Flagstaff, the Bears (9-4) on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Greeley.

Montana will host Idaho and Eastern Washington next week. They will be the first home games for the Lady Griz in more than a month, since hosting St. Thomas on Dec. 6.

Storylines:

* The Big Sky Conference schedule opens around the league this week, with four games on Thursday, five on Saturday.

Montana State, last year's regular-season and tournament champion, was picked first in the preseason polls, followed by Montana, Idaho, Idaho State and Sacramento State.

* Thursday's match-up in Flagstaff features a pair of first-year head coaches, Nate Harris at Montana, Laura Dinkins at Northern Arizona.

Harris has been on Montana's staff since the 2021-22 season and was elevated to acting, then interim head coach midway through last season. He was named head coach in March.

Northern Arizona's head job opened when Loree Payne departed for Santa Clara last spring after leading the Lumberjacks to 136 wins over eight seasons, 73 coming over the last three years.

Dinkins, who played for NAU from 2003-08, was most recently on Molly Miller's staff at Grand Canyon.

* Northern Colorado tied with Idaho for the Big Sky's top non-conference record of 9-4 but the Bears have a NET ranking of 204, fourth-best in the Big Sky because of a weak strength of schedule.

The Big Sky's top five in the NET: Montana State (86), Idaho (124), Idaho State (127), Northern Colorado (204) and Weber State (211).

The rest of the Big Sky: Northern Arizona (220), Eastern Washington (236), Montana (243), Sacramento State (245) and Portland State (314).

* Montana picked up its second Division I win of the season in its final game before break, rallying from a 15-point halftime deficit to defeat Tarleton State 90-85 in overtime at the Abilene Christian Christmas Classic on Dec. 20.

It matched Montana's largest comeback since rallying from 15 down in the second half in a 61-59 home win over Weber State in 2021-22, the game-winner coming from on Sophia Stiles jumper at the buzzer.

The Lady Griz hadn't pulled off a rally of at least 15 points away from home since coming back from 19 down to win 60-56 at Northern Colorado in an empty gym in Greeley in the COVID-impacted season of 2020-21.

According to ESPN's metrics, Tarleton State had a 95.3 percent chance of winning when the Texans went up 67-57 with 7:23 to go in the fourth, a 96.4 percent chance when they went up 75-69 when 2:15 left.

* Mack Konig erupted for a career-high 35 points against the Texans, matching the 10th-best scoring game in program history. Only Shannon Cate, Ann Lake and Lauren Cooper have scored more in a game for the Lady Griz.

It was Montana's top scoring game since Mandy Morales scored 35 against Santa Clara in the 2006-07 season.

Konig's 35 points are tied for the 19th most scored in NCAA Division I this season.

With Jocelyn Land scoring 30 at North Dakota earlier this season, it's the first time since the 2015-16 season, when McCalle Feller and Kayleigh Valley did it, that a pair of Montana players have reached 30 point in the same season.

* Montana's 90 points was the highest-scoring game under Harris, the most points the Lady Griz have scored against a Division I opponent since racing past Boise State 92-66 in the 2024 WNIT and the most points Montana has scored away from home since a 90-87 win at Idaho State in 2006-07.

* Montana went 12 for 32 from the 3-point line against Tarleton State. After going 3 for 16 in the first half, the Lady Griz went 9 for 15 in the second to spark their rally.

Montana ranks 11th in the nation in 3-pointers made per game (9.8), sixth in threes attempted (31.0/g). The Lady Griz also rank 25th in turnovers (12.9/g) and 36th in free throw percentage (.764).

Montana's 19 made threes at North Dakota are two off the NCAA leader for the season. Clemson made 21 against Chicago State over the weekend, which were both a school and ACC record.

* Montana's first five losses of the season, against Oregon (24), Washington (34), South Dakota State (47), BYU (46) and Utah (48), all came against teams that currently hold top-50 NET rankings.

* Mack Konig scored 47 points in two games at the Abilene Christian Christmas Classic, putting up 12 on Abilene Christian in a 60-48 loss and 35 against Tarleton State in an overtime win.

