Lady Griz open Big Sky Championship with familiar opponent

Saturday, March 7

Boise, Idaho

2:30 PM

Montana

(7) Northern Arizona

Photo by: Coral Scoles-Coburn / University of Montana

Lady Griz open Big Sky Championship with familiar opponent

3/5/2026 3:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball

PDF Game Notes

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's basketball team, the No. 8 seed, will open the Big Sky Conference Championship this weekend with a first-round match-up against No. 7 Northern Arizona.

The Lady Griz (8-20) and Lumberjacks (10-20), who are meeting for the fourth time in the last five postseasons, will tip off on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Idaho Central Arena in Boise.

The teams split their regular-season meetings, with Northern Arizona winning 81-72 in Flagstaff, Montana 76-72 in Missoula.

The winner will advance to face No. 2 Montana State (22-6) at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday on the first of two days of quarterfinal games. Semifinals will be played on Tuesday, the championship on Wednesday.

Coverage: All nine games of the tournament will be streamed on ESPN+ with Wednesday afternoon's championship game also being shown on ESPNU.

Tournament notes:

* Idaho (26-5) and Montana State (23-6) take the top two seeds into Boise. The Vandals won the league by a game over the Bobcats, going 17-1.

Idaho takes a 15-game winning streak into the postseason. Montana State has won 10 of 11, its only loss in that stretch in overtime at Idaho.

* Northern Colorado (22-9), with its most wins since the 2017-18 season, is the No. 3 seed, Idaho State (19-10) the No. 4 seed.

* The bottom four teams in the league play in Saturday's first round, with No. 10 Portland State facing No. 9 Weber State at noon, followed by the Lady Griz and Lumberjacks.

* Those two winners will advance to face No. 1 Idaho and No. 2 Montana State on Sunday.

* In Monday's two quarterfinals, No. 4 Idaho State faces No. 5 Sacramento State, No. 3 Northern Colorado takes on No. 6 Eastern Washington.

* The tournament is in its eighth season in Boise, after three years in Reno. Prior to that, there was a cut to make the Big Sky's postseason tournament, then held on campus sites.

* In 10 all-teams-make-it formats, no team that played in the first round has won the tournament. In three seasons, a team that played a first-round game has advanced to the championship game.

* The No. 1 seed has won five times, the No. 2 seed once, the No. 3 seed twice, the No. 4 seed once. The 2020 title game, between No. 1 Montana State and No. 2 Idaho, went unplayed.

* The Big Sky's top four teams all hold a NET ranking in the top 150 nationally: Montana State (70), Idaho (100), Idaho State (124) and Northern Colorado (146).

The rest: Sacramento State (210), Eastern Washington (217), Northern Arizona (254), Weber State (255), Montana (270) and Portland State (315).

What's at stake: The winner of the Montana-Northern Arizona game will advance to play No. 2 Montana State on Sunday.

The Bobcats won 82-65 (Flagstaff) and 68-48 (Bozeman) against Northern Arizona this season, 82-44 (Bozeman) and 72-55 (Missoula) against Montana. Average margin of victory in those four games: 23.0.

Trending: Montana has dropped eight of nine games entering the postseason, its lone win a 55-53 victory at Portland State on Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Griz, who rank last in the Big Sky in field goal percentage defense (.440), allowed all nine of those opponents to shoot 40 percent or better, three opponents shooting 50 percent or better.

Northern Arizona enters the postseason on a rough four-game losing streak, with all four losses coming by 20 or more points, though three of those games came against the league's top three teams.

Meeting No. 1 – Jan. 1, 2026, Flagstaff – Northern Arizona 81, Montana 72

In a tight game that featured 11 lead changes, the Lumberjacks led by two after the first quarter, by four at the half and by two after three quarters.

After Mack Konig tied it at 64-64 early in the fourth quarter, Northern Arizona held Montana without a made field goal for more than six minutes to gain some winning separation.

Naomi White scored 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting and Audrey Taylor added 17 on 5-of-10 shooting from the 3-point line.

NAU shot 51.7 percent overall and went 11 for 21 (.524) from the arc.

Konig led the Lady Griz with 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Avery Waddington added 16 points.

Meeting No. 2 – Jan. 19, 2026, Missoula – Montana 76, Northern Arizona 72

The Lady Griz led 20-11 after the first quarter and was comfortably in front for most of the rest of the game until a tense few final minutes.

After Draya Wacker hit a 3-pointer with 7:22 left in the fourth to make it 66-49, Montana would make only two baskets the rest of the way.

Naomi White scored 10 of her game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter, her 3-pointer with 18 seconds left making it 74-71.

