MISSOULA, Montana — Upon first (and most) impressions, Ella Johnson is about as nice a Midwestern young lady as you’ll find.
On Saturday in Missoula, Johnson looked and played like a stone-cold killer.
The lanky 6-foot-3 junior from Elk River, Minnesota has made a name for herself the last three seasons as one of the most versatile defensive players in the Big Sky Conference. She is one of the league’s best shot blockers as well as an athlete who can use her length to disrupt shooters on the perimeter and who can use her athleticism to guard off the dribble.
For all those strong suits, she’s never been known for her offense. Montana State head coach Tricia Binford joked that when the staff pulled Johnson’s redshirt a few years ago, her nickname was Ella “Don’t Shoot” Johnson.
“She works so hard, her nickname quickly became Ella “Shoot the ball” Johnson,” Binford said with a laugh. “We are getting her to shoot it more. She has a great looking shot.”
And boy, did Johnson shoot it here on Saturday afternoon.
The junior drilled three 3-pointers in the first half on the way to a career-high 17 points. She finished the game 7-of-8 from the floor as Montana State cruised to a 72-55 win over the Lady Griz in front of 3,149.
“What we emphasize is growing as a team and improving each and every day,” said Johnson, whose season high entering the game was 10 points and who’s career high was 14 points last year against Troy. “We just really wanted to come out there and throw the first punch.”
Addison Harris, one of Montana State’s leading scorers this season who finished with 15 points on Saturday, lit up when asked about Johnson’s offensive output. Saturday was Johnson’s seventh rivalry game. She had scored seven total points in those games.
“We are so proud of her,” Harris said. “She works so hard. She’s in the gym 24/7. She deserves to have game like these. She deserves it. She gets us fired up. We bring our own energy and we are cheering each other on. It’s super special. Super proud of her.”
While 17 points is a career-high for Johnson, it’s not some mind-bending total. But when you consider that Montana State is the most high-pressure team in the conference — MSU entered the game averaging more than 26 forced turnovers per game — and much of the Bobcats’ offense comes from getting out in the open court, if an opponent can get MSU to have to score in the half court, that’s a win.
And Montana did that on Saturday. The Lady Griz committed 18 turnovers, which was 14 less than in an 82-44 loss in Bozeman last month. MSU scored 17 points off turnovers on Saturday, which was 22 points less than the last rivalry showdown.
MSU countered those improvements by hitting 41 percent of its shots (9-of-22) from beyond the arc and shooting 50 percent overall in controlling the game from start to finish. Montana State scored 19 seconds into the shot block against the Lady Griz zone on the first possession of the game and never trailed.
“We had the right mentality,” Binford said after moving to 25-20 against the Lady Griz. “Teams have been throwing a ton of defenses at us and we can’t lose who we are…the right mentality in finding a great shot, whatever that looks like. We just wanted pace and I felt like Ella Johnson, this might be the best game I’ve seen out of her on both ends of the floor. She was fantastic today.”
Johnson scored seven points during the first six minutes of the game as MSU raced to a 13-4 lead. MSU pushed the lead to double figures, 17-7, with two minutes left in the first frame and ended the first quarter up 21-7.
“The last week and a half, we’ve seen a lot of different defenses,” Binford said. “I think we’ve been preparing for some counters. We’ve seen a lot. Knowing that Jamison was getting into the paint that first time around, we were like, ‘ok, what are they going to try to take away because she was so aggressive.’ One option is zone and one option is putting somebody deep in the paint and they did both. We are trying to get better on some of those counters but more importantly, we had to get some stops on the defensive end because that team can put up points very quickly.”
Jamison Phillip, a freshman who scored a career-high 23 points in the first rivalry contest, spun her way to a nifty layup in the lane to push the lead to 34-10 midway through the second quarter before the Lady Griz woke up.
Montana ripped off a 12-0 run, bringing the crowd to life for the first and only time on Saturday. That run included a pair of 3-pointers from sophomore Avery Waddington, who finished with 11 points and four rebounds in 39 minutes.
“The game gets really hard when you don’t start playing the right way until 17 minutes into it,” said Montana head coach Nate Harris, who fell to 0-4 against MSU. “I thought that we started slow. It’s been our thing the last few games and we have to do a better job of getting off to a better start with some intensity.
“Give them credit: Ella Johnson steps up and buries three in the first half. Jamison Phillip hits one. Courtney Smith hits one. All three kids we had in our plan to make shoot those and they hit them. That’s 15 points right there.”
Montana State ended the second half with a pair of daggers. Taylee Chirrick, who finished with 14 points and went over 100 steals during her sophomore season with four swipes, hit a corner 3-pointer in transition. She then forced a turnover and Johnson hit a trailing 3-pointer from dead on. After the shot, she had an icy look in her eye as the only run of the afternoon by the hosts came to a screeching halt.
Johnson’s third triple of the first half helped the Bobcats take a 40-22 lead into halftime. Montana State never led by less than 13 points after that and never led by less than 16 points in the fourth quarter.
“It’s huge when you have veterans that aren’t showing a reaction,” Binford said. “When a team makes a run, you have two ways to respond. You can go next play or you can get a little bit tight. Last week (in a 73-70 overtime loss at Idaho), we got tight to be honest. When we were on the road, that really prepared us well coming into this week. We can’t react. The things we can control is what we can control. Those two hitting those shots right before the half certainly helped.”
Montana State has now won 15 of the last 17 rivalry games, including five in a row. The Bobcats are now 11-2 in conference and were able to keep pace with Idaho in the league standings. The Vandals have one league loss while MSU has two. The Bobcats are looking for their sixth regular-season Big Sky title under Binford.
Montana made strides, relatively, after getting blown out by the largest margin of victory in rivalry history last month. But like it has since Robin Selvig retired, the rivalry continued to belong to Montana State as yet another new star emerged for the Bobcats.
“Teams are going to make run, Montana is going to make a run, crowd is going to get on top, how do we want to react? What do we want to look like without the score? I felt like our kids stayed together and focused on each other,” Binford said. “That’s maturity and growth in a very young team. I’m proud of how they responded.”
