Or you could dismiss Saturday's game as a throwaway for the Montana women's basketball team, which clinched the Big Sky Conference title Thursday and had little to gain.
Truth is, it was a little of both. Point guard Mandy Morales played only seven minutes after suffering a sprained ankle, coach Robin Selvig used his reserves extensively and Montana dropped a 72-62 decision to Portland State before 757 fans at the Stott Center.
23-6 overall). It also marked the first time in five years the Vikings (11-5, 21-8) have beaten Montana.
“This is a huge game just for momentum going into next week,” said Portland State sophomore guard Claire Faucher, whose team will take the No. 4 seed into its Big Sky Conference tourney opener Thursday in Missoula. “I think we needed to prove to ourselves that we could beat Montana. Now we've done that.
“I say, ‘Bring it on next week.' Next week is going to be a good week for us, I think.”
Saturday couldn't have gone much better for Faucher. She recorded Portland State's first triple-double in 14 years, racking up 21 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Meanwhile, Selvig used the game as an opportunity to mentor his reserves and take some burden off his hobbled floor leader, Morales. He didn't plan on playing the junior so sparingly, but he wasn't taking any chances after the sprained ankle.
“That was the nice thing about having it wrapped,” Selvig said of the conference race. “You don't have to take any chances with something like that. We obviously are shooting for Friday.”
That's when the Lady Griz open conference-tourney play at Dahlberg Arena against an opponent to be determined. Selvig wants his team to be sharp, limiting the risk of a repeat from last season when it was bounced by Northern Arizona in a Big Sky semifinal.
“It will be easy to put this one behind us quickly, and it will tune you in a little more for practice,” Selvig said. “No Mandy, and Britney (Lohman) has one of those games she plays 18 minutes because of foul trouble. Things weren't going well, but I liked the way we competed.”
Montana appeared headed for a blowout loss after the Vikings built a 21-point lead early in the second half. But the Lady Griz refused to go away quietly, using the offense of guards Sonya Rogers (15 points) and Laura Cote (14 points) to keep things interesting.
“We didn't roll over,” said Selvig, whose team drew within nine points, 71-62, with 53 seconds left. “If we did, we'd a got beat by 40 or something like what (Portland State) did to Idaho State.
“We actually made a charge and scored it down the stretch. Against Eastern (Washington on Thursday) we didn't really shoot it well. But we put together a nice little run late in the second half of this one and that was definitely good. And they only shot 36 percent, which says something about our defense.”
Montana stuck with a 2-3 zone for most of Saturday, bucking a recent trend in which it has played predominantly man-to-man defense. Portland State took advantage by hitting 11 treys, including four apiece by Faucher and Delaney Conway.
The Vikings had four players score in double figures. Joining Faucher were Lexi Bishop with 13 points, Conway 12 and Kelsey Kahle 11.
Besides the scoring of Rogers and Cote, Montana had two other offensive bright spots in Tamara Guardipee and Jessa Linford. The former tallied seven points and the latter six in 10 minutes of action. Linford, a wiry freshman forward from Seeley Lake, went into the game averaging less than a point per contest.
“Jessa has been playing very well in practice,” Selvig said. “It was an opportunity where we were a little short-handed, Brit (Lohman) had foul trouble, and it didn't surprise me Jessa did well.”
Portland State was without its head coach, Sherri Murrell, who was suspended for a game by league officials after her comments about the officiating following Thursday's loss to Montana State. Murrell was with her team up until game time, then exited the arena to watch and listen from an office nearby.
“It was probably the hardest thing I've had to experience as a coach outside of resigning at Washington State,” said Murrell, who led the Cougars for five seasons. “We really emphasized rebounding, and they took care of it. And the players really dug down and made some defensive stops when they needed to.”
Notes: Rogers led Montana in rebounds with six and assists with five. ... Portland State won the battle of the boards, 41-38. ... Montana shot 39.7 percent (23-for-58) from the floor and Portland State 36.5 percent (23-for-63). ... Montana had 15 turnovers, including six by Cote. ... Faucher set a conference single-season record for assists, breaking the old mark of 251 held by ex-Montana player Brooklynn Lorenzen (2000-04). Faucher currently has 257 assists. ... Montana held a 32-11 edge in bench points, but was outscored in the paint, 34-20. ... Assistant coach Peg Swadener served as the Vikings' head coach in Murrell's absence.
MONTANA (62)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Closson 26 1-5 0-0 4 1 0 2
f-Lohman 18 1-5 2-2 3 5 0 4
c-Guardipee 10 2-4 3-3 3 2 1 7
g-Morales 7 1-2 0-0 0 0 1 2
g-Rogers 36 5-9 2-2 6 1 5 15
Cote 30 4-9 6-6 5 4 2 14
Stender 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Ena 7 0-2 0-2 0 4 1 0
Linford 10 3-4 0-0 0 0 2 6
Conway 19 2-6 0-0 4 1 0 4
Tolbert 12 1-3 0-0 4 0 0 2
Beck 22 2-8 0-0 3 0 0 4
Robison 2 1-1 0-0 2 0 0 2
Totals 200 23-58 13-15 32 18 12 62
PORTLAND STATE (72)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Kahle 27 2-8 7-11 8 3 0 11
f-Conway 31 4-10 0-0 2 1 0 12
c-Valentine 25 2-7 0-0 4 3 2 4
g-Faucher 35 7-15 3-6 11 2 10 21
g-Bishop 34 3-8 5-6 5 2 1 13
Hadj-Hamou 3 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0
Yankus 13 1-4 0-0 4 1 1 2
Marchant 17 1-5 0-0 0 0 1 3
Cremer 15 3-5 0-0 2 3 0 6
Totals 200 23-63 15-23 36 15 15 72
Halftime score: Portland State 37, Montana 26.
3-point goals: UM 3-9 (Rogers 3-4, Lohman 0-2, Morales 0-1, Cote 0-1, Conway 0-1), PSU 11-23 (Conway 4-6, Faucher 4-9, Bishop 2-5, Marchant 1-2, Hadj-Hamou 0-1).
Blocked shots: UM 3 (Closson, Guardipee, Linford), PSU 1 (Marchant).
Steals: UM 6 (Closson 2, Cote 2), PSU 7 (Faucher 2, Bishop 2).
Officials: Darla Foulz, Ty Elkin, Rick Thorne.
Attendance: 757.
Standings
League Overall
W L +/- W L
*Montana 13 3 +5 23 6
*Idaho State 12 4 +4 20 8
*Portland State 11 5 +3 21 8
*Montana State 11 5 +3 16 12
*N. Colorado 8 8 +1 14 15
*N. Arizona 6 10 -2 10 19
Weber State 6 10 -3 12 16
Sacramento St. 4 12 -5 6 22
E. Washington 1 15 -7 4 25
* clinched berth in postseason tournament
+/- Road wins minus home losses
Thursday's games
Montana 62, E. Washington 48
Montana St. 74, Portland St. 70
N. Colorado 85, N. Arizona 67
Saturday's games
Portland State 72, Montana 62
Montana State 65, E. Washington 54
N. Colorado 75, Sacramento State 48
Idaho State 81, Weber State 69
Big Sky tournament
at Dahlberg Arena
Quarterfinals
Thursday
5:30 p.m. - No. 3 Montana State vs. No. 6 Northern Arizona
7:30 p.m. - No. 4 Portland State vs. No.5 Northern Colorado
Semifinals
Friday
5:30 p.m. - No. 2 Idaho State vs. highest remaining seed
7:30 p.m. - No. 1 Montana vs. lowest remaining seed
Saturday
Championship
5 p.m. - semifinal winners, Altitude Sports TV
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