Cat-Griz Hoops

SENIOR CELEBRATION – Lady Griz ride veterans playing in final home games to snap streak to rival ‘Cats

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MISSOULA, Montana — Nyah Morris-Nelson lost her balance, yet still whipped a pass from right in front of Montana State’s bench to Carmen Gfeller, who stood in the opposite corner right in front of the University of Montana student section and band.

Gfeller pump faked to get MSU junior post Kola Bad Bear in the air, then stepped back into a 3-pointer that she swished with swagger.

The normally understated, quiet Gfeller made sure to hold her follow through as she ran back on defense, pushing Dahlberg Arena to the brink of eruption.  

But the cascade of emotion from the home crowd came with apprehension. Montana had made blowing double-digit leads in the second half a habit and a consistent one as the once-proud program fell from grace.

And skepticism lingered because Montana State has dominated this rivalry lately, a statement that seemed infeasible when legendary former Lady Griz head coach Robin Selvig won 77 of his first 101 matchups against the rival Bobcats during a peerless career that included 865 wins, 23 conference titles, 21 trips to the NCAA Tournament and utter rivalry domination between 1978 and 2016.

Montana State junior point guard Darian White drives against Montana senior Sophia Stiles on February 26, 2022/ by Brooks Nuanez

The streaks read like passages about a turning of the tide in a rivalry Montana owned for so long. Montana State entered Saturday evening’s showdown having won seven straight games against the Lady Griz. MSU had won 12 of the last 14 against Montana, including winning four of the last five times the Bobcats visited Dahlberg Arena.

Montana has only lost 91 times at Dahlberg….ever. And that’s compared to 566 wins, most of which came under Selvig’s guidance.

As with anything in life, the ebbs lead to the flows. And MSU head coach Tricia Binford, in her 17th season (the longest tenure in the Big Sky Conference), hoped to celebrate her 49th birthday with a fourth consecutive season sweep of the Lady Griz that included denying the rival UM’s first win over MSU in Dahlberg since February of 2018.

Gfeller’s charismatic triple foreshadowed the first counter punch UM has mustered since Selvig’s retirement outside the anomalous 87-63 Lady Griz win over MSU in Missoula four years ago. That afternoon, former Montana head coach Shannon Schweyen employed an unorthodox 3-2 zone defense that dared Binford’s Bobcats into shooting themselves out of the game.

MSU hit 13 triples that afternoon but it took 36 attempts and by the time the dust settled, Schweyen, an All-American at Montana in the early 1990s and widely considered the greatest player in Big Sky Conference history back when she was Shannon Cate, has her first win over MSU as a head coach after going undefeated against the ‘Cats as a player.

Saturday night in Missoula, more than 4,000 rabid fans packed Dahlberg Arena for the first women’s Cat-Griz evening game in recent memory that also served as Brian Holsinger’s first home rivalry game as UM’s head coach. The night also served as a celebration for five Lady Griz seniors, a dynamic that played heavily into Montana breaking through for a pivotal 71-57 victory.

“Definitely took this game pretty serious and Coach (Nate) Harris was definitely on me about relaxing my emotions,” Stiles said. “He kept telling me it’s just another game. It’s nice to say but we know it’s not that. During the whole game, I just wanted to get it. We’ve had a lot of close games and I was waiting for the final buzzer.”

Gfeller’s memorable triple gave Montana a 31-23 lead with two minutes left before halftime. Even though Montana State’s grit while chasing a fourth regular-season Big Sky Conference title in six years helped the Bobcats hang tough in the midst of the passionate opposing fan support, the Lady Griz kept surging toward the moment that blew open the game.

The 4,059 on hand Saturday — the highest attendance at Dahlberg Arena since March 7 of 2020 for the UM men’s basketball senior night (5,025 in an 85-80 loss to Southern Utah) and the most at a Lady Griz game since Thursday’s 3,335 in a 71-46 win also over SUU — kept bubbling, waiting to erupt in celebration of a Lady Griz group that has navigated more tumult and endured more drama than any in UM women’s basketball history.

From Schweyen’s botched firing to a mass exodus from the roster that left interim head coach Mike Petrino with five scholarship players, the frustrations and mental inconsistencies within the program were often on full display during rivalry Saturdays.

But this time, the Lady Griz played to their talent. Gfeller turned into a scoring machine. Senior center Abby Anderson made all the right decisions in the post while also anchoring MSU’s interior defense despite taking a bloody nose inducing elbow to the face. And Stiles harnessed the emotional style that made her twice the Montana Gatorade Player of the Year during her legendary prep career in Malta.

