BOZEMAN – As the final three seconds expired on his third – and Montana’s 10th – consecutive away loss to Montana State, Lady Griz head coach Brian Holsinger turned away from the court and clapped once as he headed the scorer’s table for a quick handshake with Tricia Binford.
A minute or so later, Holsinger was gone, patting freshman Macey Huard on the back as he and his team walked off the court at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
The story of Saturday’s game was the resilience of Binford’s Montana State team, exemplified by how they closed out the final 30 seconds of the game after a scary neck injury to senior KJ Limardo.
The surreality surrounding Limardo’s awful fall, which caused a near-20-minute delay as paramedics attended to her in a chillingly quiet Worthington Arena, hung over the final ticks of the clock, which saw Bobcats senior Madison Hall hit four free throws and freshman Natalie Picton add two more to close out a 64-55 win.
It also obscured another meltdown in Bozeman for the Lady Griz as their losing streak in their rival’s circular house of horrors reached a full decade – a run that’s encompassed the final two seasons of legend Robin Selvig’s coaching career, all four of Shannon Schweyen’s and one of Mike Petrino’s and now the first three of Holsinger’s.
“I don’t have a lot to say, honestly,” Holsinger said. “Completely disappointed in my team and our team’s effort the whole game, you know, and give credit to Montana State. … Really disappointing game for us.”
After pushing Montana State – which went on to win a share of the conference title – to the wire with a furious late run in a 75-73 loss a year ago, it appeared things were lining up for the Lady Griz to end the run this season.
In each of their previous two tries, Montana played well in stretches but was clearly a level or two below an experienced, businesslike Bobcats team led by all-conference stalwarts Darian White and Kola Bad Bear.
But this year, White and Bad Bear were gone, and Holsinger has assembled the talent-laden roster he’d been promising, meshing holdovers like Carmen Gfeller and Dani Bartsch, new recruits like Mack Konig and Macey Huard and transfers like Gina Marxen, Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw and MJ Bruno into a devastating, sharpshooting team. They opened the season with respectable losses to top-25 Gonzaga and Washington State and went on to start the conference season 3-1.
For the first seven minutes, that was the Lady Griz team that showed up to Bozeman on Saturday. Espenmiller-McGraw, Huard and Marxen all hit 3-pointers. Bartsch hit two, Binford took two timeouts in a desperate attempt to stop the barrage and Montana led 19-5 with three minutes, 23 seconds left in the first quarter.
“We definitely did not want to give them those rhythm 3s,” Binford said. “Because once you give them one, then that rim gets bigger. We had a really bad start, and I think I took two timeouts in one quarter. I’m like, ‘Okay, well, we’re stuck, they’ve got to play through it now, because I’m down to two timeouts.’ … Our kids kind of had to taper that down. We adjusted to how quick they can get these 3s off and tried to erase some of those and make them a little bit more rushed.”
The redemption narrative looked locked and loaded – but it didn’t hold for long. Montana State, pressuring the ball with live-wire freshman point guard Natalie Picton and taking away the easy 3s that Montana feasted on early, went on a 14-0 run over the end of the first quarter and the start of the second to tie it up at 19-all.
It was 29-25 Lady Griz at the half, but 44-41 Montana State after three quarters when Hall snuck behind the Montana defense for a crucial layup at the buzzer – and with the game close late, it was the old narrative that prevailed for the Lady Griz. Hall (Madison Jackson the last four seasons before getting married last off-season) finished with 18 points ad the fifth-year senior made play after play throughout the game.
After Bruno’s 3-pointer with 5:42 to go cut the Bobcats lead to 52-51, Montana didn’t make a single field goal the rest of the way.
Picton hit a crucial 3-pointer – her second of the quarter – and after Hall’s tough layup in the lane with under a minute left, Gfeller had a quality look for a 3 to tie from the top of the key but missed.
“We have a really good look at the end of the game to tie the game, and we don’t make it,” Holsinger said. “You have to make those, step up in those moments and make shots in games like this.”
Limardo chased down the rebound but fell awkwardly as Espenmiller-McGraw fouled her, leading to the scary scene and the drawn-out finish to the game (Montana State later gave a positive update on Limardo’s condition).
“We love KJ, our prayers are with her,” Binford said. “We’ve already got a ton of extended prayers, so we’re super grateful for that. Our thoughts are with her.”
After a near-tragedy like that, it’s hard to put any result into perspective. On the scoreboard, it was just another loss in a steadily mounting pile of them in this matchup for the Lady Griz.
But in the gym, it was the most galling of the three under Holsinger. The last two years, he’s been building a team. This year, it’s built – and in the fourth quarter in Bozeman, it still didn’t matter.
“To be honest, I wish I knew (what changed),” Holsinger said. “We came out playing right, and got tentative. And again, hats off to Montana State. They play aggressive, and so you want to give them credit. But something changed. … We came out the way I envisioned, and it went downhill. And, you know, I don’t necessarily know exactly what happened.”
