Lady Griz close it out, eye Boise

The Montana women's basketball team will close out its regular-season schedule in the days ahead with a pair of home games and one on the road.

The Lady Griz (10-16, 6-9 BSC) will host Sacramento State (12-16, 5-10 BSC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. on Robin Selvig Court, then play last-place Portland State (4-20, 1-14 BSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Saturday's game will double as Senior Day for Dani Bartsch, MJ Bruno, Imogen Greenslade and Tyler McCliment-Call.

Montana will play its final regular-season game on Monday at 7 p.m. (MT) at Eastern Washington (10-17, 6-9 BSC).

The Big Sky Conference Championship will be played in Boise at Idaho Central Arena starting on Saturday, March 8.

Coverage: All three games will stream on ESPN+ with additional coverage on KGRZ (1450 AM/92.7 FM) and KGRZMissoula.com with Ace Sauerwein.

What's at stake (Montana): The Lady Griz go into the final stretch on a four-game losing streak and in a mix of teams trying to finish in the top six in the Big Sky and avoid a first-round game in Boise.

Montana is in a three-way tie for fifth, with just one game separating those teams and ninth-place Sacramento State, with Northern Colorado sandwiched in between in eighth.

The Lady Griz, with a lot of outside help, could win their way into a tie for third in the final standings or end up as low as ninth.

In Montana's favor are two home games this week against the ninth- and 10th-place teams in the league standings, teams the Lady Griz defeated on the road earlier this season.

Montana will then get a Monday game against the Eagles, who are on the road at Weber State and Idaho State this week. The Lady Griz defeated the Eagles at home in early January.

The bottom four teams, seventh through 10th place, will play first-round games in Boise on Saturday, March 8. Seeds three through six get a bye to the quarterfinal games on Monday, March 10.

What's at stake (Sacramento State): The Hornets, who play at Montana State on Saturday and host Portland State on Monday, will be in must-win mode on Thursday.

Sacramento State is alone in ninth place but just a game behind the three teams tied for fifth, including Montana.

The Hornets will likely go 1-1 over their final two games, making Thursday's game at Montana one they need to have to have a chance at a tournament bye.

What's at stake (Portland State): The Vikings, who have lost 11 straight games and have one win since November, are going to finish in last place in the Big Sky for the third time in four years.

What's at stake (Eastern Washington): The Eagles had a charmed season a year ago, going 29-6 and winning both the Big Sky regular-season and tournament championships.

A massive off-season exodus of talent and experience had Eastern Washington land No. 8 in the preseason coaches' poll.

The Eagles have a challenging but still doable path to the quarterfinals, playing at Weber State and Idaho State this week, then hosting Montana on Monday.

Eastern Washington suffered a disappointing home loss to Northern Colorado on Thursday, going up 46-35 in the fourth quarter before allowing the Bears to end the game on a 15-0 run over the final 5:28.

The Eagles ended the game going 0 for 9 with a pair of missed free throws and three turnovers to see an end to their three-game winning streak, a result that could have them alone in fifth place.

At a glance (Montana): The Lady Griz enter the week on a four-game losing streak, with a home loss to Northern Arizona followed by road losses at Idaho State, Weber State and Saturday at Montana State.

During Montana's losing streak, the Lady Griz have allowed 83.3 points per game on 47.6 percent opponent shooting, with those teams going 45 for 93 (.484) from the 3-point line.

Montana lost by 20 to Northern Arizona and Idaho State, and on Saturday fell 98-66 at Montana State, the Lady Griz losing by an average of 19 points during their four recent setbacks.

The Lumberjacks scored 96 points on Montana, the Bobcats 98. Those are two of the top six opponent scoring games in Lady Griz history.

On Saturday at Bozeman, Montana trailed 26-14 after the first quarter, 57-30 at the half as Montana State won its 18th straight game and remained unbeaten in league.

The Lady Griz fell behind by 40 in the third quarter before a 9-for-17 (.529) effort from the 3-point line in the second half allowed Montana to score with the home team.

Avery Waddington, who scored 21 on the Bobcats when the teams met in Missoula, scored 20 points, with Tyler McCliment-Call adding 17 on 7-of-11 shooting.

Those two players combined to go 7 for 14 from the 3-point line as the Lady Griz went 12 for 32 (.375), their sixth time this season with 12 or more makes from the arc.

Montana State's 98 points were the most the Bobcats have ever scored on Montana. Their 32-point margin of victory was their largest ever in the series.

Montana storylines:

* The Lady Griz are trying to play their way into the 3-6 group of seeds, which avoids a Saturday first-round game and a second-round game on Sunday against either the No. 1 or 2 seed.

