Lady Griz bounce back by throttling Weber State, 65-48

THE MATCHUP

Montana’s four-game winning streak was snapped by Idaho State on Thursday night, which left the Lady Griz’s game on Saturday against Weber State with a little extra import, even aside from being the first game on the newly-dedicated Robin Selvig Court. It was a nice opportunity for a bounceback, as Weber State entered at 5-19 and 1-11 in conference play, clearly staked to the cellar of the Big Sky. After their only conference win of the season two weeks ago against Eastern Washington, the Wildcats entered on a three-game losing streak.

THE RESULT

With Selvig and over 50 former Lady Griz players in attendance, Montana brought the weekend of celebration and ceremony to a happy end with a businesslike, wire-to-wire 65-48 win. The Lady Griz led 7-0 two minutes into the game, were up by 11 at the end of the first quarter and never let the lead slip into single digits after that. After using a 1-2-2 full-court press with Dani Bartsch harassing the inbounder for most of the season, Montana head coach Brian Holsinger switched things up with a 2-2-1 that dropped back into a loose 2-3 zone. The defensive change in the halfcourt was tailored to take advantage of Weber State, the worst 3-point shooting team in the league (27.2% entering Saturday), and it worked like a charm as the Wildcats made just 4 of 19 3-point attempts and finished the game shooting 33.3% overall.

Montana wasn’t much better at 35.7%, but the Lady Griz made eight 3-pointers and forced Weber State into 17 turnovers.

THE STANDOUTS

Four Lady Griz players reached double figures, led by Carmen Gfeller with 18 points. Despite missing all six of her 3-point attempts, the redshirt senior battled inside, hitting 7 of 11 from inside the arc. Sammy Fatkin added 15 points, while freshman point guard Mack Konig had a tough shooting night but still finished with 12 points and a career-high eight assists against just two turnovers. It was Konig’s fourth game since being inserted in the starting lineup six games ago with six or more assists.

Gina Marxen, who’s moved off the ball more since Konig came into the lineup, hit 3 of 5 3-pointers for 11 points. Dani Bartsch, who like Konig came into the starting lineup six games ago, grabbed 14 rebounds, her fourth game in that stretch with double-digit boards.

Laura Taylor was the only Weber State player to reach double figures with 10 points.

BOX SCORE

QUOTABLE

“This team’s been pretty resilient all year. We’ve had moments that are really tough, and to respond the right way, yesterday at practice we were super focused and really locked in, and we responded today with a really good game. My game of game, honestly. I love defense. This team has not loved it all year. I told the radio down there, this was Robin Selvig. The little 2-3 zone, just like he used to play in the olden days. I was really proud of our effort on defense.” – Montana head coach Brian Holsinger

“We were able to trap. We got a 10-second call, that was fantastic. It just gives a different look, you have two guards up there running around. … Defensively, my philosophy is to try to push people to their weakness. You look at the stats, you look at trends and you go, this is one of their weaknesses, let’s try the best we can to make them feel that.” – Holsinger on Montana’s 2-2-1 press

“We were all here last night (at the official dedication for Robin Selvig Court), and I said, wearing this jersey today means more to you than it did yesterday because of what we saw. This is a special place that Robin made special, of course with all the players, and so to experience what we experienced last night as a team and then to be able to put that jersey on that says Montana, I just said let’s go make him proud.” – Holsinger

UP NEXT

Montana (13-12, 9-5) has just one game next weekend, the rivalry matchup against Montana State in Bozeman on Saturday. The Bobcats won the first meeting 72-63. Weber State (5-20, 1-12) hosts Sacramento State on Thursday.

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