In the long run it didn’t matter that the Northern Colorado Bears held Montana’s all-everything senior point guard Mandy Morales to two first-half points.
Or even that the Bears gave the Lady Griz a tough fight through the first 10 minutes of the opening frame.
The Lady Griz – before a strangely passive, almost ‘ho-hum’ crowd of 3317 – responded by sharing the ball and the scoring with an efficient 51.9 percent shooting effort that set the stage for yet another Big Sky Conference runaway win... this one 71-51 over the Bears at Dahlberg Arena.
The catalyst in Montana’s first-half breakaway was senior center Britney Lohman, who mailed-home two three-point shots from the tip of the key that helped expand a slim 12-11 margin to a 35-23 halftime lead.
PHOTO: Montana guard Shaunte Nance-Johnson is stopped by Northern Colorado defender Cassie Lambrecht on a drive to the basket during first-half action. No foul was called on the play.
Sophomore reserve Stephanie Stender added her own trey during the span, while starters Sarah Ena, Sonya
Rogers and Lauren Beck each scored a bucket. But it was Montana’s iron-clad man-on defense and several key offensive rebounds by Ena and Lohman that gave balance to Montana’s steady pull-away.
PHOTO: Reserve Misty Atkinson has the ball stripped by Bears' guard Cassie Lambrecht in second half action. Atkinson lost control of the ball, which was recovered by Lambrecht.
The Lady Griz also limited the Bears to only 28.6 percent shooting in the first half, and with each stop or steal, the Bears’ shooting became ever-more tentative.
Montana coach Robin Selvig credited the Bears' early efforts against his squad.
“Well it was nice to get a little run toward the end of the half,” said Selvig. “They’re a good team, I mean they run good things and we were working hard and they were defending
us well and... you know, we just can’t expect to be up 15 right away on people that’re good teams.”
Any doubts after first-half action were quickly erased as the second half got underway.
In typical Lady Griz fashion, Montana put an exclamation point on its first-half dominance with a quick trey by Rogers and two treys and a jumper by Morales in the first 135 seconds of the second half.
Suddenly, the Lady Griz were up by 19 at 46-24 with 17-plus minutes of game time remaining.
PHOTO: Senior reserve center Tamara Guardipee posts up against Bears' defender Cayla Maneotis in second half action. Guardipee, who scored four points and grabbed two rebounds, made the shot on this play.
Morales finished the game with 13 points and five assists, and was joined in double figures by 13 from Lohman, 12 from Rogers and 10 from Ena, who dominated the boards at both ends with 11.
Six other Lady Griz scored in a game where eight Montana players logged floor time in double digits.
Selvig – who rotated his entire bench liberally into the game action – was visibly pleased with his squad’s efforts.
“Everybody’s contributing,” said Selvig. “Everybody’s... you know, earlier in the year maybe somebody’s going to kill you on defense... but that’s not the case (tonight). We’ve got kids communicating well, playing good defensively.”
The Bears got an outstanding effort from junior guard Whitley Cox, who scored a game-high 18 points on 8-of-19 shooting from the field, most on quick-pivot dribble enter drives past Montana defenders. No other UNC player scored more than nine points.
The Bears were also hurt by 14 turnovers, but what hurt most was their miserable first-half shooting that improved only marginally – to 33.3 percent – by game’s end.
Montana out-rebounded the Bears by six, forced 14 UNC turnovers and had seven steals.
The win upped Montana’s record to 13-1 in conference play, 24-4 overall, and into a statistical half-game hold onto first place ahead of the 12-1 Portland State Vikings.
The Bears slipped to 5-8, tied with Eastern Washington in a battle for the final post season tourney playoff spot.
