The Lady Griz are warming up

The Montana women's basketball team, which has won four of its last six games after starting the season 5-10, will have a brief two-game home stand this week before playing three straight on the road.

The Lady Griz (9-12, 5-5 BSC) will host Northern Colorado (10-11, 3-7 BSC) on Thursday at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena, Northern Arizona (18-5, 9-1 BSC) at 2 p.m. on Saturday on Robin Selvig Court.

Montana will play at Idaho State and Weber State next week, then play at Montana State on Saturday, Feb. 22.

The Lady Griz will close out their regular season with a flourish, hosting Sacramento State and Portland State on Feb. 27 and March 1, then playing at Eastern Washington on Monday, March 3.

The Big Sky Conference Championship opens the following weekend in Boise.

Coverage: This week's games will stream on ESPN+ and on KGRZ (1450 AM/92.7 FM) and on KGRZMissoula.com, with Ace Sauerwein calling the action.

Happenings (Northern Colorado): Thursday will double as Montana's Pink Out game, sponsored by Advanced Imaging of Montana. Advanced Imaging is the official cancer awareness partner of Grizzly Athletics.

Its early-detection services, including 3D digital mammography, virtual colonoscopy and CT lung cancer screenings, provide Western Montanans with insights that matter for their health.

Learn more about Advanced Imaging's screening and diagnostic services at advancedimagingofmt.com.

Happenings (Northern Arizona): Saturday's game will be Montana's celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

At noon, there will be a free youth clinic for kids ages 4-13 in the West Auxiliary Gym with a collection of Montana's female student-athletes from a number of Griz sports.

Junior Game Day helpers will be assisting with that afternoon's game operations.

At a glance (Montana): After picking up just a single Division I win between Nov. 22 and Jan. 15, the Lady Griz have won four of their last six games to position themselves in the upper half of the Big Sky standings.

Montana swept a home stand against Weber State and Idaho State, and last week swept a road trip, winning at Portland State and Sacramento State.

In between, the Lady Griz lost at Idaho, their third game in five days, a Monday game that came with an afternoon tip, and at home against Montana State, 67-66, a game Montana led with 90 seconds to go.

After falling to the Bobcats, who are still unbeaten in league at 10-0, the Lady Griz bounced back with a sweep on the road last week.

Montana raced out to a 29-13 lead after one quarter at Portland State on Thursday and was never threatened after that, winning 73-61.

The Lady Griz scored the game's opening points 22 seconds in and never trailed, the first time they've led from start to finish this season against a Division I opponent.

Tyler McCliment-Call went 5 for 6 from the 3-point line, 6 for 10 overall and scored 17 points. Izabella Zingaro added 17 points off the bench on 5-of-7 shooting. She went 6 for 7 from the free throw line.

Montana held Portland State to .382 shooting, the Lady Griz' second-best defensive effort, in terms of opponent shooting percentage, since November.

On Saturday, Montana won 69-63 at Sacramento State despite shooting 36.7 percent and going 7 for 29 from the 3-point line.

The Lady Griz pulled it out by turning the ball over just eight times and going 18 for 22 from the free throw line, their most makes from the line this season.

Montana hadn't made more than 10 free throws in a game over its previous dozen contests.

McCliment-Call again led the Lady Griz in scoring, this time with 19 points, her third straight game in double figures and her highest total this season against a Division I opponent.

After totaling five points over a three-game stretch in early January, McCliment-Call has averaged 13.8 points on 46.8 percent shooting in Montana's last six games, going 17 for 34 (.500) from the 3-point line.

She has scored 10 or more points in five of Montana's last six games. She did so four times over the season's opening 15 games.

Trailing by six early in the second quarter, the Lady Griz scored the final three points of the first half, then the opening eight points of the third quarter and never trailed again.

After allowing the Hornets' Jaydia Martin to score nine first-quarter points and 14 in the first half, Montana held her to two in the second half, no points in the fourth quarter.

It was Montana's first win this season when the Lady Griz did not shoot at least 40 percent or reach 70 points.

Dani Bartsch scored 17 points on nine shots and grabbed 12 rebounds, her 14th career double-double, the 34th time she has grabbed 10 or more rebounds.

Bartsch has collected 38 rebounds the last three games and now has 836 for her career. She has moved past Lisa McLeod (1985-89) and into sixth place in program history.

She ranks 14th in program history with 108 made 3-pointers.

Mack Konig had nine assists and just a single turnover on last week's road trip. She ranks 37th nationally in assists (5.1/g), second in the Big Sky. She ranks 15th in program history with 107 made 3-pointers.

Montana ranks in the top 50 nationally in bench points (19th, 27.1/g) and 3-pointers made (22nd, 8.7/g) and attempted (29th, 25.5/g).

Avery Waddington scored 10 points against Sacramento State, her ninth game this season with 10 or more.

Zingaro went 5 for 7 at Portland State and is shooting 62.8 percent on the season. She would rank in the top 10 nationally but does not meet the minimum for shot attempts per game.