And two of those stars provided the moment that helped Montana seize the game for good. With 5:39 left in the third quarter, Anderson – who celebrated senior night along with Stiles, Morris-Nelson, reserve post Kylie Frolich and injured combo guard Sammy Fatkin —  blocked Bad Bear’s jump shot attempt on a pick-and-pop play. Gfeller corralled the ball before hitting a streaking Anderson for a lay-up, giving Montana its first double-digit lead, 52-42.

On the following exchange, MSU junior reserve Madison Jackson missed a 3-pointer, UM sophomore Kyndall Keller secured the rebound and found Anderson again for a lay-up.

That caused Binford to call a timeout as Dahlberg started to rumble, the frustration of the lost years between Selvig’s retirement and Holsinger’s hiring apparent among most of the faithful clad in maroon and silver.

“That was for sure a huge moment, a huge momentum shift,” Stiles said. “That was maybe my favorite play, maybe next to Carmen’s step-back 3-pointer. That was a key moment in the game and Dahlberg exploded.”

Montana seemed determined to send its seniors out in style from the opening tip and Gfeller certainly wanted to celebrate a group she said she “feels like she is a part of” after spending the last four years at UM, one while redshirting because of an ankle injury.

And for the first time since Selvig stalked the sideline at Dahlberg, Montana State seemed to feel the pressure of the rivalry. The Bobcats last played Monday — an 82-57 breeze by of Portland State, the only team without a Big Sky win — while Montana drilled Southern Utah 71-46 on Thursday evening in Missoula.

MSU junior point guard Darian White, one of the league’s leading candidates for MVP honors after guiding MSU within striking distance of its fourth Big Sky regular-season title in six seasons, didn’t have her normal zip as the Lady Griz bullied her from the opening tip. White hit the floor more times than she hit shots, finishing 3-of-12 with nine points and dishing out just two of MSU’s 10 assists.

“Senior nights are emotional and credit the seniors for Montana, they played really well,” Binford said. “Gfeller had a great game. Sometimes, someone gets going, it’s tough to shut them down. We couldn’t stop her today. But at the same time, there’s two games left and there’s the Big Sky Tournament. We will respond. That’s what you are supposed to do.”

Lexi Deden, a Missoula Sentinel product whose mother, Dawn Silliker Deden, was a 1,000 point scorer for the Lady Griz, led the MSU with 14 points off the bench. Leia Beattie, who is the daughter of former Lady Griz All-Big Sky point guard Kelly Pilcher, added 13 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds but UM dominated the boards, snaring 36 compared to 28 for the visitors.

“This is the best place in the Big Sky Conference to play women’s basketball and it’s going to continue to be,” Gfeller said.

Beattie’s layup a minute into the fourth quarter cut the lead to single digits. On the next Lady Griz possession, Morris-Nelson hoisted a 3-pointer that missed but Gfeller grabbed one of her eight boards to restart the possession. Late in the shot clock for the second time on the possession, Anderson hit a turn-around with MSU senior Gabby Mocchi in her face to keep the deficit at 11.

Beattie scored 10 of her points in the fourth quarter, including hitting her second 3-pointer of the frame with 5:39 left to draw Montana State within 10 one more time, 58-48.

Montana State senior Abby Anderson takes Darian White to the rim on February 26, 2022/ by Brooks Nuanez

But Gfeller kept pouring in points, hitting two more 3-pointers — she hit five on the evening — and scoring 12 of her career-high 34 points in the final frame.

As the Colfax, Washington product walked out of the post-game press conference with fellow farm girl Stiles, the Lady Griz point guard from the Hi-Line joked with Gfeller, saying “Too humble. You say, ‘I went off!’” to a collective laugh of those within ear shot.

Then Stiles — who at long last out played White and didn’t have to deal with the disappointment of a rivalry press conference after a loss — winked at Gfeller, one of about a dozen times the charismatic Stiles winked on a night she wore a contagious smile for most of the post game.

She and her classmates did not have to plow through tears of disappointment after losing to the rival on their hallowed home court. Instead, they walked into UM’s brand new basketball locker room beaming and ready to greet Holsinger with a celebratory dowsing following his first win in the 114th rendition of the passionate rivalry.

“I actually really thought about it leading up to tonight, just how cool it would be to be doing this (celebrating a win) with my teammates,” Stiles said. “It’s a moment I won’t ever forget. Dahlberg has been amazing to me and that was a really special moment.”

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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