MISSOULA — With each team afflicted by a virus acquired on a recent road trip, a trio of sick Bobcats helped Montana State rally before the unlikeliest of heroes rose to the occasion for the Lady Griz.
Behind the gutsy play of seniors Lindsay Stockton and Jasmine Hommes, Montana State rallied from a double-digit deficit to set up a back and forth final frame. Stockton scored nine of her 11 points after halftime, Hommes scored 10 in each half and MSU junior Peyton Ferris scored 15 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of free throws to put the Montana State women ahead 66-65 with 25 seconds to play at Dahlberg Arena.
UM guard Haley Vining guarded by MSU guard Lindsey Stockton
On the ensuing possession, Montana once again looked for Kayleigh Valley, the best interior scorer in the Big Sky Conference. Montana State denied the UM senior the ball, setting up a swing pass to senior point guard Haley Vining. The Great Falls product entered the game shooting just 24 percent from beyond the arc in conference play this season.
Vining caught Mekayla Isaak’s pass in rhythm and let fly a 3-pointer that rattled home to give Montana a 68-66 lead with 14 seconds to play. Hommes and junior Riley Nordgaard each had mid-range jump shot opportunities to tie the game but failed to convert. Valley’s final pair of free throws sealed Montana’s fifth straight win as the Lady Griz survived a heated rivalry battle with a 70-66 victory in front of 4,249 here on Saturday afternoon.
“This win is huge,” said Valley, the Big Sky’s leading scorer who finished with 23 points and six rebounds on Saturday. “We’ve been wanting this game. To keep this stride going heading into the tournament is big and to keep winning at home is really big for us. Something about the ‘Cats make it that much more special.”
Montana State head coach Tricia Binford said her whole team has been afflicted with a vicious virus over the last week. Hommes, Stockton and sophomore Hannah Caudill all missed practice time this week. Binford’s squad fell in a 32-22 deficit at halftime thanks to just eight second-quarter points. The Bobcats used a 10-1 run to begin the fourth quarter to turn the game into a tight affair. But the Bobcats came up short, falling to 12-2 in Big Sky Conference play, 19-6 overall.
“What a fight we gave in that second half to give ourselves a chance,” Binford said. “A lot of teams would’ve been done. I had two kids (Hommes, Stockton) not practice last night and two more the night before. To overcome that adversity being sick all week and give ourselves a chance in front of one of the toughest atmospheres, toughest crowds, I’m proud of how they handled that. We forced them to make the play. They made the play.”
UM forward Kayleigh Valley
Montana also has had some sickness run through it, mainly hindering Vining, a senior who did not practice all week. The shot was perhaps the biggest in Vining’s career, one that has been riddled by injuries, including several knee surgeries.
“I’m so happy for her I can’t even describe it,” Valley said. “It’s incredible what she’s been through and even to be back on the floor after all those knee surgeries and injuries and the struggles she’s gone through, to see her out there and to hit that big shot to win the game was amazing.”
Montana’s loss to the Bobcats in Bozeman sealed a four-game losing streak, just the second such occurrence in Selvig’s 38 seasons at the helm. The reigning Big Sky champions have now won five straight since, moving to 9-5 in Big Sky play, 16-9 overall.
“When we played the ‘Cats, it was a tough pill to swallow losing to them right at the end after being up the whole game and playing so hard,” said UM junior center Alycia Sims, a Stevenville native who finished with 15 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. “I think we really just came together and realized we can really do it and we just need to hit a few shots, play well together and play smart and we can pull these out.”
In Bozeman, Montana held a lead entering the fourth quarter but missed all nine of its field goal attempts in the final frame to lose at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse for the second straight time. UM converted its first bucket of the fourth quarter on Saturday to take a 51-40 lead but then missed six straight shots and committed a turnover as MSU went on a 10-1 run to cut the UM lead to 52-49.
UM head coach Robin Selvig
“There was a little bit of déjà vu written on that fourth quarter,” Selvig said. “I thought, ‘Are we not going to score?’ At MSU, we had a lead and then didn’t make a field goal in the fourth quarter. They are too good to stop forever. They are going to make some shots and make some plays. Finally we made some shots. Haley’s was huge. We had a lead but never a comfortable. They didn’t make a big run but they kept scoring and all of a sudden, there they are.”
