This was a swift uppercut to the jaw. A not-so-subtle sign that March 9, 2007, still doesn't sit well with the Montana women's basketball team.
The Lady Griz used their Vise-Grip zone defense and hot shooting by Britney Lohman and Johanna Closson to destroy Northern Arizona on Thursday. Montana held the Lumberjacks scoreless for the first 12 minutes en route to a 77-55 Big Sky win before 3,382 fans at Dahlberg Arena.
“Tonight we were going to send a message of how we're going to play this year and not be scared of a team that handed it to us last year.”
Montana coach Robin Selvig had his Lady Griz (2-0 Big Sky, 12-3 overall) well-prepared for NAU, but even he didn't expect such an outstanding start. The Jacks found themselves in a 24-0 hole after 12 minutes, and Montana's top two scorers, Sonya Rogers and Mandy Morales, hadn't posted a point between them.
“We had a great start and the basket got a little small for them that first half,” said Selvig, whose team is riding a nine-game win streak. “That first 15 minutes was a take-charge thing on both ends.”
The Jacks came out aggressive in their man-to-man defense. It rattled the Lady Griz briefly as they missed five of their first six shots. Then Lohman and Closson became more assertive, each exploding for 11 points to account for their team's first 22.
“I looked up at the scoreboard and I'm like, ‘Oh man, they haven't scored yet,' ” said Closson, alluding to the fact NAU didn't score until the 7:38 mark on a layup by freshman Tiffany Amos.
“What's great about our team is a lot of players can step up and score when someone is not hitting the shots. Obviously Mandy (Morales) used to score a huge amount of our points, and since she hasn't been scoring as much I feel like other people have taken the responsibility of filling in.”
The Jacks missed their first 14 shots and found themselves on the short end of a 42-14 score at halftime. They hurt themselves with 12 turnovers and 6-for-22 shooting, and Montana dominated the boards, 25-10, behind 10 rebounds by Tam Guardipee.
“I don't think we took really bad shots, we just didn't make any shots,” said Jacks coach Laurie Kelly, whose team fell to 1-2, 5-11. “When we started to lose confidence on the offensive end, it really affected our defense. Really we were just never in the game because of that.
“I believe Montana is the best team in the league. Coming in to play here is always hard. I thought we played very afraid. Our effort was poor.”
Montana continued to unload on the Jacks early in the second half. Lohman and Guardipee each scored five points in the first 4fi minutes to help the Lady Griz build a 52-21 lead.
Closson, who finished with 13 points, nailed two free throws to make it 54-23 with 14:43 left. She and the rest of the Montana starters did not play much after that, which seemed to bolster NAU in cutting its deficit from 37 to 22 points in the final 6:39.
Certainly Kelly had to be happy to see Lohman and Closson sit down.
“They're tough matchups for us, particularly Closson on the perimeter at 6-feet,” the NAU coach said. “She can shoot over most guards. And they like to post up their perimeter players, so that's another bonus for them.”
Montana shot 47 percent (31 for 66) from the floor and out-rebounded the Jacks, 47-24. Center Ashley Ingle and guard Janelle Matthews shared team-high scoring honors for NAU, each scoring 13 points in the second half to finish with 18.
Notes: Guardipee finished with a game-high 13 rebounds ... Morales tallied a game-high six assists ... Reserve guard Lauren Beck scored nine points, hitting 4 of 6 shots from the floor.
NORTHERN ARIZONA (55)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Dinkins 37 0-6 0-0 4 3 4 0
f-Amos 17 1-4 0-0 2 1 0 2
c-Ingle 34 5-8 8-9 8 3 1 18
g-Cunningham 34 2-6 0-2 2 0 2 4
g-Matthews 37 7-14 0-0 0 1 2 18
Galloway 25 2-8 0-0 1 1 2 5
Ben 10 3-6 0-0 2 2 0 8
Boer 6 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Totals 200 20-52 8-9 24 12 11 55
MONTANA (77)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Closson 22 5-7 2-2 3 0 1 13
f-Lohman 18 7-9 2-3 4 0 1 18
c-Guardipee 17 3-9 1-2 13 1 0 7
g-Rogers 24 2-6 1-2 1 1 0 6
g-Morales 21 2-7 2-2 0 -1 6 6
Cote 18 2-4 2-2 4 1 4 6
Stender 9 1-4 0-0 1 1 0 2
Ena 13 1-5 0-0 5 1 1 2
Linford 8 1-2 0-0 0 0 1 2
Conway 13 0-2 0-2 3 0 1 0
Tolbert 7 1-2 0-0 2 3 0 2
Beck 20 4-6 0-0 2 0 0 9
Robison 10 2-3 0-2 3 0 1 4
Totals 200 31-66 10-17 47 9 16 77
Halftime score: Montana 42, NAU 14.
3-point goals: NAU 7-16 (Matthews 4-6, Ben 2-5, Galloway 1-3), Montana 5-15 (Lohman 2-2, Closson 1-1, Beck 1-2, Rogers 1-3, Morales 0-1, Cote 0-1, Conway 0-1, Stender 0-2, Guardipee 0-2).
Turnovers: NAU 18 (Ingle 9), Montana 15 (Cote 4).
Blocked shots: NAU 7 (Ingle 6, Amos), Montana 3 (Guardipee 2, Lohman).
Steals: NAU 6 (Dinkins 4), Montana 9 (Lohman 3).
Officials: Shawn Cather, Kaili Kimura, Debbie Kotani.
Attendance: 3,382.
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