Lady Griz to host Bobcats on Saturday

Saturday, February 14

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

Montana State

Photo by: Casandra Evans

2/13/2026 8:49:00 AM | Women's Basketball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's basketball team will try to snap a three-game losing streak when it hosts Montana State on Saturday afternoon in Missoula in the only game of the week for both teams.

The Lady Griz (7-16, 4-8 BSC) and Bobcats (17-6, 10-2 BSC) will tip off at 2 p.m. on Robin Selvig Court inside Dahlberg Arena.

Montana plays four of its final six regular-season games at home, where the Lady Griz are 3-6 this season.

Montana hosts Idaho State and Weber State next week, then closes the regular season with three games in five days, at Sacramento State and Portland State, then home for Northern Colorado.

The Big Sky Conference Championship will open in Boise on Saturday, March 7.

Coverage: Saturday's game will stream on ESPN+ and have radio coverage on KGRZ (1450 AM/92.7 FM) and the Varsity Network, with Ace Sauerwein on the call. Scripps Sports also will carry the game.

What's at stake (Montana): From a rivalry perspective, the Lady Griz are trying to snap a four-game losing streak against the Bobcats. Montana State has won 17 of its last 20 games against Montana.

From a postseason perspective, the Lady Griz will be in the tournament field in Boise but they are trying to win their way out of a Saturday first-round game, the fate of the league's bottom four teams.

The top two seeds in Boise open on Sunday, seeds three through six don't play their first game until Monday.

Montana's current position, in eighth, has the Lady Griz in the Saturday group. Montana is one back in the loss column behind Eastern Washington and Sacramento State, even with Northern Arizona.

Montana has a favorable schedule, with four more home games, though three of those four games – Montana State, Idaho State, Northern Colorado – come against three of the league's top four teams.

What's at stake (Montana State): Picked first in the Big Sky preseason polls, the Bobcats, in second place, enter the week 10-2 in league, one game behind league leader Idaho (11-1).

Montana State lost at Idaho State last month, then last Thursday dropped a 73-70 overtime decision in Moscow to the Vandals to fall a game behind Idaho in the loss column.

Half a game up on third-place Idaho State (10-3), with a home game against the Bengals a week from Saturday, Montana State is trying for its sixth top-three finish in the Big Sky in the last seven seasons.

Trending (Montana): The Lady Griz had their best stretch of success this season in late January, winning four straight games by getting it done on the defensive end.

Montana held Northern Arizona, Weber State, Idaho State and Portland State to 63.0 points on 36.6 percent shooting.

The Lady Griz have lost three straight since then, dropping tight games to Sacramento State and Eastern Washington, then losing 89-65 at Idaho on Saturday.

The Hornets, Eagles and Vandals averaged 76.3 points against Montana on a combined 48.9 percent shooting. Idaho shot 53.8 percent against the Lady Griz in Moscow on Saturday.

Trending (Montana State): After losing 79-60 at Idaho State on Jan. 22, the Bobcats responded with three lopsided victories, winning those games by an average of more than 34 points per game.

Montana State took that momentum into last Thursday's huge match-up at Idaho, where the Vandals won 73-70 in overtime.

Idaho turned the ball over 27 times, right on average for Montana State's defense, but the Bobcats couldn't take advantage of their 14 additional shots, going 8 for 35 (.229) from the 3-point line.

Saturday's 71-69 road win at Eastern Washington may have appeared to be a residual effect of Thursday's tough loss, but their game in Bozeman was also two points, a 72-70 overtime win for MSU.

Montana notes:

* After seeing its four-game winning streak come to an end with a 64-57 home loss to Sacramento State, Montana dropped both games on the road last week, at Eastern Washington and at Idaho.

On Thursday, the Eagles built a pair of 15-point first-half leads and led the game for more than 38 minutes, but the Lady Griz were in it at the end.

Montana had possession in a two-point game with under 10 seconds to play but missed a tough shot that could have tied it, and the Eagles hit two free throws with two seconds left to ice it.

Avery Waddington had a stat line of 18 points, six rebounds, six steals and five assists.

On Saturday, the Lady Griz again fell behind early, this time 20-2 to the Vandals, who were still riding high from Thursday's win over Montana State.

Again, Montana would fight back and stay in it, trailing by nine at the half.

Idaho scored the first seven points of the second half to pull away for good. The Vandals went 17 for 27 in the second half to put up 89 points, their second-highest scoring game ever against Montana.

Mack Konig scored 28 points for Montana, which got out-rebounded 47-21 and didn't finish with an offensive rebound. Idaho out-scored Montana in the paint 60-16.

* Saturday's loss at Idaho ended a string of close games for Montana. The team's previous six contests had all been a one-possession game in the final minute.

* Mack Konig, who hadn't played since Jan. 3, made her return to the court against Sacramento State on Jan. 31. In her first two games back, she came off the bench and shot 3 for 16.

On Saturday at Idaho, she exploded for 28 points, her most since putting 35 on Tarleton State right before Christmas.

