Lady Griz lock down Vandals, advance in Boise

Monday, March 10

Boise, Idaho

2:30 PM

Montana

13-17

(3) Idaho

18-12

Montana

Idaho

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Mo

3/10/2025 7:31:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

It will be Montana's seven second-half 3-pointers that will make the postgame highlight reels -- and they were all critical in helping the Lady Griz pull away from Idaho on Monday afternoon in a Big Sky Conference Championship quarterfinal game at Idaho Central Arena in Boise -- but it was the team's defense that won the day.

Montana locked down on Idaho's difference-making guards and held the Vandals to 33.9 percent shooting as the Lady Griz advanced to the semifinals in Boise for the second consecutive season, rallying past No. 3 Idaho 65-54.

"In terms of defensive effort, I thought that was about as consistent as we've been all year," said interim head coach Nate Harris, whose team outscored Idaho 32-23 in the second half after leading by two at the break.

True, Olivia Nelson and Hope Hassmann, Idaho's two-headed backcourt, combined to score 34 points, but those points came on 38 shots, a tradeoff a head coach will take any day, especially when that leaves only 24 shots for the rest of the team.

"They are two of the best guards in the league," said Harris. "It was a huge focus all week. How do we keep them out of the paint? How do we make it as difficult as possible?

"We wanted to be really, really physical, up to the point when they shot it, then try to back away and keep our hands off and make them finish really hard shots. Proud of our ability to make inefficient two really efficient, high-quality players."

Montana, which didn't go deep into its bench and had only three points from its reserves, got big contributions from the usual suspects, with Mack Konig going 37-plus minutes and finishing with 20 points and six assists.

Freshman Avery Waddington, playing in her first Big Sky tournament game, scored 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting, Tyler McCliment-Call scored 10 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, the second-highest total by a Lady Griz in the program's storied conference tournament history, and Dani Bartsch added her 16th career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

After Montana used a fast start by attacking the paint and going up 17-9 less than seven minutes into the game, it all looked like it might go south in a hurry for the No. 6 seed.

Idaho scored the final seven points of the first quarter to pull within one, then slowly began to pull away as the second quarter moved along, going up 29-23.

The final two minutes of the first half may have saved the Lady Griz' season. Konig scored six points in a flourish of a finish and fed Waddington on a cut to the basket in the closing seconds, giving Montana a 33-31 halftime lead.

The Lady Griz led at the half despite going 1 for 13 from the 3-point line. It was the team's 22 points in the paint that made the difference.

"Our skill to go downhill is really valuable," said Konig. "We have a lot of athletic players who can attack and get to the rim."

Montana also has a lot of really good 3-point shooters, something noted basketball knower Seth Bodnar, who you may know better as the University of Montana's 19th president, stressed at halftime, telling those around him about "regression to the mean." In other words, the shots were going to start falling.

He knew what he was talking about, especially after Montana missed its first three 3-point attempts of the third quarter, leaving the game's outcome hanging in the balance.

The Lady Griz needed someone to step up, someone to take over. Who better than Bartsch, the veteran, the warrior?

Despite some bad misses from distance earlier in the game and earlier in the third period, Bartsch's 3-pointer at the 6:40 mark was truly the shot of the game. It not only gave Montana a four-point lead, it led to an onslaught that Idaho had no answer for.

"When we needed her, when the moment was big, Dani stepped up and hit two pick-and-pop threes," said Harris.

"Dani is such an emotional linchpin for our group that when those went in for her, it really gassed our girls up. That was the reason you saw the level of energy pick up in the third quarter. The kids really fed off her ability to step up in that moment."

Her second 3-pointer of the period made it 47-40, her third made it 53-40, and Montana was on its way. The Lady Griz shot 7 for 14 from the arc over the game's final 17 minutes to bury the Vandals, especially with the way Montana was defending. Idaho didn't crack 50 until the game's final two minutes.

"We were taking good shots in the first half, they just weren't falling," said Waddington, who went 2 for 3 from the 3-point line in the second half. "They were going to fall. It was just sticking with it, having confidence."

Konig opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer, Waddington followed with one of her own and Montana somehow had a 19-point lead in a game that not much earlier felt like it might just go down to the wire.

"So proud of these young ladies and how they've stuck together and just refocused on the next right thing," said Harris. "I thought today was a great example of that. If it goes great, get to the next right thing. If it goes poorly, get to the next right thing.

"I thought we did a great job of grinding and sticking together, then the shots fell in the second half."

Harris could have been talking about the season as a whole, one that began with one head coach and ended with an interim leader.

Montana opened league 1-3 and later lost four straight Big Sky games, three by 20 points or more. But none of that mattered on Monday as the No. 6 Lady Griz celebrated winning a game in Boise for only the second time in seven years.

"This regular season wasn't the most normal regular season," said Harris. "It was such a great lesson for these young ladies to learn that just staying in the game is half the battle. Getting to see the reward of a win here helps them understand that hard work pays off, sticking together pays off."

Montana burned through a lot of its postseason matches on Monday to get the win, four of its starters going more than 30 minutes, a risky play when three wins in three days is the only way to a championship, but a team also can't leave anything on the table.

The Lady Griz can't get to three wins if they didn't do everything they had to do to get the first one on Monday.

Next up will be No. 2 Northern Arizona in the semifinals, a team that swept Montana during the regular season, winning 65-46 in Flagstaff and 96-76 in Missoula.

The Lumberjacks ended Montana's season in last year's semifinals and has sent the Lady Griz home from Boise three of the last five years. None of those teams were quite as good as the one Montana will see at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, NAU coming in fresh after not playing since Sunday.

"Everyone knows how talented NAU is. It's no secret. Offensively they are really tough. They have the best post player in the league, one of the best point guards in the league and a plethora of wings who can make plays all over the floor," said Harris. "They are a really talented basketball team.

"We're excited about it because we earned our spot in the semifinals. We're going to compete the same way we did today. Are we going to stop NAU? Probably not. But can we compete like crazy, create enough stops and find a way to have one more point than them? That will be our goal."