Montana has been the 3, 4, 5 or 6 seed at each of the last five Big Sky tournaments in Boise.

* Montana losing four straight games has been rare over the decades. Losing four straight in February has been even more rare. It's happened only one other time, in 2017-18.

* Dani Bartsch had a 10-point, 14-rebound double-double at Montana State on Saturday, her 15th career double-double, her 35th career game with 10 or more rebounds.

Her 14 rebounds gave her 860 for her career and moved her past Doris Deden (1980-84) and into fourth place on the Lady Griz career list.

The only players left ahead of her: Hollie Tyler (952, 2001-05), Ann Lake (886, 1989-94) and Shannon Cate (878, 1988-92).

* Avery Waddington put up a pair of 20-point games on Montana State this season, going for 21 in Missoula and 20 in Bozeman on Saturday.

She is the first Lady Griz to do that since Libby Stump pulled it off two seasons ago. Prior to that it hadn't been done since the 1990-91 season.

* Aby Shubert missed six games before making her return on Saturday at Montana State, where she scored 11 points off the bench, going 3 for 5 from the 3-point line and hitting a pair of free throws.

Shubert didn't miss a beat, hitting multiple 3-pointers in her seventh straight game played. Over those seven games she is 19 for 42 (.452) from the arc.

* Montana went 12 for 32 (.375) from the 3-point line on Saturday at Montana State, the team's sixth time this season making a dozen or more.

The Lady Griz rank 21st nationally at 8.7 threes made per game.

* Saturday will be senior day for Dani Bartsch, MJ Bruno, Imogen Greenslade and Tyler McCliment-Call, each of whom took different paths to get to her final home game.

McCliment-Call played one season at Portland, three at Stephen F. Austin before finishing her collegiate career with one season at Montana.

She is averaging 9.4 points, second on the team, 3.5 rebounds, leads the team in steals (27) and is 42 for 104 (.404) from the 3-point line this season.

With 932 collegiate points scored, she has a chance of reaching 1,000 with at least four games left to be played.

Greenslade spent three seasons at Arizona State before transferring to Montana prior to last season. She played in three early-season games in 2023-24 before suffering a season-ending injury.

She has not played in any games this season.

Bruno played two seasons at Portland and is finishing up her second season at Montana. She has started 48 of the 58 games she has played for the Lady Griz.

She has shot 42.6 percent over the last two seasons and has gone 55 for 138 (.399) from the 3-point line.

Bartsch came off the bench as a freshman, moved into the starting lineup midway through her sophomore year and had a second-team All-Big Sky season as a junior.

Last season she grabbed 342 rebounds (10.4/g), a program record, averaged 7.9 points and went 50 for 123 (.407) from the 3-point line.

This year she is averaging 7.8 points and 6.3 rebounds. She has gone 23 for 24 (.958) from the free throw line.

At a glance (Sacramento State): The Hornets are just 2-7 over their last nine games as they have drifted down the standings to their current spot in ninth, with home wins over Weber State and Idaho.

Sacramento State is 2-5 in league on the road, with an overtime win at Portland State and a comeback victory at Idaho State.

Jaydia Martin, formerly of Eastern Washington, leads the team in scoring (14.4/g) but missed her first game of the season on Saturday in the Hornets' 50-41 home loss to Idaho State.

Point guard Benthe Versteeg was voted to the preseason All-Big Sky team. She is averaging 11.2 points and leads the Big Sky in assists (5.9/g).

The first meeting – Montana 69, Sacramento State 63: It was the Lady Griz' only win this season when they did not shoot better than 40 percent and/or score 70 or more points.

Montana led 33-32 at the half, then scored the first eight points of the third quarter to gain some comfortable separation.

The Lady Griz built an 11-point lead early in the fourth quarter, then held off all Sacramento State's attempts at a comeback.

Tyler McCliment-Call had 19 points to lead Montana. Dani Bartsch added 17 points, 12 rebounds and three steals.

Jaydia Martin had 14 points at the half for the Hornets but finished with 16. Versteeg added 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series 50-9 and has gone 29-1 against the Hornets in Missoula, that lone home loss to Sacramento State coming in the 2016-17 season.

The Lady Griz have won three straight over the Hornets, six of seven and 13 of 15.

At a glance (Portland State): The Vikings were 3-2 and coming off a sweet win over UC Davis, a team now 17-10, when the calendar flipped from November to December.

Portland State has gone 1-18 since then, its lone win a 58-52 home victory over Northern Colorado. PSU dropped an overtime home decision to Sacramento State, a double-overtime game to Idaho State.

