First Big Sky home games up for Lady Griz

The Montana women's basketball team, which hasn't played inside Dahlberg Arena since Dec. 6, will host Idaho and Eastern Washington this week as the Lady Griz play their first Big Sky Conference home games of the season.

Montana (3-10, 0-2 BSC) will get the Vandals (10-4, 1-0 BSC) at 7 p.m. on Thursday on Robin Selvig Court, then face the Eagles (7-7, 0-1 BSC) on Saturday at 2 p.m.

The Lady Griz opened their Big Sky schedule last week with a pair of losses on the road, falling 81-72 at Northern Arizona on Thursday, 77-58 at Northern Colorado on Saturday.

Coverage: Both games this week will stream on ESPN+ and air on KGRZ (1450 AM/92.7 FM) and the Varsity Network, with Ace Sauerwein on the radio call.

Thursday's game will have additional coverage by Scripps Sports, with Ben Creighton and Krista Redpath on the broadcast. Saturday's game will be available on SWX.

Storylines:

* Mack Konig has scored 81 points the last three games to up her season scoring average to 17.4, which ranks fourth in the Big Sky, 70th nationally.

It's the best three-game scoring stretch for a Lady Griz since 2015-16, when Kayleigh Valley closed the season with games of 29, 23 and 30 points.

Konig scored a career-high 35 points in Montana's comeback from 15 down against Tarleton State before Christmas, then opened league with games of 27 on Thursday at NAU and 19 on Saturday at UNC.

Konig's 35-point outing against the Texans at the Abilene Christian Christmas Classic tied for the 10th-best scoring game in program history and tops the Big Sky this season.

Montana has had only one player since the 2008-09 season – Valley at 21.9 points per game in 2015-16 – average more than 15 points for a season.

Konig is shooting 44.0 percent from the field, 34.8 percent from the 3-point line, 79.2 percent from the free throw line.

Konig now has 1,233 career points to rank 18th in program history. She is five behind 1997-98 Big Sky MVP Skyla Sisco and needs 127 to break into the top 10.

If she averaged 15 points per game the rest of the season, she would end her career in the top five and behind only three other four-year players: Shannon Cate, Mandy Morales and Hollie Tyler, a trio that owns five Big Sky MVP awards.

* Montana's last three games, one win and two losses, have all been characterized by the best of the Lady Griz combined with scoring struggles, all in the same game.

Against Tarleton State, Montana fell behind 44-29 at the half after going 3 for 16 from the 3-point line. The Lady Griz went 20 for 34 (.588) in the second half and overtime to rally for a 90-85 win, the team's largest comeback since the 2021-22 season.

The Lady Griz went 9 for 15 (.600) from the 3-point line in the second half.

In Thursday's 81-72 loss at Northern Arizona, Montana was shooting 54.3 percent through three quarters and was even with the Lumberjacks, 64-64, early in the fourth.

But after Konig evened the score at 64-64, the Lady Griz would make just one of their final 10 shots as NAU pulled away.

On Saturday in Greeley, Montana led 39-37 at the half and owned the lead for the game's opening 24 minutes. Northern Colorado outscored Montana 40-19 in the second half, with the Bears hitting six 3-pointers.

After Konig and Macy Donarski scored early in the third quarter, the Lady Griz went 4 for 21 (.190) over the game's final 17 minutes.

* Northern Arizona's Naomi White, the Big Sky's leading scorer at 22.6 per game, got loose for 27 points on Thursday against Montana.

On Saturday in Greeley, UNC's Heather Baymon, who put up 26 points on Montana State two days earlier, scored 29 on the Lady Griz, 21 coming in the second half as the Bears rallied for the victory. She went 7 for 11 in the second half, 5 for 8 from the 3-point line.

They are the two highest-scoring games against Montana this season.

* When Thursday's game tips off, Montana will have gone more than a month between home games, the first time that's happened since the 1997-98 season. That was also the last season the Lady Griz went into January having enjoyed only four home games through November and December.

* Montana is 1-3 at home this season, the lone win coming back on Nov. 4 against Seattle Pacific. The Lady Griz have since dropped home games to BYU, Utah and St. Thomas.

* Montana and Idaho have split their last four games, the Lady Griz' two wins coming against the Vandals in Boise at the Big Sky tournament.

