Monday, January 2, the Montana women's basketball team opened Big Sky Conference play with a win over Eastern Washington in Cheney. The 53-46 road victory was Montana’s fourth in a row bringing their record to 1-0 in conference, 8-6 overall. The Eagles are now 1-1, and 7-8.
Katie Baker was the Lady Griz top performer with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Torry Hill racked up 13 points for the Lady Griz. Kenzie De Boer scored 10 and Jordy Sullivan added seven points and a whopping 10 rebounds. Alyssa Smith had no points but grabbed 3 rebounds and stole the ball six times out of 13 by Montana.
Montana is known for its superb defense, but at the start of the game, the zone defense was failing miserably. After changing from zone to man-to-man defense, Montana began to change the course of the game. It led to a 19-5 run for the Lady Griz who led 25-22 at the half.
The second half was all Montana who scored 11 unanswered points and led by 44-28 with a little more than 8 minutes to play. The Eagles tried to come back but Montana worked their defensive magic and milked the clock and took the win.
Up until Monday night, the Eagles were rated as one of the top offenses in the Big Sky, averaging 67.9 points per game. Montana held the league-leading scorer, Brianne Ryan to 13 points. As a point of interest, she was a high school teammate of De Boer's in Lynden, Wash. and came into the game with a 19.8-point scoring average. Montana’s coach Robin Selvig attributed this success to good defense.
The Lady Griz returned to struggling from behind the three point line after an improved weekend of shooting from 3-point range. Monday night they put in only 3 of 13 from behind the arc. Eastern Washington shot 4 for 16 from long range and only 27.1 percent from the field overall.
The Eagles committed 20 turnovers and forced 19 by Montana but the Lady Griz outscored the Eagles 25-19 off those turnovers. Though Eastern Washington came out with full-court, man-to-man pressure most of the game, Montana managed to score 11 fast-break points as opposed to four by Eastern Washington.
Check out the box score for UM vs. EWU
The Lady Griz return home to Dahlberg Arena on Saturday, January 7, hoping to add another to the league win column. They will host Idaho State at 2 p.m. Idaho State won its conference opener 57-52 Monday over Northern Colorado. They could be dangerous so, as always, the Lady Griz will be working hard at practice this week. See the Lady Griz basketball schedule.
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