RENO — Peyton Ferris grew up in a town so small, her dreams seemed beyond big.
The Montana State senior lists her hometown as Twin Bridges, but in reality, her family’s home is somewhere between Dillon and Twin in Southwest Montana.
Ferris remembers telling anyone that would listen that someday she would someday be a part of March Madness. The aspirations seemed like a fantasy for an undersized forward from a town of 200 people a world away from the Big Dance.
She experienced her big-game heartbreak as a senior at Twin Bridges when, despite her 42 points, the 2012 Montana Gatorade Player of the Year saw her prep career end with an overtime loss in the Class C title game.
Her NCAA Tournament aspirations still seemed in the distance as Ferris struggled to adjust to the college game. It seemed even farther when Ferris sat out her second season at MSU because of a reoccurring knee injury.
Montana State senior Peyton Ferris drives to the hoop against Idaho State junior Lindsay Brown
But Ferris kept fighting, first moving from guard into the post despite her 5-foot-9 frame, then adjusting to coming off the bench as a sophomore and a junior. She helped the Bobcats to their first outright Big Sky Conference championship last season only to see MSU’s NCAA Tournament hopes end in the blink of an eye thanks to Juliet Jones’ half-court heave.
The preseason Big Sky MVP and her Bobcat teammates entered this season with the expectation to make another run despite the graduation of three key seniors, including Big Sky MVP Jasmine Hommes. Head coach Tricia Binford knew if MSU wanted to hang another banner, her collection of young talent would need to follow the leadership of Ferris and fellow hard-nosed senior Riley Nordgaard.
Behind the unwavering effort of its captains, Montana State took everyone’s best shot, chinning each punch and closing games as well as any team in mid-major basketball. So when MSU fell down 12-2 in the first quarter of Saturday’s Big Sky Tournament against Idaho State, Ferris, Nordgaard, and the Bobcats did not panic.
Instead, Montana State turned to Ferris and Nordgaard like they have all season. The top-seeded Bobcats overcame a slow start and a third quarter plagued by cold shooting to persevere against their longtime nemesis.
Montana State celebrates
Montana State went toe-to-toe with Idaho State, the league’s most physical team, before slamming the door on its first Big Sky Tournament title since 1993. Behind Ferris’ timely scoring, Nordgaard’s passionate effort and contributions up and down the roster, the Bobcats are going dancing at long last following a 62-56 victory here on Saturday afternoon.
“This is my first career tournament win in my life, high school and college, and it feels good,” Ferris said. “I couldn’t be more excited to complete this final goal.”
Ferris, the Big Sky’s preseason and regular-season MVP, capped the most valuable player hat trick with a performance for the ages. She scored 23 points, grabbed seven rebounds and made her childhood dreams into a reality.
“Growing up, the dream I had, and people would say, ‘well you’re from where you’re from. It’s going to be really hard to do.’ Now I can sit there with a smile in my face and say I accomplished the goals I had in third grade,” Ferris said.
Nordgaard scored 16 points including drilling a momentum halting 3-pointer in transition and grabbed 10 rebounds to flirt with tournament MVP honors. The All-Big Sky forward finished the tournament with three straight double-doubles, helping lift MSU into the finals with spirited efforts in wins over Weber State and Eastern Washington while Ferris drew staggering defensive attention.
Montana State head coach Tricia Binford
“It’s a bit surreal,” Nordgaard, a former transfer from Division II Augustana, said. “These girls, this staff, this community has totally rallied not only this season but last season as well. It just feels so amazing to give the coaches, this team, this community exactly what we’ve all been hoping and working for. I’m on cloud nine.”
The victory is Montana State’s 25th this season, breaking a 30-year-old school record. MSU cut down the nets at the Reno Events Center to symbolically seal the program’s second trip to the Big Dance. The Bobcats carry and RPI of 67 and will find out their tournament seeding during Monday’s selection show.
“All I can think about is how happy I am for this team,” said Binford, in her 12th year as MSU’s head coach. “I also think its the next benchmarks and one of the first things that came to mind was last year’s team. This is a proud moment for them. They got us to a benchmark last year and this senior class really capitalized and built on that. My initial reactions are still the same, I’m just so happy for these ladies and the amount of work and the fight every day. It’s huge challenge and they never quit.”
The Bobcats lost 21 of 27 matchups against Idaho State, including eight of the last 10 before last week’s showdown in Bozeman. The Bobcats emerged with one of their four straight wins to cap the regular season to ensure a second straight Big Sky title. The win ensured the Bobcats the top seed for a second straight season and dropped Idaho State to the No. 6 spot in the tournament on the other side of the bracket.