It was a 3-over-6 game in the 2024 quarterfinals in Boise. Last year it was a 6-over-3 upset, also in the quarterfinals, after Idaho had swept the regular-season series, including a win in Missoula, only the Vandals' fourth in 34 tries.

* Montana is 0-2 in league for the first time since the 2016-17 season.

* Jocelyn Land scored 30 points in Montana's win at North Dakota. Mack Konig scored 35 points in Montana's win over Tarleton State at the Abilene Christian Christmas Classic.

Montana, as of Tuesday, was one of only 11 teams out of 359 in NCAA Division I to have a pair of 30-point scorers this season.

It's the first time since the 2015-16 season, when McCalle Feller and Kayleigh Valley did it, that Montana has had a pair of 30-point scorers in the same season.

Northern Arizona's Naomi White, 30 versus Park, has the Big Sky's only other 30-point game this season.

* Avery Waddington has led or co-led Montana in rebounding 11 times this season in 13 games. She is averaging 7.2 rebounds on the season, up from 6.0 as a freshman.

* Mack Konig, Jocelyn Land and Avery Waddington have all scored 20 or more points in a game this season.

Aby Shubert has scored 10 or more five of the last seven games, while Rae Ehrman has three times reached double figures.

* Land's eight made 3-pointers against South Dakota State continue to lead the Big Sky this season. They are tied for ninth nationally. Four times a player has made 10, four times a player has made nine.

* Mack Konig needs 35 assists to break into the top 10 in program history.

* Montana ranks in the top 25 nationally in 3-pointers attempted per game (fifth, 31.0), 3-pointers made per game (12th, 9.5) and turnovers (21st, 12.6/g). The Lady Griz lead the Big Sky in those categories.

At a glance (Idaho): After surprising most with an 18-12 finish last season under then first-year coach Arthur Moreira, including a tie for third in the Big Sky at 10-8, the Vandals are putting together another good season.

This year got off to a rousing start with an 87-85 win at Washington State and the team's losses have mostly been quality, at UC Davis (a team now 10-4), at home against Oral Roberts (8-7) and at California (9-7), those three losses coming by an average of less than eight points per game.

Idaho also lost by seven at Utah State, the team picked 10th out of 11 in the Mountain West preseason poll.

The Vandals opened league on Saturday with a 69-63 road win at Eastern Washington.

Idaho was picked third in this year's Big Sky coaches' and media preseason polls despite losing three starters off last year's team and three of that team's four leading scorers.

Junior guard Hope Hassmann, honorable mention All-Big Sky last season after averaging 12.3 points and totaling 105 assists, is averaging 13.9 points this season and ranks second in the Big Sky in assists (4.4/g).

She leads the Big Sky in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.97) for the team that leads the league in the same category (1.12).

The team has four players averaging in double figures, with Washington State transfer Kyra Gardner averaging 12.7 points and 7.2 rebounds.

Sophomore Ana Pinheiro averages 10.9 points, as does redshirt senior Debora Dos Santos, first-team All-WCC last season at San Francisco. Dos Santos averages a team-leading 7.4 rebounds per game.

Six-foot-five redshirt senior Lorena Barbosa, another transfer from San Francisco, averages 8.4 points, 4.2 rebounds.

Idaho averages 81.6 points per game, which ranks 22nd nationally, partly due to the aforementioned ball security, partly due to 43.7 percent shooting that leads the Big Sky, partly from averaging more than 16 offensive rebounds per game.

All of it has allowed Idaho to take 128 more shots than its opponents this season, more than nine per game on average.

Montana has allowed 79.0 points on 47.2 percent shooting through its first two league games.

Thursday also will pair up the Big Sky's top rebounding team – Idaho has a +10.9 margin – against a team that has out-rebounded only one Division I opponent this season. Montana has a rebounding margin of -12.1 and has only exceeded seven offensive rebounds against a Division I opponent once this season.

Montana (9.5/g) and Idaho (7.4/g) rank first and second in the Big Sky in 3-point field goals made.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series 49-19 and has gone 30-4 against Idaho in games played in Missoula.

The Lady Griz went 36-3 against the Vandals from 1986 to 2015 but it's been more balanced since then, Idaho winning 11 times, Montana eight over the last 19 match-ups.