Ferris scored eight points during the gap-closing spurt. The Twin Bridges product missed all four of her first-half shots and her first two attempts in the second half. She rallied to hit 6-of-13 from the floor overall and scored 18 points, including 15 in the final quarter.
“Me personally, I played like crap,” said Ferris, the reigning Big Sky Top Reserve. “I have to show up before the fourth quarter. I adjusted my ways and didn’t think about my shot but I have to take it to them from the beginning. In the fourth, I finally brought my mind together, said, ‘This is it, we have to go. No more throwing up weak shots.”
Hommes finished with 20 points and eight rebounds. Her baseline jump shot with 1:45 left cut the Lady Griz lead to 63-60 but Valley answered with a kiss off the glass on the other end to extend it to two possessions. Two Caudill free throws again cut it to three and UM senior McCalle Feller was called for a double dribble. Ferris converted on the other end to cut the lead to 65-64. Then Feller turned the ball over again. In transition, Sims picked up her final foul, leading to Ferris’ go-ahead free throws.
“This is a physical game and you have to play through that,” Hommes said. “You have to play what your strengths are. We came in with some sickness and we knew it was going to be a physical game, so we knew we would have to play tough. I thought our players played tough, but we need that for a full 40 minutes.”
MSU forward Jasmine Hommes
With Sims on the bench, UM worked the ball around the perimeter, looking for a high-low pass to Valley but Ferris and Hommes swarmed UM’s 5-foot-11 bruising power forward. Instead, Isaak swung the ball to Vining, who buried the final dagger.
“To spend half your life in rehab and then to have something good happen to you your senior year is pretty good,” Selvig said. “She didn’t practice at all this week and she was feeling so bad, she didn’t even come to our practices. She came to practice on Friday and shot a few free throws. She was able to eat something and felt OK this morning.”
Following Vining’s clutch triple and Hommes and Nordgaard’s ensuing misses, the ball went out of bounds and the call initially awarded possession to Montana State. After a lengthy review by the officials, UM was awarded possession and Valley was able to put the game away with her sixth and seventh free throw conversions.
“I will just say it’s unfortunate,” Binford said of the reversal. “I didn’t see it and the officials have to make those decisions.”
Montana State’s loss snaps a six-game winning streak. The Bobcats remain in first place by one game, ahead of Eastern Washington and Idaho. EWU lost 94-91 at Sacramento State on Thursday. Idaho posted an 84-63 win over Portland State on Thursday to move to 11-3 in league.
“This loss hurts because it’s Cat-Griz, personally too because it’s my last one,” Hommes said. “But we all know it’s going to hurt, sting really bad but tonight when we are back in Bozeman, we have to get back to work. This season still has a lot of work left. We still have four more games and then Reno. Everybody is going to Reno, everyone is going to bring it when we get there and March is what counts.”
UM forward Alycia Sims boxes out MSU guard Delany Junkermier
The Lady Griz win denies Montana State its first season sweep of Montana in Binford’s 11 seasons. The Bobcats are still searching for their first 20-win season under Binford’s direction.
“I think Robin Selvig is one of the best coaches in the nation,” Binford said. “That’s why he has so many wins under his belt. The atmosphere here is pretty challenging. The crowd does a great job of getting behind them.”
The victory is Montana’s 12th in 14 home games this season. UM is pursuing its 31st 20-win season, its 25th conference title and its 22nd trip to the NCAA Tournament under Selvig. The victory was the 861st of his illustrious career, moving him into ninth place on the all-time list. Even in the midst of his team’s first four-game losing streak since 1999, Selvig’s Lady Griz never panicked.
“This team has been good the whole time,” Selvig said. “There are a lot of good teams in this league. The fact that we are in the middle of the pack somewhere didn’t changed what we think about ourselves. We lost three games that we had leads in at the buzzer. It’s not like anybody is way better than anyone else. The ‘Cats deserve to be in first. What they have done is they have a really good team and they have won the close games and that’s how you get to win a championship. We didn’t do that early on. This is a real nice win for us because we had a really good crowd and they are a really good team.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
