Lady Griz catch fire to earn split on the road

by Troy Warzocha | February 9, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

For the Lady Griz, it pays to be young and naïve.

Twenty-four hours after suffering an upsetting defeat at the hands of last-place Weber State, the Lady Griz played their best half of basketball this season, shooting 60 percent from the field in a victory over then fourth-place Idaho State.

“It was important to come back the next day and do things a little better,” said senior forward Lauren Beck.

The Lady Griz (7–3, 12–10 overall) have yet to lose three games in a row in conference play and find themselves alone in second place with a showdown against conference-leader Eastern Washington (7–2, 14–8 overall) looming on the horizon.

The poor shooting that plagued the Lady Griz earlier this season reared its ugly head again Friday night, as Montana struggled to shoot 33.3 percent against Weber State. It didn’t matter if UM was taking layups or shooting from 10 feet out; none of them were going down.

“(Weber State) played a good zone, but we missed layup after layup,” said assistant coach Annette Rocheleau. “We missed a bunch of easy shots, but we had our best night from 3-(point line).”

Despite its shooting woes, UM still had a chance to win the game when junior forward Sarah Ena’s free throw tied the game at 53 with 1:46 left. Unfortunately the Lady Griz turned the ball over three times in the final minute of play and Weber State senior guard Sarah Conner closed out the game from the free throw line.

Conner and junior forward Caitlin Anderson gave the Lady Grizzly defense fits all night as each scored 17 points in the Wildcats’ victory. Nine of Conner’s 17 points were from beyond the arc and Anderson was unstoppable on the glass, finishing with a game-high 10 rebounds.

“She was just really, really physical and not in a bad way or a cheap way,” Beck said. “She was just really good in the post.”

Eventually, the Lady Griz switched from their traditional zone defense to a man-to-man defense in an effort to slow down Conner and Anderson.

“For some reason we’ve always had better luck man-to-man against Weber,” Rocheleau said. “One-on-one in the post, (Anderson) is hard to stop. We thought we needed to go to man to hit the boards.”

The Lady Griz did end up out-rebounding the Wildcats 41-37, but Weber State finished with more blocks, steals, and points.

Beck scored a game-high 19 points and was perfect from three-point range, going 5–5. She shot 70 percent from the field and led the Lady Griz with five assists.

The Great Falls native also played all 40 minutes for the second time this year and has played at least 35 minutes in eight of UM’s 10 conference games so far this season.

“I think we did a good job of conditioning in the offseason,” Beck said. “You have to play every minute as hard as you can and when the next minute comes you just go at it.”

“She didn’t really even look that tired,” Rocheleau said. “I think she’s gotten herself in good shape and knock on wood — she’s healthy.”

Junior guard Stephanie Stender was the only other Lady Grizzly to finish with double digits, contributing 10 points and tying a team-high with six rebounds.

Against Idaho State, the Lady Griz continued to struggle in the offensive end, shooting only 28.6 percent in the first half.

But whatever the coaches said at the break worked, as UM came out and showed surgical precision from the field. The Lady Griz shot 60.9 percent and held the Bengals to under 35 percent from the field in the second half.

After holding a minuscule one-point lead at halftime, the Lady Griz scored 45 points in the second half and held a pretty comfortable lead for the remainder of the contest.

The Lady Griz were able to show their offensive depth as Beck, Ena, true freshman forward Kenzie De Boer and junior forward Jessa Loman-Linford all finished with double-digit points. 

“It’s a nice luxury to have kids that are able to chip in and do different things,” Rocheleau said. “Everyone went in and made a couple baskets and played some defense.”

Beck topped off her phenomenal weekend with 16 points against the Bengals, including another perfect outing from beyond the arc (2–2).

While she credits her teammates with creating open looks for her, Beck said she is just lucky to be efficient.

“I hope I can continue that trend for the next couple games,” Beck said.

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