In two games she surged past Sherri Brooks, Anita Novak, Greta Koss, Sharla Muralt and Linda Cummings on the Lady Griz career scoring list and broke into the top 20. The next big names she'll pass: Cheri Bratt, Kayleigh Valley and Skyla Sisco.

Konig's scoring average jumped to 16.4, which ranks fourth in the Big Sky behind Northern Arizona's Naomi White (22.6), Portland State's Kyleigh Brown (18.3/g) and Montana State's Taylee Chirrick (17.6/g).

Montana has not had a player average more than 15 points per game for a season since Kayleigh Valley averaged 21.9 in 2015-16.

Konig has scored 11 or more points in 10 of 11 games this season, nine in the other against Utah.

* Avery Waddington went for 18 points and 10 rebounds against Tarleton State, her second double-double of the season, the fifth of her career.

Waddington has led Montana in rebounding in nine of 11 games this season, with Jocelyn Land grabbing a team-high nine rebounds against Oregon and Abilene Christian.

At 7.3 rebounds per game, Waddington ranks fifth in the Big Sky.

* Mack Konig (16.4/g), Jocelyn Land (12.9/g) and Avery Waddington (12.7/g) continue to lead Montana in scoring. One of those three has led Montana in scoring in all 11 games this season.

* Aby Shubert has scored in double figures four times in Montana's last five games. She has gone 13 for 25 (.520) from the 3-point line in those four games.

* Montana's starting five of Konig, Land, Waddington, Shubert and Macy Donarski scored 132 of the Lady Griz' 138 points in two games at the ACU Christmas Classic.

Rae Ehrman scored four points against Abilene Christian, Maggie Hutka scored two against Tarleton State.

Waddington (44:16), Konig (41:52), Land (38:52) and Shubert (38:14) all played big minutes against Tarleton State, with Donarski going 33:58.

* Jocelyn Land grabbed nine rebounds against both Abilene Christian and Tarleton State to up her season average to 5.2, second on the team behind Konig.

* Montana is 1-4 in true road games this season, 4-14 since the start of last season, with two of those wins coming at North Dakota.

* Montana won over Tarleton State despite not holding a second-half lead. The Lady Griz' 80-78 lead in overtime was their first since going up 17-16 late in the first quarter.

Montana had been 0-25 in its previous 25 games when trailing with two minutes to go before rallying to defeat the Texans.

The last time the Lady Griz won when trailing with two minutes to go was a 58-57 win at Sacramento State in the 2023-24 season.

* First-year Lady Griz assistant coach Leia Beattie played at Northern Arizona the previous two seasons and helped the Lumberjacks win 52 games while averaging 10.8 points on 155 made 3-pointers.

At a glance (Northern Arizona): After opening the season 1-9 under first-year coach Laura Dinkins, the Lumberjacks picked up some pre-Christmas momentum with three straight wins, starting with a 95-53 home victory over Park (Ariz.).

NAU then had a nice road-trip sweep of Cal State Northridge, 77-56, and UC San Diego, 71-68.

Northern Arizona won 27 games last season and finished second in the Big Sky before going to the WBIT. NAU finished second as well the season before, winning 25 games and advancing the WNIT. The season before that, the Lumberjacks won 21 games and tied for first in the Big Sky on their way to the WNIT.

The run of success got Loree Payne the head job at Santa Clara and marked the exit of NAU's two first-team All-Big Sky players, Sophie Glancey going with Payne to Santa Clara and Taylor Feldman going to Purdue.

Northern Arizona also lost second-team All-Big Sky selection Nyah Moran to graduation, plus Leia Beattie and Olivia Moran. Last year's Big Sky Top Reserve, Saniyah Neverson, ended up at Hawaii.

Only one player who scored points for Northern Arizona last season, Audrey Taylor, is on this year's roster.

NAU has nine transfers, four freshmen, Taylor and Faith Curry, who redshirted last season.

The difference-maker has been White, who redshirted as a freshman last year on Grand Canyon's team that went 32-3 and got Molly Miller the Arizona State job. (The Aztecs are off to a 14-0 start and play at Utah on Wednesday afternoon.)

