THE MATCHUP
After a two-week break forced by COVID protocols, the Montana Lady Griz returned to the court at Dahlberg Arena on Thursday to kick off a stretch of five games in 10 days. Their opponent? A hapless Portland State team, sitting last in the Big Sky with an 0-4 conference record heading into Thursday’s game.
THE RESULT
Montana led by five after the first quarter and 13 at halftime before turning the game into a full-on rout in the second half on its way to a 93-57 win. The Lady Griz dominated every facet of the game on offense, scoring over 20 points in every quarter and shooting 49.2% from the field and 41.4% from 3-point range, led by a 6 for 9 outing from deep from freshman Haley Huard. To go with the outside shooting, Montana added 17 offensive rebounds and 36 points in the paint.
THE STANDOUTS
Huard, a freshman from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, made her first five 3-pointers and finished with a game- and career-high 18 points.
“It felt great,” said Huard, the daughter of former NFL quarterback Brock Huard, who is now a well-known color commentator. “We were all super hungry to come out and play someone different than each other, and I think that showed when we got out on the court tonight.”
She had plenty of help, with three other Lady Griz finishing in double figures. Senior guard Sammy Fatkin finished with 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting and seven rebounds. Senior post Abby Anderson had a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards, and junior forward Carmen Gfeller had 12 points, including a buzzer-beating 3 to close the first half.
Alaya Fitzgerald led Portland State with 12 points.
TWO THOUGHTS
- Montana opened up the 3-point shot against Portland State’s zone by going inside first. For years, the most crucial piece of Lynn Kennedy’s 2-3 defense at Portland State was a big shot blocker like Jordan Stotler or Courtney West in the middle. In her first year as head coach after taking over for Kennedy (he left for McNeese State following last season), former PSU assistant Chelsey Gregg has stayed with the zone look, but the Vikings don’t have anyone to play that interior role, leading to predictably dire results. Anderson, Gfeller and 6-2 freshman Dani Bartsch combined to score 16 of Montana’s 21 points in the first quarter. After the Lady Griz established the paint, it forced PSU to crash down and opened space for the 3-point shooters to bomb away. Montana continued to dominate inside. On one sequence in the third quarter, Anderson grabbed an offensive rebound just below the free-throw line and drove right back into the teeth of the zone for a layup, followed two possessions later by Bartsch grabbing an offensive board and making a nice dump-off pass to Anderson for another easy bucket.
- The scoring margin allowed Montana coach Brian Holsinger to go deep into his bench – 12 Lady Griz players played, with 10 seeing double-digit minutes – and experiment a little. Montana played an extended man defense – not a full-court press, Holsinger cautioned, just pushing their regular defense “up the line” to give Portland State a different look – on several possessions. He also put Fatkin, nominally a combo guard, at the 4 late in the game, trying out a smaller lineup that switched everything on defense. “It was good to see, because she’s a tough cover for their post, so we spread the floor out and she was driving and making things happen,” Holsinger said.
QUOTABLE
“I think the Christmas break really sent us into a weird thing. We were playing really good and then we went on Christmas break, some people got sick and there were just some really weird things that happened to our team, we had a couple injuries. We’re back healthy now … we’ve been able to have really good practices for a week-and-a-half now and that just makes a gigantic difference for us.” – Montana head coach Brian Holsinger
“We focused first on getting it into the post, and then post kick-out 3s, it’s a higher percentage. So that’s what we really wanted tonight, and I think we got that.” – Montana freshman Haley Huard
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SOCIAL
WHAT’S NEXT
Montana (11-4, 4-2 Big Sky Conference) hosts Northern Arizona on Saturday.
Portland State (5-8, 0-5) completes its Treasure State road trip with a visit to Montana State on Saturday.