At a glance (Northern Colorado): After losing eight of nine games between mid-December and mid-January, the Bears have won two of three.

That surge has Northern Colorado tied for seventh in the Big Sky, with teams fighting to make the top six and avoid a first-round game in Boise next month at the league tournament.

The Bears hosted and defeated Eastern Washington 66-57 on Saturday, Jan. 25, lost 68-52 at Northern Arizona this past Saturday, then won at home over Idaho State on Monday night, 59-51.

Tied at the half, Northern Colorado held Idaho State to 6-of-27 shooting in the second half to pull away for the eight-point win.

London Gamble scored 16 points, while Julia Riley and Neenah George both scored 14 off the bench, combining to go 6 for 10 from the 3-point line.

For the season, Tatum West is averaging 9.5 points on 53.0 percent shooting and 6.9 rebounds. The Bears do not have a player averaging in double figures.

The first meeting (Northern Colorado 57, Montana 49): The Lady Griz went 6 for 27 (.222) in the first half, trailed 29-18 at the break and never recovered, shooting 34.6 percent and turning it over 16 times.

Aby Shubert went 4 for 7 from the 3-point line and led Montana with 12 points. Konig added 11 points and seven assists.

Gamble led the Bears, who shot 42.6 percent, with 18 points.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series against Northern Colorado 23-17. That winning percentage (.575) is the Lady Griz' lowest against Big Sky teams.

Montana has gone 12-6 against the Bears in Missoula with three straight wins.

At a glance (Northern Arizona): The preseason Big Sky favorite has backed up those expectations ever since opening the season with a buzzer-beating win at New Mexico.

The Lumberjacks are 18-5 overall, 9-1 in league, their only Big Sky loss coming at home to first-place Montana State, 87-81.

Since that loss, NAU has won six straight by a combined 91 points, highlighted by a 106-76 demolition of defensive-minded Idaho.

Among NAU's five losses was an 85-71 setback at UNLV, a team that is now 17-5 and leading the Mountain West, and a 79-70 loss at Grand Canyon, a team that is 21-2, atop the WAC and riding a 19-game winning streak.

The Lumberjacks also lost at South Dakota and at Fresno State.

Northern Arizona (80.4/g) is one of only 21 teams in the country that averages 80 or more points per game and has the top two scorers in the Big Sky.

Sophie Glancey averages 18.2 points, Taylor Feldman 17.1 points. Those two combined for 50 points in Monday's 81-76 home win over Weber State, helping NAU overcome just five points from its other three starters.

Glancey leads the Big Sky in blocked shots (1.7/g), field goal percentage (.516) and ranks fourth in rebounding (9.0/g).

Leia Beattie leads the Big Sky in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8) and 3-point field goal percentage (.385).

The first meeting (Northern Arizona 65, Montana 46): The Lady Griz did defensively what they needed to do to pick up the road victory but not nearly enough offensively against a team allowing more than 72 points this season.

The 65 points scored by the Lumberjacks against the Lady Griz was NAU's second-lowest total of the season, behind only Fresno State's 66-55 win. NAU has been held below 70 points only four times this season in 23 games.

Montana's 46 points are the fewest scored against Northern Arizona this season.

The Lady Griz trailed 15-6 after the first quarter and never gave themselves a chance, shooting 28.8 percent.

Montana kept Glancey to a quiet 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting and six rebounds, but Feldman went off for 24 points. NAU won comfortably despite shooting 34.3 percent, 6 for 26 (.231) from the 3-point line.

MJ Bruno led Montana, which turned the ball over 23 times, with nine points.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series with Northern Arizona 63-20 but the Lumberjacks have won three straight and six of the teams' last eight games.

The Lady Griz own a 34-5 advantage over the Lumberjacks in Missoula. Northern Arizona has won two straight at Dahlberg Arena, 76-74 two seasons ago, 69-60 last year.

In last year's match-up in Missoula, Glancey went for 30 points. She scored 24 in the second half on 11-of-13 shooting as NAU broke away from a 31-31 game at the half.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Montana State continues to roll, the Bobcats' winning streak up to 13 games. Montana State is 10-0 in league and the first league team to 20 wins at 20-2.

* Northern Arizona is one game back at 18-5 overall, 9-1 in league, the Lumberjacks' lone loss in league at home to Montana State.

* Idaho was in the mix but has now lost two of its last three, 106-76 at Northern Arizona, then a surprising 52-44 home loss against Idaho State on Saturday.

* Montana and Weber State are tied for fourth at 5-5, giving the league some separation between the top five and bottom five teams, none of which has more than three wins.

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

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Northern Arizona at Montana State, the rematch between the Big Sky's top two teams.

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

Upcoming: Three straight on the road for the Lady Griz, starting next week at Idaho State and Weber State, teams Montana defeated at home last month.

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Players Mentioned

Dani Bartsch

MJ Bruno

Mack Konig

Tyler McCliment-Call

Aby Shubert

Avery Waddington

Izabella Zingaro

University of Montana Athletics