Big Sky Conference

Feller catches fire, leads Lady Griz past NAU into Big Sky quarters

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RENO, Nevada — McCalle Feller has made a career out of catching fire. Once the Montana senior settled in at the Reno Events Center on Monday, her right hand stayed hot.

The Lewistown native nailed all three of her 3-pointers and 9 of her 12 second-half shots after halftime to carry Montana in the first round of the Big Sky Conference women’s tournament. The slick shooting guard hit fall-away jumpers, set 3-point shots and layups in the lane on her way to 21 second-half points and 28 points overall as fifth-seeded Montana survived an upset scare from 12th-seeded Northern Arizona with a 78-63 win on Monday afternoon.

UM guard McCalle Feller

UM guard McCalle Feller

“I have no idea what changed,” said Feller, who missed six of her first eight shots before heating up after halftime. “When they go in, they go in. I got frustrated with myself early but I got a talk from my teammates and they set me straight. I cleared my head and made some shots.

“New gyms are always hard to adjust to. I think the lights are the hardest thing. Once you get playing, you just start to forget about it.”

The upstart Lumberjacks, a young team that won just two Big Sky games this season, gave Montana all it could handle, entering the fourth frame trailing the reigning Big Sky Tournament just 51-49. But Feller scored 10 consecutive points to help extend a five-point lead to a 66-54 advantage midway through the final quarter. Montana won the final frame 27-14.

“I thought this would be a tough game and it was,” Montana 38th-year head coach Robin Selvig said. “NAU is a good team that hasn’t won a lot of games. They played a lot of close games, played us close. They played really well. In the second half, we got it cooking. That was one of our better halfs this year.”

UM guard McCalle Feller

UM guard McCalle Feller

Feller, a second-team All-Big Sky selection as a senior, hit four 3-pointers overall, pushing her single-season total to 74, breaking fellow Lewistown native Sonya Rogers’ Montana record. Feller also surpassed the 1,000-point mark for her career, becoming the 34th Lady Griz to do so.

“I didn’t even know you do that in tournament,” Feller said. “I just don’t think about that kind of stuff. I’m just really grateful for the opportunity to even play here. To set any record is a dream come true and I’m very appreciative for that.”

Northern Arizona was able to hang tight with the Big Sky’s perennial power because of the smooth play of NAU center Alyssa Rader. The Big Sky’s Freshman of the Year poured in 13 of her 18 points after halftime. She also pulled seven rebounds, but the Lady Griz won the battle of the glass 39-32 behind 10 rebounds from junior center Alycia Sims.

Feller had a stretch in the third quarter where she scored seven of UM’s nine points, including a step-back 3-pointer with a hand in her face. She hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, the second as she was falling away heavily defended by Northern Arizona’s Rene Coggins.

UM forward Kayleigh Valley

UM forward Kayleigh Valley

“We had a hand in her face,” NAU head coach Sue Darling said. “We did a good job in the first three quarters. In the fourth quarter, we couldn’t be any closer to her but she knocked them down. She is hard to stop.”

“She’s a great shooter and I know I had a hand in her face,” Coggins added. “Sometimes, there’s nothing you can do.”

Coggins hit a 3-pointer with less than two minutes to play in the third quarter to tie the game 47-47, setting up a final quarter that looked like it would be back and forth.

“I was really proud of the confidence we came in with,” said Coggins, a junior who’s team finished 6-24 this season. “We did not think we were the 12-seed. That 3-pointer was just part of that confidence.”

Montana opened the fourth quarter on an 11-2 run to stretch the lead to double digits, then cruised from there. Feller and Valley combined for 17 points in the final frame alone.

“The game is pretty simple sometimes,” Selvig said. “When you are making shots, you feel like you are great. When you are not, you have to play through it with defense. We definitely heated up in the second half.”

Montana junior Kayleigh Valley scored 13 of her 23 points after halftime. She played all but one minute in the game, approaching a triple-double with seven rebounds and eight assists. She had six assists after halftime, passing out of double teams and finding Feller for open jump shots on several occasions.

NAU forward Alyssa Rader

NAU forward Alyssa Rader

“We play well together,” Valley said. “We are a duo that is tough to stop. We can go inside and go outside and we have other people we can look for too. All of our teammates are contributing and finding the right person.”

The fifth-seeded Lady Griz, the defending Big Sky Tournament champions, are gunning for their 23rd trip to the NCAA Tournament. UM’s quest will continue at 2:25 p.m. PST against fourth-seeded North Dakota. UND beat Montana on a buzzer-beater in Missoula and pounded the Lady Griz on the glass in a 73-61 win in Grand Forks.

“We didn’t play very well at North Dakota,” Selvig said. “We got out-rebounded bad. The first game went to the wire with them. The thing about them is they out-rebound their opponents. They shoot the ball well. We need to put together a complete game.

“Hopefully having played a game on Monday, finding some hot hands, maybe that will help us.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

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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