After a Montana turnover, Audrey Taylor was fouled on a 3-point attempt, giving her the chance to tie it at the free throw line, but she hit only one of three and Avery Waddington iced it with two free throws.

Montana went 12 for 12 from the free throw line, only the third time in program history the Lady Griz have been perfect while taking a dozen or more free throw attempts.

In addition to White's 29 points, Madison Watts scored 20, Emma Dasovich had 15. The rest of the team added eight points.

For Montana, Jocelyn Land went 6 for 8 from the 3-point line and scored 20 points. Kennedy Gillette added 17, while Aby Shubert and Wacker combined for six 3-pointers and 26 points.

Postseason history: Montana and Northern Arizona have met 11 times in the postseason. They'll be meeting for the third straight year and for the fifth time in eight years in Boise.

The Lady Griz lead the postseason series 6-5 but the Lumberjacks hold the edge in neutral-site match-ups, 4-3.

Northern Arizona ended Montana's season in Boise in 2020 (QF), 2022 (QF) and 2024 (SF).

No. 6 Montana upset No. 2 Northern Arizona 71-67 in last year's semifinals behind 29 points from Mack Konig, 17 of which came in the fourth quarter, when Konig did not miss a shot.

Montana's postseason history:

* The Lady Griz have played in a conference tournament every season since 1982-83. They have an all-time conference tournament record of 59-22.

* Montana is 17-16 in neutral-site games but only 5-10 since the Big Sky Conference went to an all-teams-make-it format in 2015-16, with the tournaments in Reno, then Boise.

* The Lady Griz had been 0-for-Boise in the first five years the city hosted the tournament. They broke through with a quarterfinal win over Idaho in 2024.

* Last season, No. 6 Montana upset No. 3 Idaho, 65-54, in the quarterfinals, Northern Arizona in the semifinals, then dropped a 58-57 heart-breaker to No. 1 Montana State in the championship game.

* This in the third time that Montana has been seeded eighth or lower. The Lady Griz were the No. 11 seed in 2017 in Reno, the No. 8 seed in 2018, also in Reno.

That eighth-seeded team defeated No. 9 Sacramento State 87-80 in a first-round game before falling to No. 1 and eventual champion Northern Colorado 78-69 in the quarterfinals.

* Montana is 2-3 in first-round games, 8-15 all-time as the lower seed, which the Lady Griz will be against Northern Arizona on Saturday.

Historic notes:

* Mack Konig has totaled 1,319 points and 413 assists in her four-year Lady Griz career.

She is one of only four players in program history to reach 1,300/400, joining Shannon Cate, Mandy Morales and McKenzie Johnston.

* Avery Waddington is on pace to lead Montana in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals. If she does, she'll be the first player in program history to lead her team in all five categories.

* Montana has made 265 3-pointers this season, third most in program history behind the 2023-24 team (357) and last season's team (282).

The Lady Griz rank sixth nationally in attempts (29.3/g), 11th in makes (9.1/g). Montana also ranks 26th nationally in free throw percentage (.767).

* Montana, with Mack Konig, Avery Waddington and Jocelyn Land, has three players who have each had a 30-point scoring game this season.

The Lady Griz are the only NCAA Division I women's basketball team that can make that claim.

More on Northern Arizona:

* The Lumberjacks finished seventh in the Big Sky under first-year coach Laura Dinkins after being picked for a tie for last in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll.

* The team's success was sparked by the scoring of redshirt freshman Naomi White, who was at Grand Canyon, where Dinkins was an assistant, last season.

* White averages 20.7 points, which leads the Big Sky and ranks 15th nationally. She ranks in the top 10 nationally in minutes, shots and 3-pointers attempted. She ranks 16th in 3-pointers made (2.9/g).

* White scored 27 points against Montana in Flagstaff, 29 in Missoula. She shot 20 for 36 overall, 9 for 15 from the 3-point line in the two games.

* White has three times this season scored 30 or more points. She has 18 times scored 20 or more and only three times failed to reach 10 points, against Creighton, Idaho and Northern Colorado.

* Sophomore Madison Watts, a transfer from Loyola Marymount, averages 10.5 points and a team-leading 6.9 rebounds per game.

* Senior Kayla Williams averages 6.4 points but owns one of the Big Sky's nine 30-point scoring games this season. She put up 32 in a home win over Eastern Washington on 12 shots.

* Northern Arizona is allowing 74.9 points on 42.5 percent shooting.

Upcoming: Win a win on Saturday, it would be another match-up with Montana State on Sunday, what would be the sixth meeting in two seasons between the two teams.