Idaho swept last year's regular-season series, winning 63-50 in Missoula, 70-57 in Moscow. In the Big Sky quarterfinals, the Lady Griz locked down on the Vandals, holding the No. 3 seed to 33.9 percent shooting, 3 of 18 from the 3-point line.

Montana used a 15-0 run over the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth to pull away.

At a glance (Eastern Washington): The Eagles are the epitome of a Division I team of the current era. Two starters are back from last year's team, seven players departed, seven newcomers arrived, four of those freshmen, with three transfers.

Headlining the returners is sophomore forward and double-double regular Kourtney Grossman, who is averaging 13.5 points and 12.9 rebounds. She has a Big Sky-leading seven double-doubles on the season and leads the nation in rebounding.

Like Idaho, the Eagles have a balanced scoring attack, with four starters averaging between 12.5 and 13.8 points per game, led by freshman Elyn Bowers (13.8/g).

Junior Ella Gallatin (12.8/g) and forward Jaecy Eggers (12.5/g) round out the balanced scoring, with Eggers adding 6.4 rebounds per game for another Montana opponent that has a positive rebounding margin. Eggers leads the Big Sky in blocked shots (1.50/g).

After EWU's dream season in 2023-24, when the Eagles won the league and went 29-6 overall and played in the NCAA tournament, Eastern dropped off to an 11-20 finish last season, tying for seventh in the Big Sky at 7-11.

The Eagles had their best run of non-conference success this season in early December, when they swept their Big Sky-Summit League Challenge games, capped by a 67-63 win at South Dakota, a team now 11-4, then following that up with a 71-69 win at Washington State.

Eastern Washington has been clutch in close games this season. Of the Eagles' five Division I wins, four have been by four points or fewer, the outlier an 11-point win over Cal Poly. EWU hasn't lost a game that's been decided by five points or fewer.

After closing its pre-Christmas schedule with road losses at UC Santa Barbara and CSU Bakersfield, Eastern hosted and defeated Bushnell 78-37 at the end of December, then opened league with a 69-63 home loss to Idaho on Saturday.

The Eagles fell behind 37-24 at the half against the Vandals before pulling within a point with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. But that would be as close as they would get.

Bowers went for 20 points, with Grossman finishing with nine points and 22 rebounds, her second 20-rebound game of the season and one off her career high.

Fitting of a team that has played in so many close games, Eastern Washington's stats across the board almost mirror those of its opponents, with the Eagles averaging 68.5 points on 37.6 percent shooting while allowing 67.4 points on 39.3 percent shooting.

Eastern Washington ranks last in the Big Sky in team shooting percentage.

Series history: Montana leads the series with Eastern Washington 78-30 and has gone 46-10 in Missoula against the Eagles. Half of EWU's wins in Missoula have come since the 2016-17 season.

The teams split their games last season, Montana ending a four-game losing streak to the Eagles with a 78-70 home win, going for 13 3-pointers and only four turnovers. EWU won the rematch in Cheney 80-77, a game the Lady Griz led by one with two minutes to go.

Peyton Howard scored seven of Eastern Washington's eight points over the final 1:44 to rally the Eagles.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* Only three teams survived opening weekend without a loss and all three did it on the road. Montana State and Idaho State are 2-0, Idaho is 1-0.

* Montana State swept the Northern Colorado-Northern Arizona road trip, building a 25-point first-half lead in Greeley, a 23-point first-half lead in Flagstaff.

* Idaho State won 61-46 at Sacramento State and 72-63 at Portland State as the Bengals extended their winning streak to four.

* Portland State and Sacramento State both lost to Idaho State but both topped Weber State to join Northern Colorado and Northern Arizona with 1-1 league records.

* Thursday schedule: UI at UM, EWU at MSU, UNC at ISU, NAU at WSU

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Northern Colorado at Idaho State. The two teams who returned more starters than any other league teams are a combined 19-9 and two of the top defensive teams.

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

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Idaho at Montana State. The Bobcats were picked first in the Big Sky preseason polls, the Vandals were picked third. MSU won last year's match-up in Bozeman 59-56.

Upcoming: Montana will travel to Bozeman next week for a game at Montana State on Saturday afternoon, Jan. 17, then return for a home game against Northern Arizona on Monday afternoon, Jan. 19.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Macy Donarski

Rae Ehrman

Mack Konig

Jocelyn Land

Aby Shubert

Avery Waddington

University of Montana Athletics