For a few moments, it appeared Avery Waddington, Nate Harris and the Lady Griz were going to turn the tables on Montana State.
The narrative entering Saturday afternoon’s rivalry matinee included two primary story lines. First, the Bobcats have been turnover-forcing machines on the way to the best start in Big Sky Conference history this season while the Lady Griz have sometimes succumbed to a plague of miscues.
Second, Montana State entered Saturday’s rivalry with the reigning don of the Big Sky Conference basketball in 20th-year head coach Tricia Binford, a veteran who’s elevated MSU to the top of the Big Sky Conference standings on a seemingly yearly basis. On the other side, the Lady Griz were led by Nate Harris, a former Binford assistant who’s serving as the acting head coach at Montana after head coach Brian Holsinger was put on administrative leave earlier this month.
As the action played out on the court, the Bobcats showed unflappable poise in front of a season-high Dahlberg Arena crowd of 3,432. The visitors did not create their usual number of turnovers — MSU entered the game averaging nearly 25 forced TOs a game, yet forced just 17 Saturday — yet still executed systematically and efficiently in the half court to keep the upstart hosts at bay.
Yet the magic of Dahlberg Arena and the unfettered confidence of a rookie playing in her first Montana-Montana State rivalry game almost pulled Harris’s Lady Griz to an upset for the ages.
MSU entered the game not only with a 7-0 Big Sky Conference record and a 10-game winning streak but also a 17-2 mark overall, the best start in league history. The Lady Griz snapped a three-game losing streak last weekend with wins over Weber State and Idaho State, a pair of the downtrodden teams in the conference, before losing at Idaho on Monday.
Yet with Waddington, a 6-foot-3 freshman from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, leading the charge, Montana had a chance to upset the Bobcats in the final seconds of the game.
With under five seconds left and the Lady Griz down 67-66, the long-armed, springy Waddington caught a backside lob on a designed out-of-bounds play within a few feet of the basket. She might have been able to just tip the ball into the basket, but instead came down with the lob before going back up.
“Avery is so long and athletic,” Harris said. “She’s such a unique athlete, unique player that it was a play I was really, really confident we could get a high-quality shot up with the time that was left on the clock.”
What could have been an unforgettable game-winner instead careened off the rim before Montana State forward Ella Johnson secured the rebound. Montana State had a 67-66 win to stay unbeaten in league play. MSU has now defeated Montana nine of the last 11 rivalry matchups.
“I was definitely getting some déjà vu from last year because last year, they shot the lights out,” Montana State junior forward Marah Dykstra said after finishing with 11 points. “Down the stretch, it started to feel that way. But the feeling of, we have put in the work to be here – I don’t think there was ever a moment we went in the huddle and felt like we were going to lose that game.”
Before the last-ditch Waddington effort, the freshman had one of the great Cat-Griz debuts in the rivalry’s storied history. She poured in 15 points in the fourth quarter alone and at one point, scored 12 of Montana’s 14 points during a run that saw UM erase a Bobcat lead that had swelled to 12.
“For a freshman to come out in that big of a game and come up like that…there was one transition 3-pointer and she just dribbled and shot it, I mean, huge shot, and I couldn’t believe the confidence, but that’s what our team needs,” UM senior Dani Bartsch said. “We need her to play like this. The more shots she takes, the better it’s going to be.
“She’s an absolute unit and weapon we can use no matter where on the floor. She played an awesome game and stepped up big.”
Waddington’s transition 3-pointer with four minutes left cut the Bobcat lead to 60-59. Her triple from the corner with 1:31 left gave UM a 66-64 lead.
“We’ve seen her in club ball, but I’d rather her stay in club ball, because she’s pretty good,” Binford quipped.
Unfortunately for the Lady Griz, Esmeralda Morales converted on the other end to tie the game back up, then hit the game-winning free throw to give the ‘Cats the lead before Waddington’s last-second miss.
“You don’t play to be close, you don’t play to give yourself a chance, you play to win,” Harris said. “Our group is proving they belong. They are proving they can be a problem in March. We just have to continue to move in the right direction together.”
Certainly, the story was not just Waddington, although her career-high 21 points played huge in Montana’s near upset. UM’s guards, led by junior Mack Konig, managed MSU’s pressure well. Bartsch had a vintage game, snaring 16 rebounds to give UM a 34-30 advantage on the glass while adding 10 points.
Tyler McCliment-Call and Aby Shubert, a pair of transfers brought in for their shooting, combined to hit five 3-pointers in 11 attempts as Montana hit 11 3-pointers overall. Yet the hosts still came up one point short.
“We could’ve folded the tent in the third quarter but to take the lead multiple times and have a chance to win it, super proud of these kids,” Harris said.
For the last four games, the Lady Griz have certainly ebbed and flowed. Saturday, Montana let MSU go on a 13-3 run in the third quarter to push the lead to 12, but did not quit. Much of that stemmed from the poise and readiness of their head coach.
Harris is a Ronan native who grew up going to Griz sporting events of all sorts. He’s looked comfortable and encouraging on the sideline. And on Saturday, he dueled it out until the final seconds with his former boss.
Harris worked for Binford from 2014 to 2018, helping Montana State reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 25 years when they advanced in 2017. The season before, MSU also went to the WNIT after winning the league’s regular-season title but falling in the Big Sky Tournament.
“I know he can coach because he was on my staff for so many years and a big part of some of our championship runs,” Binford said. “I think the world of Nate and just really proud of him and want to support him. He did a great job.”
Now he has the keys to the most storied program in the league, at least for the time being. And he got to match wits with the longest-tenured and winningest active coach in the Big Sky.
It could only be expected he got a bit emotional after his first rivalry loss as a head coach.
“I texted Trish last night about how cool it was going to be to coach against her, because there’s honestly no one I respect more in this business,” Harris said. “She’s a really special person, a really unique person.
“Being from Montana and being the head coach tonight was a cool part of this. I honestly just wanted to put them in a situation to be successful and to get a win. That’s my biggest takeaway: I’m so sorry for these guys because we wanted this so bad for these young ladies with what they’ve seen through these last 10 days, to find a way to get there.”