Konig shot 8 for 13 overall, hit 4 of 5 from the 3-point line and was a perfect 8 for 8 at the free throw line.

* Konig has moved up to 15th in program history in career scoring with 1,275 points.

The next two players she passes will be Kellie Cole and Sonya Rogers. Then it's three Grizzly Sports Hall of Famers: Jean McNulty, Marti Leibenguth and Ann Lake.

Konig is 85 points from cracking the top 10. She is 24 assists from moving into the top 10 in that category.

* Montana went 12 for 33 (.364) from the 3-point line at Idaho after going 21 for 91 (.231) in its previous three games. It was the eighth time this season the Lady Griz have made 12 or more threes in a game.

Montana ranks fifth nationally in 3-point attempts (30.5/g), 11th in 3-pointers made (9.4/g).

* Montana is the only team in the country with three players who have scored 30 points in a game this season.

Mack Konig scored 35 against Tarleton State, Avery Waddington scored 31 against Portland State and Jocelyn Land scored 30 points against North Dakota.

* Saturday's 28-point game at Idaho was Konig's fourth 20-point game of the season, the 14th of her career.

* Macy Donarski, who started the season's first 22 games, did not play on Saturday at Idaho.

* Kennedy Gillette had her third double-figure scoring game as a Lady Griz at Idaho. She hit 4 of 8 from the 3-point line to finish with 12 points. She was 7 for 12 from the arc on the two-game road trip.

* Avery Waddington's career-high streak of five straight games with 10 or more points came to an end at Idaho. The Vandals limited Waddington to six points on 2-of-10 shooting.

Over the previous five games, Waddington had been averaging 19.2 points on 54.8 percent shooting.

The first meeting: Montana State 82, Montana 44 -- The Bobcats won the teams' first meeting in Bozeman last month, MSU's largest margin of victory ever over the Lady Griz.

One season after losing 99-66 in Bozeman, the next match-up inside Brick Breeden Fieldhouse could not have started much worse for the visitors.

Montana turned the ball over 14 times in the first quarter and fell behind 13-0. It was 32-17 at the half, 58-28 after three quarters.

The Lady Griz would finish with 32 turnovers, the most in a game for the program since the 1980-81 season, when they turned it over 44 times against Oregon State.

Aby Shubert scored eight points to lead Montana.

MSU's underclassman backcourt of Jamison Philip and Taylee Chirrick nearly out-scored Montana on their own. Philip scored 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting, Chirrick finished with 19 on 7-of-10 shooting.

Montana State made three more 3-pointers than Montana and out-scored the Lady Griz 44-16 in the paint.

Series history: Montana leads the all-time series 81-41 and has gone 49-12 in Missoula against the Bobcats. Montana State has won five of seven against Montana in Dahlberg Arena.

MSU coach Tricia Binford has nine of the program's 12 all-time wins over the Lady Griz in Missoula. Those nine have all come since the 2010 season.

More on Montana State: Chirrick, on the very short list for Big Sky MVP candidates, maybe a list of one, leads the Bobcats in scoring (18.1/g), rebounding (7.3/g), assists (84) and steals (96).

Another sophomore, Addison Harris, averages 14.4 points.

Montana State ranks fourth nationally in steals (15.6/g), turnovers forced (26.4/g) and turnover margin (+10.5/g).

Because of that discrepancy, Montana State has taken 1,567 shots this season, its opponents 1,211, an average of more than 15 more attempts per game.

Around the Big Sky Conference:

* The league's top four teams have now separated themselves from the rest of the pack, with Idaho, Northern Colorado and Idaho State all winning on Thursday night.

* The Vandals, at 11-1, are in a good position, with four of their final five games at home, where they are 10-1 this season. Before that, a monster game at Idaho State on Saturday afternoon.

* Idaho moved a full game ahead of idle second-place Montana State (10-2) with its road win at Weber State on Thursday.

* Idaho State (10-3) matched Montana State in the win column with a home victory over Eastern Washington on Thursday.

The Bengals get Idaho at home on Saturday, then will try to complete the regular-season sweep of the Bobcats the following Saturday in Bozeman, where MSU is 10-0 this season.

* Northern Colorado continues to linger just behind at 9-4 in league. The Bears, who are winning the games they should, are 8-0 against the teams below them in the standings.

* Four teams are in the mix to grab two spots to the quarterfinals in Boise: Sacramento State (5-7), Eastern Washington (5-7), Northern Arizona (5-8) and Montana (4-8).

* The Hornets and Eagles both lost on Thursday, while the Lumberjacks picked up a nice overtime win at Portland State to move into sole possession of seventh place.

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

* Non-Montana game to monitor: Idaho at Idaho State. The last game of the season that the Vandals won't be the heavy favorite. Idaho defeated ISU 81-68 when the teams played in Moscow last month.

Upcoming: Montana will host Idaho State (Thursday) and Weber State (Saturday) next week.