Montana State senior Riley Nordgaard
Like they did a season ago, the Bengals won three games in five days to advance to Saturday’s championship, knocking out perennial power Montana in the first round, upsetting third-seeded Northern Colorado in the quarterfinals and outlasting upstart No. 7 Portland State in Friday afternoon’s semifinals.
ISU set the tone early as senior Freya Newton and sophomore Isabel Vara de Rey drilled 3-pointers in the game’s first four minutes. Grace Kenyon, who would finish with 26 points and 10 rebounds to earn a spot on the All-Tournament team, hit a bucket with 4:23 in the first quarter to push the lead to 12-2.
Ferris got going for the remainder of the first frame, scoring six points to help MSU shave the gap to 16-12 after 10 minutes. Nordgaard scored the first five points of the second quarter to give MSU its first lead, 17-16.
Nordgaard hit her second and third 3-pointers of the first half on back-to-back possessions to erase a 23-19 ISU lead and Ferris scored the final five points of the first half to stake MSU to a 32-28 halftime advantage.
“We’re a team that just goes and goes and goes,” Ferris said. “I was unaware we only made one shot. We just have the same mentality throughout the game that we’re going to be aggressive and go out there and play to win.”
Montana State junior Rebekah Hatchard
Ferris converted one field goal in the third quarter as Montana State missed the other 16 of its field goal attempts. But stifling defense spearheaded by junior reserve guard Rebekah Hatchard — a player who was not in the rotation until the final three weeks of the season — and her ability to harass Newton, ISU’s standout point guard. Even though MSU only scored six third-quarter points, Idaho State clung to a 39-38 lead entering the fourth quarter.
“Rebekah, I can’t even explain her defense right now,” Binford said. “With Hannah (Caudill) not feeling great we went to Bek in the lineup so she could be on the floor with her defense. She just ends plays. She’s really explosive, she’s hard to get around and she definitely made a huge impact.”
MSU sophomore Annika Lai, the hero of MSU’s 61-59 win over Eastern Washington in the semifinals thanks to 15 points and the game-winning bucket with three seconds left, gave the Bobcats a boost to begin the final stanza.
After a Hannah Caudill missed 3-pointer, Nordgaard secured the offensive rebound and found a cutting Lai for a basket that gave MSU a 42-41 lead early in the fourth quarter. After a Nordgaard miss, Ferris got the offensive rebound and dished a sweet bounce pass to Lai, who converted with her left hand to push the lead to 44-41. She hit two free throws to make the advantage four. A layup by Hatchard and both of Ferris’ fourth-quarter baskets gave MSU a 52-44 lead with 4:11 to play.
Montana State sophomore Annika Lai
Kenyon did her best to steal the momentum back, nailing her second 3-pointer to cut the lead to 52-47. With Caudill still battling an undisclosed but serious illness, Binford put Nordgaard at point guard. She ran the ball up the court and launched a deep 3-pointer early in the shot clock, rattling home her fourth 3-point make and giving a celebratory fist pump as the lead stayed at eight. The shot served as MSU’s last field goal as the Bobcats moved into the NCAA Tournament by denying the Bengals any rally.
“I don’t really know if I’m thinking when I play,” Nordgaard said with a laugh. “I saw that she was off and the shot was feeling good today and I let it fly and it went in, so it was good.”
Kenyon and freshman Bianca Thacker earned All-Tournament honors along with Nordgaard, Ferris, Portland State sophomore Ashley Bolston and Eastern Washington junior Delaney Hodgins. Kenyon converted 11-of-19 shots to finish with a double-double and as ISU’s only double-figure scorer on Saturday. Thacker, who hit two 3s in the win over Northern Colorado and five more against PSU, hit one of ISU’s seven 3-pointers in 26 attempts in the championship.
“We are very proud of our team,” ISU head coach Seton Sobolewski said after his team finished 19-14. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores who stepped up, did a lot of great things this year and took us to the championship game. It was a little bit of a bumpy ride during the season with our injuries but I’m extremely proud of our team.
“Montana State played a great game, played really hard and deserve to go on to the NCAA Tournament and represent the Big Sky Conference.”
The 2017 Big Sky Conference Tournament champion Montana State Bobcats
Montana State will find out its seeding in the NCAA Tournament on Monday. The Bobcats could get as high as a 13-seed. MSU is currently projected to play in either Seattle or Salt Lake City as a No. 14 seed.
“The biggest thing is we took care of what we can control and the selection group will have to make their decisions,” Binford said. “We’re excited about Monday, we’re going to be fired up for whoever it is. I do think the consistency this group has shown all year has helped them earn a very good RPI and hopefully to get them a decent seed.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
