BOISE, Idaho – Perhaps surprisingly, the end of the Lady Griz’s losing streak in the Big Sky Conference tournament came without any drama at all.
On Monday at Idaho Central Arena, the Lady Griz shot 50 percent, had five players score in double figures and forced Idaho into plenty of inefficient shots for a 73-61 win that was rarely closer than 10 points in the second half.
The mundanity of the result didn’t make it any less special for a program that has experienced plenty of postseason letdowns since Robin Selvig retired and the Big Sky tournaments moved to a neutral site.
“Great win. It’s fun to win this time of year,” Holsinger said. “The opportunity to win for the first time, and I think one of the first times at a neutral site for Lady Griz basketball in general, is a big deal. And, you know, every win in March is always good.”
Aside from putting the Lady Griz into the semifinals against Northern Arizona on Tuesday, the win comprehensively put to bed the narrative that’s stalked Holsinger’s Montana teams for nearly three full years.
After coming over from Oregon State, Holsinger has unquestionably built talented teams in Missoula, The Lady Griz have, at times, looked like the best team in the league. But for the past two years, that talent has come with missed opportunities and disappointment, particularly on the conference’s biggest, most consequential stage.
Two years ago, the Lady Griz were blown out by Montana native Loree Payne and her Northern Arizona Lumberjacks in the 4-5 game. Last year, Montana lost 72-64 to Eastern Washington in the exact same 4-5 matchup.
That continued a run of futility that goes all the way back to the 2018 tournament in Reno, when Shannon Schweyen’s Lady Griz beat No. 9 Sac State only to lose to No. 1 Northern Colorado in the next round.
This year’s roster was Holsinger’s most talented yet, one of the top outside shooting teams in the entire country, but the Lady Griz continued to shrink from the moment in big games.
After beating Northern Arizona in Flagstaff in January, they lost a chance at momentum with an inexplicable 64-55 loss in Bozeman, letting the Bobcats back in the game after taking a 19-5 lead.
They consistently blew out the bottom teams in the Big Sky but also lost the rematch to Northern Arizona in Missoula and both games against Eastern Washington, going 1-3 against the two teams that finished ahead of them in the league standings.
It’s been tough to put a finger on exactly what’s been missing for the Lady Griz in big games under Holsinger. Whatever it is, it didn’t apply on Monday.
Dual point guards Mack Konig and Gina Marxen pushed the pace, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw hit three 3-pointers, and Montana forced star Idaho guard Kennedy Johnson to take 23 shots for her 24 points.
“We kind of just figured, look, we’re gonna make it hard on her,” Holsinger said. “She’s a good player, good one-on-one player. They’re iso-ing us all game, we knew that that was going to be the case. We tried to give as much help as we could, but we didn’t want to give up 3s. So we wanted to make them make hard 2s.”
Montana now goes on to play Northern Arizona – another chance to continue writing a new story in the crucible of Boise.
“I’ve only been here for a couple years, and we’ve lost, obviously, for two years since I’ve been here,” Holsinger said. “But there’s a little history before that, too. I just think anytime you do something that hasn’t been done in a long time, it feels good, right? It’s kind of like winning 20 games this year, it just kind of feels good. These are milestones that we want to keep building on.”
