Eagles hold off Lady Griz in Cheney

Monday, March 3

Cheney, Wash.

7 PM (MT)

Montana

12-17, 8-10BSC

Eastern Washington

11-19, 7-11BSC

Montana

Eastern Wash.

Photos: Braeden Harlow (EWU Athletics)

3/3/2025 10:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

In a game that started off slowly and ended up being a sprint to the finish, Eastern Washington got to the line, in this case 80 points, first and closed out the regular season with a home win over Montana on Monday night at Reese Court in Cheney.

Montana (12-17, 8-10 BSC) led 31-29 at the break before both teams had a red-hot second half.

The Lady Griz shot 18 for 32 (.563) over the final 20 minutes, but that wasn't good enough to keep up with the Eagles, who shot 19 for 30 (.633) in the third and fourth quarters to pull out an 80-77 victory and snap a four-game losing streak.

Montana fell behind by eight points early in the fourth quarter but rallied to take a pair of three-point leads down the stretch. The Lady Griz took a 73-72 lead with 2:07 left when Izabella Zingaro finished off an and-one.

Peyton Howard finished in the paint to give the Eagles the lead and after a Montana turnover she completed an and-one to make it 77-73.

The Lady Griz had the ball down 77-75 in the final minute but missed twice and had the game's final possession, inbounding from in front of their own bench with 1.6 seconds left.

Montana got an open look at a 3-pointer but the shot was off the mark.

"We came out and did some things well and some things not so well," said interim head coach Nate Harris. "I thought we took a step forward offensively. We really got up and down, but not enough stops down the stretch and a few key turnovers."

Montana was already locked into a Monday quarterfinal game at the Big Sky Conference Championship, which opens on Saturday in Boise.

With Monday's loss, the Lady Griz will be the No. 6 seed and face No. 3 Idaho at 2:30 p.m. The Vandals swept the regular-season series, winning 63-50 in Missoula and 70-57 in Moscow.

"Got to move on quickly," said Harris. "Now starts the best time of the year, the most important time of the year. We have a week off. Let's refocus, regroup, get in the gym and get better and go get after it next Monday."

For the third time in five days, Montana was sparked by the play of point guard Mack Konig, who had 16 points and matched a career high with 11 assists for her first career double-double.

She directed Montana to 47.5 percent shooting and 77 points, a performance that almost always leads to a Lady Griz victory. But on this night, the Eagles were just a little bit better.

Alexis Pettis scored 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting, Howard added 16. Those two combined to score 27 second-half points on 11-of-15 shooting.

It was a surprising final result for a game that was 12-10 after the first quarter, the Eagles in the lead. Montana went 5 for 7 from the 3-point line in the second quarter to build its two-point halftime lead.

The teams went back and forth until Eastern Washington appeared to gain some separation early in the fourth quarter, going up 59-51.

The Lady Griz weren't done. Dani Bartsch scored off a feed from Konig to make it a six-point game, then the senior hit a 3-pointer to bring Montana within three, 59-56.

MJ Bruno scored five points in 22 seconds, finishing a drive at the rim, then hitting a 3-pointer off an EWU turnover to tie the score at 61-61 with 6:15 to go.

The fourth quarter had four lead changes, but the Eagles led for the final 1:44.

Down three with under 10 seconds to play, Avery Waddington got the ball at the top of the key and opted to drive uncontested to the basket. She cut it to one with 3.9 seconds left.

Howard hit two late free throws to push the lead to 80-77, which led to Montana having possession with less than two seconds left. The Lady Griz ran a scramble drill, which got them what they wanted, an open look on a cross-court entry pass from Konig.

"I just tried to get as much crazy action as possible," said Harris. "I told Mack, you'll have somebody in the corner, somebody right in front of you, somebody in the weak-side corner and somebody at the top of the key. To Mack's credit, she found the wide-open person. We got a pretty clean look."

It was about the only thing that didn't go Konig's way over the last five days. She averaged 16.3 points on 65.4 percent shooting, 8.7 assists and 4.7 rebounds against Sacramento State, Portland State and Eastern Washington while going 5 for 6 from the 3-point line and 10 for 12 from the free throw line.

"Mack was tremendous tonight. She's been tremendous all week," said Harris. "Really proud of how well she's played."

Tyler McCliment-Call added 13 points, Bartsch 11 and Bruno 10. Waddington, Zingaro and Aby Shubert each scored nine points off the bench.

Bartsch grabbed five rebounds, giving her 880 for her career and moving her past Shannon Cate and into third place on the Lady Griz career list. She will be six rebounds behind Ann Lake going to Boise, where Montana will face a team that held the Lady Griz to 50 and 57 points this season in two losses.

"Really physical team. Their guards are really good, so we've got to tighten up. We've got to do a really good job defensively," said Harris of Idaho

"It's going to be a grind. It's going to be physical. Excited for our kids to get another shot at them. We're going to prepare the right way and go get after it and do everything we can do to survive and advance."