. . . Montana's steel trap defense, North Dakota looked downright uncomfortable Thursday night.
The Lady Griz held the defending Big Sky Conference champions to a season-low points total in a 66-51 win in front of 3,137 fans at Dahlberg Arena. Montana increased its league lead to two games in boosting its record for 10-2 (17-6 overall). "Always we pride ourselves on defense, but especially this game we really had to work on that and our rebounding," said Montana sophomore Kayleigh Valley, who was nearly perfect with 6-for-6 shooting from the floor and a 5-for-6 effort from the line for a total of 17 points. "It was a really good accomplishment. Coach (Robin Selvig) even applauded us upstairs after the game. He was really thrilled with our defense." There was nothing fancy about the way the Lady Griz frustrated the taller NoDak lineup. It was just good old-fashioned man defense and a lot of helping out when North Dakota 6-foot-5 center Emily Evers caught the ball down low. "The girls played hard, they were tough," Selvig said. "They're a pretty good defensive team themselves. We had some nice stretches of scoring and then we had those dry spells. But they never really had any runs. "They were really working to get the ball inside. You're not going to shut them down completely. But we got a few turnovers from that and they had to shoot some perimeter shots." North Dakota finished 20 for 59 from the floor. Evers led the visitors with 16 points but turned the ball over four times. From the opening tip Montana trumped North Dakota (8-4, 16-8) with its level of intensity. The Lady Griz raced to a 15-4 lead in the first seven minutes, hitting five of their first seven shots. NoDak made just 4 of its first 19 shots in spotting Montana a 19-10 lead. But the visitors were not going away easily, using an 8-0 run to cut their deficit to 19-18 with five minutes left in the half. At that point Kellie Rubel, who led all scorers with 23 points, came alive with a 3-ball and deuce that helped extend Montana's lead to 27-18. NoDak responded with a 5-0 run before a pair of Maggie Rickman free throws and a Valley bucket gave UM a 31-23 advantage at intermission. "Kayleigh was the difference for a lot of the time because they were switching on the perimeter and we weren't making the perimeter shot," Selvig said. "What Kayleigh did was make some great catches (inside). They were physical and there was contact on all those catches. She went and got the ball and scored it. I thought she was huge." The defining moment came at the start of the second half when Montana went on an 11-0 run behind stellar defense and three baskets by Rubel. NoDak started the half with three straight turnovers -- the first occurring when Evers panicked while being double-teamed, the second when Siri Burck was stripped by McCalle Feller and the third when Makailah Dyer was whistled for a push-off. Feller's long bucket with 15:58 left gave Montana its biggest lead, 42-23. North Dakota cut its deficit to 42-31 on a Mia Loyd basket with 10:56 left, but Valley answered with a jumper in the lane that ended a five-minute dry spell for the hosts. Valley said she couldn't remember the last time she posted up as many times in a college game.
