Feb. 16, 2012

Box score

Junior Katie Baker and sophomore Jordan Sullivan combined for 41 points and Montana shot 48.1 percent in the Lady Griz' 62-52 victory at Weber State Thursday night at Ogden, Utah. Baker finished with a career-high 26 points, Sullivan a career-high 15.

The win kept Montana (15-11, 8-5 BSC) in a tie for fourth in the Big Sky Conference with Northern Colorado (16-10, 8-5 BSC), which completed a season sweep of second-place Eastern Washington (16-10, 10-3 BSC) with a 56-49 victory at Greeley, Colo., Thursday.

In the Big Sky's only other game Thursday, third-place Montana State (17-9, 9-5 BSC) won at Northern Arizona (8-18, 3-11 BSC), 83-78.

The loss eliminated the Lumberjacks from postseason tournament discussion and made it a two-team race for the sixth and final spot between Portland State (13-11, 5-6 BSC) and Sacramento State (9-17, 4-9 BSC).

Unlike the teams' first meeting this season, a 77-70 Montana victory at Missoula in which the Lady Griz had a difficult time stopping the Wildcats, Montana's defense was the story Thursday at a mostly empty Dee Events Center.

Megan Patterson, who burned Montana for 19 points in the teams' first game, and Caela Mohre each had a team-high 11 for WSU.

Weber State fell behind 7-0 in the opening two minutes, then fought back to grab a 19-16 lead on a Mohre jumper nine minutes in.

Baker tied it 20 seconds later with her only three of the game, and the Wildcats would never regain the lead.

Montana outscored Weber State 21-10 the final eight minutes of the first half to take a 42-31 lead to the locker room after shooting 62.1 percent the opening 20 minutes.

The Lady Griz scored just 20 second-half points, but the Wildcats could only put up 21 and just once got the lead into single digits, trimming UM's advantage to 47-39 with 16:08 remaining.

Baker and Sullivan scored the game's next six points, and the lead reached a game-high 17 points, 58-41, when Baker converted a three-point play with 8:38 to go.

"They didn't miss many shots the first half, but we didn't either so we have a nice lead," UM coach Robin Selvig said. "The second half we did a better job defensively.

"We were really trying to take Patterson out of it, and I thought we did a good job. She ended up with 11 points, 3 for 6 from three, but she only got eight shots.

"The trick was not letting her get a bunch of good looks, and we did a pretty good job on that."

Montana got almost all the offense it would need from Baker and Sullivan. Baker went 10 for 16 and a perfect 5 for 5 from the line to eclipse the 25 points she scored earlier this season against St. Mary's.

Sullivan went an efficient 7 for 10 and added a game-high nine rebounds to her career-high 15 points. Sullivan has gone 9 for 12 the last two games after going 4 for 24 the previous four.

The two forwards helped Montana own a 28-10 advantage in points in the paint.

Junior Kenzie De Boer scored nine points and added four assists and three steals, and sophomore Torry Hill matched a career high with seven assists.

"We really scored the ball inside. The posts made shots when (Weber State) was pressuring the perimeter," Selvig said.

"It was really nice to see Jordan get a bunch of shots to go down, and Katie was feeling it.

"This is a good win. They're a team that scares the heck out of you, because they can be hard to get away from."

Montana cooled off to 32.0 percent shooting in the second half to drop down to 48.1 percent for the game. It was the Lady Griz' third-best shooting game of the season and the first time in five games they finished better than 37 percent.

The loss keeps the Wildcats (2-24, 0-13 BSC) winless since early December. WSU will play at Big Sky leader Idaho State (19-6, 11-1 BSC) Saturday afternoon, then host Northern Colorado and Montana State the final two weekends of the season as it attempts to pick up its first league win.

Thursday night's game was Montana's only one of the week. The Lady Griz will host Montana State on Saturday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. at Dahlberg Arena. Montana topped Montana State 61-54 when the teams met Feb. 4 at Bozeman.

The Lady Griz will conclude the regular season with a road trip to Portland State and Northern Arizona March 1 and 3, then travel to either Pocatello, Idaho, or Cheney, Wash., for the Big Sky tournament.