MISSOULA –There is still nothing better, at least during the cold winter, than a basketball game that everybody in the building is taking seriously.
And in Missoula, and Bozeman, there’s no better way to draw out that intensity than Bobcats vs. Grizzlies, which meant that Saturday’s afternoon matchup between Montana and Montana State’s women had a little energy emanating from the single-minded attention of all 3,504 in the Dahlberg Arena stands. A little energy and a little bite, even in the pregame, with five or six cameras hovering over the Lady Griz huddle as the starters were announced. Light show. Crescendo.
That’s also the type of atmosphere that leads to tense nerves and tight muscles. And sure enough, in the first five minutes, there was Montana State’s Lexi Deden air-balling a short baseline jumper and Kola Bad Bear letting the gift offensive rebound slip through her hands. On the other end, Keeli Burton-Oliver chunked a top of the key 3-pointer, generously, two feet to the right, off the backboard and down.
It’s a revealing crucible, one in which Deden’s hustle made her one of the Bobcats’ most important players despite a poor shooting night leaving her with just eight points. And, after a 25-14 advantage in the third quarter carried the visiting Bobcats to a 72-63 win, it left the Lady Griz in a familiar place as of late – with more questions than answers.
Or, phrased another way, with more inconsistency than reliability.
Over and over, the Lady Griz tried to force the ball inside to senior Carmen Gfeller, only for her to miss a tough shot or turn it over. Averaging a team-high 13 points per game on the season, she ended Saturday with two, both free throws, never getting back on track after two early fouls forced UM head coach Brian Holsinger to put her on the bench five-and-a-half minutes into the game.
Altogether, it was a microcosm of the recent rivalry as MSU won in Missoula for the 8th time since 2010 and beat the Lady Griz for the eighth time in the last nine rivalry matchups.
“To Carmen’s credit, it’s really hard to sit that long,” Holsinger, UM’s second-year head coach, said. “You get two fouls that early, I wanted to give her a break. You sit the entire first half, not ideal for our team, but really tough to come back in the second half and find her rhythm.”
After getting called for a tie-up under the basket with about two minutes left and the Bobcats up double digits, Gfeller’s frozen expression said it all – disappointment, frustration and resignation plain on the face of a player who was instrumental in snapping Montana State’s seven-game winning streak in the rivalry last year but couldn’t repeat the trick in her final Cat-Griz home game.
In February 2022, Gfeller hit five 3-pointers and poured in a career-high 34 points to lead UM to a 71-54 win, snapping MSU’s rivalry streak in the process.
On Saturday, Gfeller’s senior peers also failed to rise to the occasion. Point guard Gina Marxen, playing in her first Cat-Griz after a successful career at Idaho, had seven points on 3 of 11 shooting. Combo guard Sammy Fatkin finished with six points on 1 of 7 shooting. Altogether, the three seniors went a combined 4 for 22 for 15 points with 11 of Montana’s 18 turnovers.
In their felt, if not literal, absence, a pair of freshmen kept the Lady Griz close enough to touch for most of the game, keying the second-quarter run that sent them into halftime down just two points.
There was nothing about any of Libby Stump’s previous performances this season that suggested that the quick-trigger freshman would be scared of the environment, and indeed, relying on the simplicity of her game – get to her spot, shoot – Stump poured in a career-high 21. She hit 4 of 8 3-point attempts, with most of those coming early before she left several on the front rim late.
More surprising was Mack Konig, who looked tentative and a potential liability as the backup point guard as recently as a month ago while she works her way back to full strength from a knee injury.
On Saturday, the crucible – both of the game and of going against Montana State’s magnificent senior point guard and MVP candidate Darian White – seemed to spark Konig.
Hunched over as she dribbled, hesitations flowing into sweeping crossovers, Konig got to the rim, hit four 3s, showed active hands on defense and finished with 20 points, a career-high for the hyped recruit from Canada.
“They just played right, without fear,” Holsinger said of his freshmen backcourt. “That’s what these two did, they took what the defense gave them, whether it was drive it and finish it, drive it and kick it.”
Generally, the Lady Griz this season have just been trying not to lose ground when Holsinger goes to the youngsters on the bench. On Saturday, it was the freshmen who didn’t know enough to be scared driving them forward – Konig was a team-high plus-8; Stump was minus-2, still pretty good in a near-double-digit loss.
That should have been enough. Instead, after an afternoon of intensity, the Lady Griz had nothing to show for it, and were left drained and disappointed.
“I always talk about playing the right way,” Holsinger said. “The players who didn’t play well, didn’t play the way we wanted them to play, and that’s without fear, ready to knock it down. … We have to do a better job. We have too talented a team.”