The Vikings rank 327th nationally in scoring (56.1/g). During its current 1-18 run, they have scored 60 or more points only five times, three when the game didn't go to overtime.

Alaya Fitzgerald leads the team in scoring (13.0/g).

The first meeting – Montana 73, Portland State 61: For the second straight year at Viking Pavilion, the Lady Griz raced out to a big first-quarter lead and cruised to an easy victory.

Last season Montana led 33-18 after one quarter. Last month the Lady Griz led 29-13 after 10 minutes and shot 44.1 percent for the game with eight turnovers.

Tyler McCliment-Call went 5 for 6 from the 3-point line to score 17 points. Izabella Zingaro added 17 off the bench on just seven shots. Montana went 12 for 28 (.429) from the 3-point line.

Fitzgerald led Portland State with 16 points.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series with Portland State 56-23 and has gone 33-6 at home against the Vikings.

Montana has won three straight over Portland State and seven of the teams' last eight matchups. The Lady Griz have won four straight at home over the Vikings.

At a glance (Eastern Washington): After losing so much from last season, the Eagles have gotten a big boost from a pair of newcomers, Peyton Howard and freshman Kourtney Grossman.

Howard, a fifth-year senior who transferred in the offseason after four seasons at Seattle, leads the team in scoring (14.6/g) and assists (94).

Grossman, a freshman from Billings (West HS), is averaging a double-double for the season at 10.3 points and 10.2 rebounds. She leads the Big Sky in rebounding and ranks 19th nationally.

The Eagles had a chance to win their fourth straight game on Thursday and put themselves in a better position in the standings but gave away a home game against Northern Colorado.

On Saturday Eastern Washington played Northern Arizona tight through the first half before the Lumberjacks pulled away for an 88-77 win in Cheney.

The Eagles are 8-6 at home this season, 4-4 in league. One of those home league losses was a 58-56 defeat to Montana State.

The first meeting – Montana 78, Eastern Washington 70: The teams met for the first time way back on January 2 in Missoula.

The Lady Griz shot it well overall, had only four turnovers and used five players scoring between 11 and 15 points to get it done in their Big Sky opener.

The game was tied 40-40 at the half and the Eagles took a one-point lead early in the fourth quarter, 55-54, before three 3-pointers by Dani Bartsch and Macy Donarski allowed Montana to pull away.

MJ Bruno led Montana with 15 points as the Lady Griz shot 41.2 percent overall and went 13 for 31 (.419) from the 3-point line.

Ella Gallatin had 22 points and 10 rebounds, Howard 16 points and seven assists, Grossman eight points and 14 rebounds. The Eagles shot 41.3 percent, only 31.3 percent in the second half.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series with Eastern Washington 78-29 but is only 2-5 in its last seven against the Eagles.

Montana's win in January snapped a four-game losing streak for the Lady Griz against the Eagles.

Montana is 29-17 against Eastern Washington in Cheney but has struggled at Reese Court in recent years, going 3-8 in its last 11 visits.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Montana State (15-0 BSC) remains atop the conference standings and is Portland State, Sacramento State and Idaho away from going unbeaten.

It would be the first time since Montana in 2003-04 that the league champion went through Big Sky play without a loss.

* Northern Arizona (14-2 BSC) is guaranteed a top-two spot in Boise. The Lumberjacks' only two losses came against Montana State.

* Idaho (9-6 BSC) is alone in third, a game up on Weber State, but has a tricky close to the regular season: at Idaho State and Weber State, then home for Montana State on Monday night.

* Fourth-place Weber State (8-7 BSC), a game behind third-place Idaho, hosts Eastern Washington and Idaho this week, then plays at Northern Colorado on Monday night.

* Idaho State, Montana and Eastern Washington are tied for fifth at 6-9 in league, Northern Colorado, with only two games left, is 6-10, and Sacramento State is 5-10.

* Idaho State gets two home games, against Idaho and Eastern Washington, then has to travel to Flagstaff on Sunday for a game at Northern Arizona on Monday night.

* Thursday schedule: SAC at UM, PSU at MSU, UI at ISU, EWU at WSU

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

* Monday schedule: UM at EWU, MSU at UI, WSU at UNC, ISU at NAU, PSU at SAC

Upcoming: Montana will open play at the Big Sky Conference Championship in Boise on either Saturday, March 8, or on Monday, March 10.

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

MJ Bruno

Macy Donarski

Imogen Greenslade

Tyler McCliment-Call

Aby Shubert

Libby Stump

Avery Waddington

Izabella Zingaro

University of Montana Athletics