Montana Lady Griz fall to North Dakota State in season opener

MISSOULA — The Montana Girl Griz opened their 2022-23 marketing campaign with a detailed loss on Monday night in Missoula, as UM fell to North Dakota State 65-63 at Dahlberg Area.

The Girl Griz (0-1) led the whole first half, however the Bison (1-0) used a robust begin to the second half to construct a 45-35 benefit halfway by means of the third quarter. Montana was tasked with coming again, and did so late within the fourth quarter after Haley Huard tied it 61-61 with 2:39 left within the sport.

Sammy Fatkin made it 63-61 Girl Griz with below a minute to play, however the Bison responded as Elle Evans used a three-point play to offer NDSU a 64-63 lead. Later, Evans went 1 for two on the free throw line to make it 65-63 with eight seconds remaining, and junior guard Gina Marxen’s go-ahead 3-point try fell quick because the Bison completed off the win.

Heaven Hamling completed with 19 factors for NDSU whereas Evans had 10. The Bison shot 40.6% from the sphere and have been 7 for 21 from 3-point vary.

Marxen, a switch from Idaho who performed three years for the Vandals earlier than sitting out final season, led UM with 21 factors, together with going 4 for six from deep, whereas Fatkin completed with 19 factors on 9-for-26 taking pictures. Fatkin, a fifth-year guard who was granted an extension by the NCAA for another season, returns after being certainly one of UM’s prime scorers a season in the past earlier than damage pressured her to overlook 9 of the ultimate 11 video games.

“I feel the mindset is simply to take this sport and really feel the feelings from it but additionally simply be taught from it and reply with it,” Marxen mentioned. “We now have one other sport developing and now we have a whole lot of issues we will repair so if we will be taught from this one and use that shifting ahead, then that is nice for us.”

The Girl Griz shot 37.9% from the sphere, went 6 for 21 from deep and struggled on the free throw line, going 13 for 25. Fatkin, Marxen, Huard, Dani Bartsch and freshman Alex Pirog all have been the starters for UM.

The Girl Griz relied closely on their youthful gamers with Pirog, a ahead, enjoying 18 minutes and gathering seven rebounds, whereas freshman guard Mack Konig performed 18 minutes and scored 5 factors, and fellow freshman guard Libby Stump performed 16 minutes and scored two factors and grabbed three rebounds.

Huard, a sophomore guard, scored 9 factors, whereas Bartsch, a sophomore ahead, performed 17 minutes, scored two factors and grabbed 5 rebounds. Sophomore ahead Lisa Kiefer additionally made an influence off of the bench with two factors, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals in 14 minutes.

“I am actually pleased with our battle,” second-year Girl Griz head coach Brian Holsinger mentioned. “We spaced them out and we drove them and we took benefit of our pace and so I favored our response to being down. I did not like our execution and a whole lot of that’s on me, actually. It is early, it is so early and a few of these conditions on the finish when you’ve a younger group and totally different individuals in several spots and did not execute on the finish.

“Gina did not get the shot that we needed her to get. She clearly performed a extremely environment friendly sport and we needed to get her the ball however did not fairly get it, simply execution error and that is actually on me, we simply have not had time to work on these issues.”

Montana was with out senior ahead Carmen Gfeller, a preseason All-Large Sky decide, within the sport. Gfeller is recovering from a foot damage and is predicted to be again quickly.

UM’s subsequent sport is on the highway on Friday at Colorado State.