Locked in a tense back-and-forth tussle with its archrival, Montana used its muscle in the middle to overwhelm Montana State down the stretch Saturday.
The Lady Griz went on a 16-0 run that started with 8:18 remaining to break open a close game and secure a season sweep of the Cats with a 77-59 win in front of 3,924 fans at Dahlberg Arena.
Montana moved to 9-5 in the Big Sky Conference, keeping alive its hopes for a No. 2 seed in the league tournament in March.
The significance of the sweep was not lost on Lady Griz forward Jordy Sullivan, a Sidney native who played some of her best basketball during Montana?s game-defining surge.
?The Cats are tough, so I?m just proud of our team the way we went out and stayed solid the whole time,? said the sophomore, who scored half of Montana?s points in its 16-0 run.
?The emotions are so high and everyone is going crazy and I?m losing it and people are like, ?Calm down.? Clutch time comes, here comes postseason soon, so it?s ?All right, everyone take their role.? It seems like that?s what we?re doing. Whatever way we can get the win, I?m down.?
Montana State coach Tricia Binford had nothing but praise for the Lady Griz, who hit 44.1 percent of their shots (26 for 59) in improving to 16-11 overall.
?It?s hard to tell my team a lot of things in the locker room when Montana just played a really good game,? she said. ?They had some players step up and had some great performances.
?(UM forward Katie) Baker, I think, is playing like an MVP candidate right now. It?s tough when you have to go man-to-man early and you?re not creating a lot of opportunities with some steals. We had our typical turnover count (16). When they?re only at nine, it?s not helping us with possessions. We need to give ourselves more opportunities.?
Binford?s team had every reason to believe it could win for the third straight time at Dahlberg when Katie Bussey nailed a bucket with nine minutes left to give the Cats a 53-51 lead. Little did she realize MSU would score only two more baskets the rest of the way, one coming on an unlikely bank shot by Bussey from beyond the arc.
?I thought our defense was good and they went a little cold, too,? said Montana coach Robin Selvig, whose team played zone most of the afternoon. ?Late in the game they had to take some bad shots because they had to hurry. We were fortunate they missed some shots.?
Sullivan kick-started Montana?s surge with a strong post move that led to a game-tying basket with 8:18 left. After a turnover by Montana State, Lady Griz guard and Bozeman native Kellie Cole was fouled taking the ball to the rim. MSU went in the penalty and fell behind 55-53 on Cole?s foul shots. Montana scored the next 12 points to pull away.
Fourteen of Montana?s last 24 points came from the line. In between Sullivan had two buckets and Kenzie De Boer, Torry Hill and Tianna Ware each had one. Ware?s fastbreak basket with three seconds left brought the crowd to its feet ? a storybook way for her to finish her senior season.
?That was nice,? Selvig said. ?Ti didn?t get very many minutes. But I think if any people watched her video piece before (the game) you can understand why we think the world of her. It was a nice way to finish.?
Baker led a quartet of Lady Griz scoring in double figures with 20 points. She also had a game-high nine rebounds.
?It?s really cool we all played well tonight as a team,? Baker said. ?Jordy (Sullivan) had the great post moves that got us going and from there we didn?t look back.
?Our heart rate wasn?t going like, ?Oh my gosh they could come back,? because we felt like we had this game. We put our trust in what Coach told us and played solid defense.?
Joining Baker in double figures were De Boer with 15 points, Sullivan with 13 and Torry Hill with 12 to go along with five assists. Bussey scored a team-high 16 points for the Cats, who fell to 9-6, 17-10.
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Notes: Montana held a 23-6 advantage in points off turnovers and a 26-18 edge in points in the paint ? The Lady Griz also enjoyed a 16-11 edge in second-chance points and a 26-18 advantage in bench points ? The Lady Griz will be in Pocatello, Idaho, for the Big Sky tourney as a result of Idaho State beating Eastern Washington on Saturday.
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Bill Speltz can be reached at 523-5255 or bill [dot] speltz [at] lee [dot] net.
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Source: http://www.petproplus.com/2012/02/25/lady-griz-declaw-the-cats-77-59/
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