Lady Griz advance to face Vikings for title
by: Joel Carlson of UM Sports Information
Friday, 3/13/2009
No. 1 Montana pulled away late to post a 70-56 victory over No. 4 Idaho State Friday night in the second semifinal of the 2009 Big Sky Conference Women’s Basketball Championship at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula, Mont. The Lady Griz led by just two, 52-50, with under three minutes to play but outscored the Bengals 18-6 down the stretch, going 12-for-12 from the line over the final two minutes.
Montana advances to play No. 2 Portland State Saturday at 4 p.m. in the tournament’s championship game. The Vikings advanced through the opening semifinal Friday night with a 71-64 victory over No. 3 Montana State.
Portland State (22-8) has won eight of nine, its only loss since late January a 70-60 decision to Montana last Saturday afternoon at Dahlberg Arena.
Montana (27-4) has won 10 straight and 19 of its last 20. The Lady Griz’ only loss since mid December was a 72-62 defeat at Portland State in late January.
After handling Idaho State twice during the regular season – 70-48 at home and 73-39 at ISU – Montana couldn’t break free of the Bengals until late in the game Friday.
Idaho State opened the game by hitting 10 of its first 14 shots to take a 23-13 lead less than 10 minutes into the game. Nine of ISU’s first 10 baskets came off assists.
An Idaho State dry spell that lasted over five minutes allowed Montana to rally back and take a 25-23 lead on a jumper by sophomore Sarah Ena at the 5:37 mark.
ISU’s Jenna Brown connected on a 3-pointer with just over five minutes to play to put the Bengals back in front, 26-25, but Montana scored seven of the half’s final nine points to give the Lady Griz a 32-28 lead at the break.
Idaho State shot 52.2 percent in a clean first half that had just nine turnovers and five fouls between the two teams.
Montana shot 45.2 percent and had a 16-12 rebounding advantage.
The Lady Griz got up by seven on three occasions in the second half but could never produce the knockout run, and the Bengals cut the lead to two points, 52-50, on a jumper by Oana Iacovita at the 4:55 mark.
Idaho State had three shots with the deficit at just two points, including a 3-point attempt by Jenna Brown with 3:28 to play that could have given the Bengals the lead, but none of the shots dropped.
Montana also missed a pair of shots and had a missed free throw and turnover over a two-minute stretch.
One of those misses was by senior Mandy Morales with just under three minutes to play, but Ena was there for the offensive rebound and putback, plus the foul and free throw, making it 55-50 with 2:48 to play.
After a missed 3-pointer by ISU’s Devin Diehl on the other end, senior Sonya Rogers hit a pair of free throws to make it 57-50.
Idaho State turned the ball over on its next possession, and Morales answered with the knockout shot, a deep 3-pointer that made it a 10-point game, 60-50, with 1:28 remaining.
Morales led both teams with 25 points. She also filled the box score with seven assists, six rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.
Rogers added 17 points and matched a career high with six rebounds.
Ena had 14 points and six boards, while senior Britney Lohman added six points and six rebounds and matched a career high with five of UM’s 10 steals.
Iacovita had 22 points and seven rebounds to lead the Bengals.
Brown had 15 points, going 4-for-7 from 3-point range, while playing all 40 minutes.
ISU cooled off to 42.9 percent in the second half to finish at 47.1 percent for the game.
Montana shot 44.4 percent, had a 35-25 rebounding advantage and totaled just eight turnovers and eight fouls.
Idaho State ended its season 11-20.