Lady Griz drop home game to Cougars - University of Montana Athletics

Friday, November 13

Missoula, Mont.

7 PM

Montana

1-3

Houston

4-0

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Houston	22	20	14	25	81
Montana	20	11	13	29	73

The Lady Griz lost to Houston 81-73 on Nov. 13, 2026.

Photo by: Tommy Martino/ University of Montana

11/14/2026 12:02:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

For the second time in two outings, the Montana women's basketball team was in a two-possession game in the closing moments against a Big 12 opponent.

And for the second straight game, the Lady Griz came up just short, this time at home on Friday night against Houston, falling 81-73 to the Cougars at Dahlberg Arena.

Down 17 late in the third quarter, Montana went 7 for 11 from the 3-point line in the final period to mount a spirited comeback attempt, with Jocelyn Land hitting four of those triples.

It was a Dominique Nesland 3-pointer with 2:12 to go that made it a four-point game, 74-70, and Montana appeared to then force a 10-second back-court violation, but it went uncalled.

Esmeralda Enriquez, who finished with a game-high 35 points, made two free throws on Houston's next possession, and the Lady Griz would not get closer than five points the rest of the way.

"We scrapped, we clawed, we had some bright moments, but we didn't defend quite the way we wanted to," said Lady Griz coach Nate Harris.

"Disappointed to not get over the hump on this one. We gave ourselves some chances down the stretch."

Houston started 6-foot-6 junior center Elodie Lutbert and went to her early and often, mostly to force Montana to answer the question: What are you going to do about it?

She scored in the paint less than a minute in, then grabbed an offensive rebound on Houston's next possession and scored on the put-back to give Houston a quick 6-0 lead.

Less than 100 seconds into the game, Harris was forced to call a timeout.

"I thought we were a little bit tentative. I needed our kids to understand that you can and will compete with this team if we did certain things," said Harris. "We were playing the game at their pace.

"I don't care who we're playing. We have got to set the tone and be the aggressor. We need to be the team that is in charge of the game." The timeout worked. "We got the game to the pace we wanted."

Over the next six minutes, Montana would out-score Houston 18-5, going up 18-11 on a Paige Lofing 3-pointer, but the Cougars answered right back, taking a 22-20 lead after 10 minutes.

The Lady Griz would shoot 4 for 14 in the second quarter and trailed 42-31 at the half.

"We had some dry spells when we needed to keep scoring," said Harris. "We're a team that is going to play more up-tempo this season, so we're going to end up giving up a few more points."

When Montana played at Kansas State on Tuesday, the Wildcats built a 17-point third-quarter lead and looked to be in control. Houston did the same thing on Friday.

Montana held Houston scoreless over the final 3:20 of the third quarter and got the lead to 12 by the end of the period, despite going 0 for 4 from the free throw line during that stretch.

The Lady Griz flexed on the offensive end the entirety of the fourth quarter, with Land opening the final period with a three.

Montana would end up putting up 29 points over the final 10 minutes, five more than the Lady Griz scored in the second and third quarters combined.

"We scored enough in the fourth quarter to win that thing," said Harris. "We scored 29. We just needed to give up 15 or 16 instead of 25."

Houston led by 11, 69-58, with 4:38 to go after an Enriquez 3-pointer. She finished an and-one a minute later, part of her 14-point fourth quarter that kept the Cougars in front for the duration.

It's been an amazing career climb for the junior, who was playing at North Idaho College two years ago. She was the NJCAA D1 Player of the Year last season at Eastern Arizona College.

She was the player that turned a potential Montana win over a Big 12 team into another close loss.

"She was able to play a little too much downhill," said Harris. "Our ball-screen defense is an area we need to continue to improve."

After Nesland, who led Montana with 22 points, made it 74-70 and after a possible 10-second call went un-whistled, it was Enriquez who applied the daggers at the free throw line.

"The easy thing to do would be to focus on the results. We've lost three straight, but we are right there against Big 12 teams," said Harris.

"I like our team. I like the direction we're going. We have to continue to stay the course."

It was a breakout game offensively for Nesland, who had nearly a perfect shooting night. She went 6 for 8 overall, hit her lone 3-pointer and went 9 for 10 from the free throw line.

It was a collegiate best for the junior, who had a high scoring game of 15 points in two seasons at High Point. She added five assists on Friday and swiped a pair of steals.

"Dom did some really good things, especially in the second half," said Harris. "She'll continue to get better and help us stretch those teams that play us a certain way. She played a really solid game."

Land went 5 for 10 from the 3-point line to finish with 19 points. Lofing hit three 3-pointers to finish with 13 points, her fourth double-figure scoring performance in four games this season.

Avery Waddington had 10 rebounds and six assists, both team highs.

Before the game, Harris said the key would be offensive rebounds and turnovers. His team was minus-three on offensive rebounds, plus-four on turnovers, numbers he would have taken in a heartbeat.

"We needed to keep possessions even. We needed to have fewer turnovers and more offensive rebounds," he said.

"We mostly did that, so we were in the game, which was a big deal against a team that is pretty athletic and does some good stuff."

Montana (1-3) will play at Gonzaga (2-2) on Wednesday night in Spokane. The Bulldogs lost 82-62 at Grand Canyon on Friday and play at Stanford on Sunday.