White (22.6/g) leads the Big Sky in scoring and ranks ninth nationally. She scored 21 or more points in Northern Arizona's first six games this season, put up 30 against Park and enters league with nine 20-point scoring games.

She leads the Big Sky with 40 3-pointers made on nearly 40 percent shooting from the arc. She went 6 for 13 from the 3-point line against New Mexico, 6 for 12 against South Dakota State.

Sophomore Madison Watts, a transfer from Loyola Marymount, averages 8.8 points and a team-leading 6.4 rebounds.

Northern Arizona, which tied for last in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll with Portland State, is allowing 75.0 points on 42.7 percent shooting.

Series history: Montana leads the series 64-21 and has gone 27-11 against Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

NAU's best run of success in the series has been recent, winning eight times since the 2020-21 season, including sweeping the regular-season series last year for the first time.

Rolling into Boise last March as the tournament's No. 2 seed and seeming to be on a collision course with No. 1 Montana State, the only team to defeat NAU in league last season, the Lumberjacks were upset by No. 6 Montana in the semifinals 71-67.

The Lumberjacks led 35-26 at the half and by 13 early in the third quarter, 41-28, before Montana began a comeback, sparked by Mack Konig's 17 fourth-quarter points. Between the free throw line, the 3-point line and everywhere else, Konig took 11 shots in the fourth quarter and made all 11.

At a glance (Northern Colorado): The Bears went 14-17 last season, finishing ninth out of 10 teams in the Big Sky and had the opposite offseason of Northern Arizona.

Six of the team's seven leading scorers from last year were on the roster at the start of this season, helping UNC open 3-0, 5-1 with a win at DePaul and 8-2.

UNC, which has three non-Division I victories, thus its relatively low NET ranking for a nine-win team, dropped two of three going into break, falling at both Colorado and Sam Houston.

Sophomore Neenah George, who averaged 5.5 points last season, leads Northern Colorado at 13.9 points, one of three players averaging in double figure, one of four averaging at least 9.1 points.

Junior Tatum West has upped her averages from last season to 11.2 points on 59.8 percent shooting and 8.8 rebounds, the third-best mark in the Big Sky, while senior Aniah Hall is averaging 10.1 points on 62.5 percent shooting.

Northern Colorado has a scoring margin of +12.5 but that has been aided by wins over Northern New Mexico (105-31), Bethany (84-52) and Chadron State (114-47).

In its four Division I losses, UNC has been limited to 57.3 points per game.

Coach Kristen Mattio is in her fifth season leading the Bears, who were picked seventh and ninth in the preseason polls.

Northern Colorado, which hosts preseason favorite Montana State on Thursday evening, is 5-1 at Bank of Colorado Arena this season, its lone loss a 56-53 setback against Denver.

Series history: Montana has gone 24-17 against Northern Colorado, with the teams splitting their 20 match-ups in Greeley, each team winning 10 times.

The teams have split their regular-season series five of the last six years, including last season when Northern Colorado won 57-49 in Greeley before the Lady Griz won 70-64 in Missoula.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Five teams emerged from their non-conference schedules with winning records: Idaho and Northern Colorado at 9-4, Idaho State and Montana State at 7-4 and Eastern Washington at 7-6. Those teams have gone 21-4 at home.

* Sacramento State and Weber State both went 6-7, with the Wildcats taking the Big Sky's top winning streak of four games into league.

* Portland State, also under a first-year coach, is 4-8 with Division I wins over San Jose State, Kansas City and Seattle, teams with NET rankings, respectively, of 276, 320 and 344.

* Thursday's schedule: UM at NAU, MSU at UNC, WSU at PSU, ISU at SAC

* Saturday's schedule: UM at UNC, MSU at NAU, ISU at PSU, WSU at SAC, UI at EWU

Upcoming: Montana's first home games in more than a month as the Lady Griz host Idaho and Eastern Washington next week.

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Players Mentioned

Macy Donarski

Rae Ehrman

Maggie Hutka

Mack Konig

Jocelyn Land

Aby Shubert

Avery Waddington

University of Montana Athletics