With record-setting scoring and relentless defense before a raucous home crowd and a regional television audience, the Maroon & Silver buried their intrastate rival from Bozeman. Montana put a 101-65 whuppin' on Montana State, securing a Big Sky Conference tourney title and a berth in the NCAAs for the first time in three years.
“I'm absolutely thrilled and proud,” said Montana coach Robin Selvig, who will lead the the Lady Griz into the Big Dance for the 17th time next weekend. “Two years in a row to win a very tough league and not make it to the Dance would have been too bad.
In 30 years of coaching, Selvig can't remember a time his team ever scored 94 and 101 points on back-to-back nights the way it did this weekend. Saturday's total tied a Big Sky tournament single-game record and marked the first time in 71 contests the Lady Griz hit the century mark.
Key for Montana (25-6) was its record-setting effort from behind the arc. The Lady Griz hit a tournament record 15 threes on 24 attempts, and tourney MVP Mandy Morales tied a tourney record with her 6-for-6 effort.
“It's a very difficult team to defend when they're hitting on all cylinders,” Montana State coach Tricia Binford said. “Our objective was to faceguard and limit (Sonya) Rogers from the start.
“She did a great job getting herself open and we weren't tight enough on her. But it wasn't just her. It was other players stepping up. When you have that many different weapons hitting from the perimeter, it's really difficult to take away the three and also contain penetration.”
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It was hard to envision Montana enjoying such a big night after its 1-for-9 shooting start. The Bobcats (18-13) raced to an 11-3 lead, silencing a crowd of 5,016 at Dahlberg Arena.
“They went out and took a good lead and that was scary,” Selvig said.
The Lady Griz turned the tide by catching fire from the perimeter. They hit five straight 3-balls - including three by Laura Cote - and 7-of-8 shots overall in jumping to a 24-19 lead with 8:40 left in the first half.
Montana State answered with a pair of free throws to pull within three. Then Montana closed out the half with a 25-10 run, badgering the battle-weary Bobcats with tireless man-to-man defense.
“They got ahead and we did a good job of keeping our heads, realizing we've been down before and we always fight back,” said Montana senior forward Johanna Closson, whose team also fought from behind to beat Portland State on Friday. “I think we did a really good job of keeping cool. Once we get going sometimes it's really hard to stop us.”
Morales scored 12 of her game-high 24 points in the first half and dished out five of her game-high seven assists. Cote added 12 points and grabbed a team-high five boards in the first half, and Rogers tallied nine points.
Montana State's shooting got progressively worse as the game wore on. It shot 41.4 percent in the first half (23-for-63) and finished at 36.5 percent (23-for-63).
In contrast, Montana enjoyed 54 percent shooting (34-for-63) from the floor. Morales led a balanced attack, followed by Cote and Rogers each with 16 and Closson 15.
“They just were on,” said MSU guard Erica Perry. “It didn't matter who had the ball at what time, they just had an answer for every possession.”
The Bobcats trailed 49-31 at the break and failed to threaten in the second half. Montana's 18-for-31 shooting and 25-14 advantage on the boards were two big reasons.
Forward Krislyn Wallace led the Bobcats with a double-double (17 points, 12 rebounds). Teammates Perry and Rebecca Mercer added 11 points apiece.
Morales, Cote, Wallace and Perry were joined on the all-tourney team by Idaho State's Natalie Doma and Portland State's Claire Faucher.
The Lady Griz will find out their first-round opponent when the NCAA announces this year's pairings at 5 p.m. (MST) Monday on ESPN. Binford said she and her Cats will be backing Montana all the way.
“We're really proud of Montana representing us in the NCAAs,” she said. “Obviously we would have liked to have been the team, but I still feel like the Big Sky Conference is a difficult and competitive conference and we're going to support them next week and have them show this conference has really gained some ground.
“I was a player in this conference (at Boise State) and I feel like it's even more balanced now. In years past it was just Montana. Now there's a lot of different teams.”
Notes: Britney Lohman narrowly missed a double-double for the Lady Griz with eight rebounds and eight points ... Montana scored at least 46 points in all four halves this weekend ... Morales averaged 27.5 points, 7.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds in Montana's two tourney wins ... Saturday's win gave Montana a perfect 17-0 record at Dahlberg Arena, the eighth perfect homecourt record in program history and first since 1995-96.
MONTANA STATE (65)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Wallace 29 7-15 3-6 12 1 0 17
f-Garcia 20 4-5 0-0 3 4 0 8
g-Perry 34 4-13 3-5 2 2 5 11
g-Mercer 34 2-9 6-6 0 3 2 11
g-Heringer 23 2-7 2-2 7 1 1 6
Phippard 11 0-2 0-0 0 2 0 0
Goff 14 2-2 2-3 0 2 1 7
Strand 19 2-4 0-0 2 2 1 5
Seidensticker 4 0-2 0-0 0 1 0 0
Hoefer 4 0-0 0-2 0 0 0 0
Thornton 4 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0
Goodman 4 0-3 0-0 1 0 0 0
Totals 200 23-63 16-24 30 18 10 65
MONTANA (101)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Closson 26 5-10 4-4 5 1 2 15
f-Lohman 28 3-7 2-2 8 3 3 8
c-Guardipee 9 2-2 0-0 4 0 0 4
g-Morales 36 7-11 4-5 3 0 7 24
g-Rogers 23 4-8 5-6 2 0 0 16
Cote 24 6-10 0-0 5 3 2 16
Stender 4 1-1 0-0 0 1 1 2
Ena 10 2-4 1-1 4 3 0 5
Linford 4 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 0
Conway 18 3-6 0-0 3 1 2 7
Tolbert 8 1-1 0-0 0 0 1 2
Beck 6 0-2 2-3 2 2 0 2
Robison 4 0-1 0-0 0 1 0 0
Totals 200 34-63 18-21 44 15 19 101
Technical fouls: Ena.
Halftime score: Montana 49, Montana State 31.
3-point goals: MSU 3-8 (Goff 1-1, Strand 1-2, Mercer 1-4, Phippard 0-1), UM 15-24 (Morales 6-6, Cote 4-5, Rogers 3-6, Closson 1-2, Conway 1-4, Lohman 0-1).
Turnovers: MSU 11 (Heringer 3), UM 11 (Rogers 4).
Blocked shots: MSU 5 (Wallace 4), UM 3 (Morales 2).
Steals: MSU 6 (Wallace 2, Perry 2), UM 8 (Closson 2, Lohman 2).
Officials: Bob Scofield, John Weeks, Jeneane Pence.
Attendance: 5,016
Sports writer Bill Speltz can be reached at 523-5255 or bill.speltz@lee.net.
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