Montana women’s basketball coach Brian Holsinger said everything without having to say anything after his team’s season came to an end in Fargo with a 72-63 loss to North Dakota State in the WNIT round of 32 on Monday night.
After emerging from an intense locker room scene, with hugs and tears in no short supply, Holsinger’s voice cracked with emotion as he sat for his final post game interview of the season. His voice began to waver before he was even a half dozen words in.
This whole season? The one that began with so much promise back in the fall and mostly delivered to a fan base so ready for this kind of team? It meant something. To him, to his players, to everyone who cares about the program.
“There are lots of tears but there are only tears when things mean so much,” Holsinger managed to get out. “If no one cared, everyone would be like, okay, see you later. That is not what is happening. Everyone realizes that this group will never get to be together again.”
Montana was up against it before the game even tipped off, with a shortened bench due to the abrupt transfer of standout freshman Macey Huard plus the fact senior Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw fighting despite her lower body is being held together by tape and prayer at this point. Plus, the Lady Griz second round WNIT opponent was a good one in North Dakota State playing in front of a loud, fired-up crowd lured in by the carrot of free tickets.
And Montana still had a chance to take the game to the final minute. Down 64-59, Montana missed two contested layups at the rim and an open 3-pointer that could have made it a two-point game with 3:48 to go.
Down five entering the fourth quarter, Montana went 3 for 15 over the final 10 minutes, out of gas but still full of fight.
“I’m so proud of this team. They battled like crazy,” said Holsinger. “We had a few missed layups in the fourth quarter where we could have flipped the script.”
And that was enough talk about the game for Holsinger, whose mind and interview kept going big picture, to what his team pulled off this season, so many things not accomplished since Robin Selvig was coaching, the era of dominance that Holsinger and his program are determined to return to.
“The specifics of the game don’t matter to me right now,” he said. “What matters to me is what these kids did for the Lady Griz jersey. They made the community of Missoula and the people who are our fans, they made them proud this year.
“We’ve brought back the excitement of what Lady Griz basketball has been in the past. This program is a very proud program and I’m proud to lead this program. We’re going to get better and better because of this team.”
Even while hamstrung, the Lady Griz played to their strengths, going 11 for 24 (.458) from the 3-point line and turning the ball over just seven times. Those 11 makes gave Montana 357 made 3-pointers for the season, the fifth-highest total in Big Sky history.
With the Lady Griz dazzling from the perimeter, the Bison were destructive in the interior. Montana had only been out rebounded a handful of times all season, never by more than 11. North Dakota State got the better of Montana on the boards 46-25.
The Bison outscored the Lady Griz by 22 in the paint, grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and went 17 for 18 from the free throw line, all of it adding up to one team being nine points better than the other.
NDSU’s leading scorer, sophomore guard Elle Evans, scored a super-efficient 17 points on just 10 shots. Montana held North Dakota State’s other high-scoring guard, Heaven Hamling, to seven on 2-of-9 shooting.
North Dakota State will play either Minnesota or Pacific in the WNIT’s Super 16.
After 40 minutes it was enough to end Montana’s season.
“We are pretty wounded,” said Holsinger. “Then Carmen fouls out in 20 minutes. That doesn’t help. But these kids battled so hard. I’m super proud of them. We just didn’t do enough things to win on the road.”
