Lady Griz cool off Eastern Washington in 81-70 win

THE MATCHUP

Both the Lady Griz and Eastern Washington were trying to surge coming into their conference opener on Thursday night in Cheney. The Eagles had won three of four, including a 30-point blowout of Utah State to wrap up a 7-3 non-conference record. Montana was down at 4-7, but had won two of their last three.

THE RESULT

Montana jumped out to a 25-17 lead after the first quarter, led by as many as 19 in the second and led by double digits for almost the entire second half in an 81-70 win. The Lady Griz shot 62.1% in the first 20 minutes. Eastern Washington cut the lead to eight points with a minute left in the third quarter, but Mack Konig scored a short jumper to give Montana a 10-point advantage heading to the fourth, and the Lady Griz scored the first four points of the final quarter as well. Eastern Washington turned the ball over just six times but shot under 40%.

THE STANDOUTS

Lady Griz forward Carmen Gfeller showed off her all-around scoring game, leading all players with 18 points on 13 shots. Four other Montana players joined her in double figures, including freshman Libby Stump with 15 points off the bench. Keeli Burton-Oliver made all six of her shots and finished with 14 points and nine rebounds.

Junior Jacinta Buckley led Eastern Washington with 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals, and sophomore Jaleesa Lawrence added 14 points off the bench.

BOX SCORE

QUOTABLE

“I’ll take 80 points on the road any day. If we can score 80, we’ll be okay. I don’t know that you’re going to be able to score that way every game, but tonight we did on the road against a good team.” – Montana head coach Brian Holsinger

“We made it hard for them most of the night, but we still relax (on the defensive end). To be the best, you can’t relax. We take times off, and when you don’t do the right things, people will take advantage of it. We were better tonight than we’ve been. We have to continue to improve on that side of the ball.” – Holsinger

UP NEXT

Montana continues its road trip by crossing the Washington-Idaho line to take on the Idaho Vandals in Moscow at 3 p.m. Saturday. Idaho dominated defending conference champion Montana State 72-53 on Thursday. Eastern Washington now gets to face the Bobcats coming off that frustrating loss.

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