Lady Griz earn first league win

Monday, January 19

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

4-13, 1-5BSC

Northern Arizona

7-13, 3-4BSC

Northern Ariz.

Montana

Photo by: Coral Scoles-Coburn / University of Montana

1/19/2026 5:47:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

In a game that had a little bit of everything, it also had the most important thing: the Montana women's basketball team picking up its first Big Sky Conference win of the season.

The Lady Griz (4-13, 1-5 BSC) led nearly the entire way, by 17 early in the fourth quarter but still had to hold off a pesky Northern Arizona (7-13, 3-4 BSC) team down the stretch, finally pulling out a 76-72 home win on Monday afternoon at Dahlberg Arena.

Montana used the 3-point shot throughout, going 14 for 28 from the arc, the free throw line down the stretch, going 8 for 8 in the fourth quarter, 12 for 12 for the game, to overcome another huge performance from NAU's Naomi White, who finished with 29 points.

Going just seven deep, those players put up Montana's highest-scoring non-overtime game since early December, shooting 48.1 percent.

Jocelyn Land scored 20, Kennedy Gillette, averaging 3.0 points entering the game, exploded for a season-high 17, Draya Wacker had another impactful game off the bench, scoring 15 points and adding six assists and five rebounds, and Aby Shubert added 11 points and seven rebounds.

Avery Waddington had eight points and 10 rebounds, none quite as big as the offensive rebound she grabbed with 68 seconds left, when the game was starting to get uncomfortably close. Her put-back made it 70-63, which allowed Montana to withstand two 3-pointers by White in the final minute.

The drama continued through the final seconds, with a late tie-up giving the Lumberjacks the ball down three, then Audrey Taylor drawing three free throws with seven seconds left and the chance to pull NAU even for the first time since early in the first quarter.

She went miss, make, miss to make it 74-72, with Waddington grabbing the second miss and hitting a pair of free throws of her own with three seconds left to make the final score 76-72.

It gave Montana its first Big Sky win in six tries and gave the Lady Griz their first Division I home win of the season, their first at Dahlberg Arena since Nov. 4.

"To find a way to pull it off against an incredible player like Naomi White, with the performance she had down the stretch, just so happy for our kids," said coach Nate Harris, whose team, at full strength, lost 81-72 to Northern Arizona in Flagstaff to open league on Jan. 1.

Playing without Mack Konig for the fourth straight game, Montana counter-balanced solid shooting with 19 turnovers, seven coming in the fourth quarter, and still came out on top.

"Our kids have put in a lot of work," said Harris. "This is a group that I know can win. This is a group that can go on a run. For these kids to bounce back and earn one, I was just so relieved and happy for them."

Northern Arizona's only lead of the game came early, in the opening minutes, before Land put an early imprint on the game, hitting three 3-pointers in the first quarter to spark Montana to a 20-11 lead after 10 minutes.

But no matter how much the Lady Griz tried to pull away throughout the game, the Lumberjacks never went away.

A 3-pointer by Shubert early in the second quarter made it 31-15. Northern Arizona answered with 11 straight points, with White scoring the final points of the first half to make it 37-28 at the break.

The lead was nine, 58-49, entering the fourth before eight straight points for Montana, six coming on a pair of 3-pointers by Wacker, made it 66-49. Ball game, right? Nope.

Northern Arizona answered with nine straight points, with White pulling NAU within eight, 66-58, with more than four minutes to go.

After a Wacker basket, the Lumberjacks scored five more consecutive points, drawing within 68-63 with 1:15 to go.

Gillette hit a pair of free throws with 29 second left and Waddington was a perfect 4 for 4 in the final 20 seconds as Montana played in one of its few games this season that needed late-game execution to pull off a win.

It wasn't always pretty but the learning comes in the struggles.

"You don't learn to win until you do it, and we just haven't had a lot of those opportunities," said Harris. "This was one of our first opportunities to advance (the ball), get it in, be strong. They earned this one. They played great. So proud of them."

Land went 6 for 8 from the 3-point line, 7 for 10 overall, Gillette scored 17 points on just eight shots, hitting a pair of threes and going 5 for 5 from the free throw line. Wacker hit three 3-pointers. Montana was +13 when Wacker was on the floor on Monday.

"Huge performance for Kennedy, huge performance for Draya. Jocelyn's shooting was huge, then Avery down the stretch made some big plays and hit some big free throws."

Madison Watts added 20 points for Northern Arizona to go along with White's 29. Emma Dasovich finished with 15. The rest of the team had just eight on 3-of-20 shooting.

Taylor, who had 17 points in NAU's win in Flagstaff on the strength of five 3-pointers, had just one point on Monday, her free throw in the final seconds.

Montana will wrap up the week on the road, playing games at Weber State (6-13, 0-6 BSC) on Thursday, at Idaho State (11-6, 4-2 BSC) on Saturday.