MISSOULA — It’s officially less than three weeks until Starch Madness in Boise, Idaho, and Saturday’s Brawl of the Wild matchup between Montana State and Montana had huge implications in the standings for all four programs.

The doubleheader began with the women’s matchup, with Montana State setting the tone with a big lead early on the way to a 72-55 victory.

Montana State’s Tricia Binford said whether you get a great start or not, as a coach you want your team to play a complete game for four quarters. This was especially important in Saturday’s game.

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Montana State completes regular season sweep in doubleheader against Montana

“For us, we were just making sure we were rotating, keeping some fresh legs. We were able to get Brooke (Fatupaito) some early minutes back (in) her first game back,” Binford said. “So that gave us another experienced kid into the rotation, I think that really helped.”

With the win, the Bobcats remain in second in the Big Sky women’s basketball standings behind Idaho.

Montana State’s men’s program had a back and forth game before pulling away in the final few minutes for an 82-71 win.

Senior guard Jed Miller knew the impact the crowd would have on the game, and what the Bobcats had to do to control the tempo.

“We knew it was going to be a hostile environment, like every rivalry game is,” Miller said. “So we had to calm down a little bit after the beginning.”

Miller gave credit to Montana for its hot start.

“They came out the gates firing and shot the ball really well,” Miller said. “We had to just settle in and do what we do best.”

Montana State now maintains sole possession of the second spot in the Big Sky men’s basketball standings behind Portland State.

Montana’s men’s program fell to third place with the loss, but Griz coach Travis DeCuire believes the team had takeaways from this game that can be implemented moving forward.

“It’s a game of adjustments, but you’re always going to take positives from games and believe that if you do the things that you see worked consistently within that game you win,” DeCuire said. “That’s how we’ll feel the next time going in, I’ll find those things, and then we’ll try to execute them for 40 minutes.”

As for the Lady Griz, they dropped to eighth in the standings, coach Nate Harris is still focused on continuing to play their way into a better position as the conference tournament approaches.

“It’s all really important,” Harris said. “Every game is the biggest game of the year, but there is a week in March where you have to be really good. And so we’ve just got to keep building towards that.”

Harris thought his team had positives to draw on from the final two and a half quarters of the game.

“We (had) some really positive things that we can lean on and really get better at them,” Harris said. “Where do we go (from here)? We go to practice on Monday, to try and get better, and then turn around and play five more conference games, and try to win every single one of them, so that we can put ourselves in the best situation possible to win games in Boise.”

MISSOULA — For a Montana State women’s basketball team that’s largely been led by its freshmen and sophomores this season, it was a junior who made the biggest impact Saturday against rival Montana at Dahlberg Arena.

Ella Johnson, playing in her 78th game with the Bobcats, scored 13 first-half points as Montana State opened up a 24-point lead in the second quarter. She finished with a career-high 17 points, and the Bobcats coasted to a 72-55 win to complete the regular-season sweep of the Lady Griz. MSU has now won five consecutive games in the series.

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Montana State women overwhelm rival Montana, win 5th straight Brawl of the Wild matchup

“I thought (Johnson) was really attack-oriented,” MSU coach Tricia Binford said. “Sometimes when she catches the ball she’s looking to pass, and today she was looking to score.

“Her freshman year, we always made the joke … that in the first few weeks it was Ella ‘Don’t Shoot the Ball’ Johnson, and then about two months in, I’m like, you’re middle nickname is ‘Shoot the Ball’ Johnson. So, we’re trying to build off that and get her to shoot the ball. She’s got a really nice-looking shot, especially faced up, but she’s getting more aggressive, and I just felt like she was focusing on making right plays and being aggressive.”

With both teams struggling to generate offense in the opening minutes, Johnson scored on a layup that sparked an 11-0 run by the Bobcats. She also had a 3-pointer during the stretch, and Montana State ultimately led 21-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The Cats’ onslaught continued into the second, and they started the quarter outscoring the Lady Griz 13-3 to build a 34-10 lead — with Jamison Philip, Brianne Bailey and Johnson each making 3-pointers during the run.

Montana started to show some life midway through the period and cut the deficit to 34-22 following two 3s by Avery Waddington and two buckets by Kennedy Gillette. Taylee Chirrick and Johnson, though, answered with a pair of MSU 3-pointers to give momentum back to the Bobcats. They led 40-22 at halftime.

“Ella Johnson, especially, did such a good job of carrying them through that first half with some big shots in some moments,” Lady Griz coach Nate Harris said. “I thought her last 3 of the half after we had cut it to 12 — Taylee buries one and then for (Johnson) to have the big play on one end with the block and then kind of come back down into a trail 3 to make it an 18-point game, I thought that was a gigantic play.”

The margin stayed between 13 and 20 points the entirety of the second half, as Montana slowed the pace and neither team was able to sustain momentum. Addison Harris picked up the scoring for MSU, putting in 11 points after intermission, including a personal 6-0 run in the fourth quarter.

Harris, a sophomore, totaled 15 points, Chirrick added 14 and Philip had 11. Johnson added six rebounds, two blocks and two steals to her stat line.

Chirrick, another sophomore, swiped four steals, giving her 100 on the season after she had 113 last year. She’s just the second player in Montana State history with multiple 100-steal seasons. Liz Holz had three such seasons in the 1980s.

With five games remaining in the regular season, Chirrick, who is averaging 4.2 steals per game, has a shot at MSU’s single-season record of 124 steals set by Holz during the 1988-89 season. The Bobcats (18-6 overall, 11-2 Big Sky) are back at home next week to host Weber State on Thursday.

Montana State also saw the return of Brooke Fatupaito on Saturday. The junior guard had missed the past 17 games with an injury, but she played nearly 12 minutes against the Lady Griz and grabbed two rebounds.

“I thought her minutes were fantastic. She gives us great energy,” Binford said of Fatupaito, a Billings Skyview alum. “She’s actually one of our most vocal junior leaders, and it’s great to have her out there.”

Gillette led Montana with 12 points, and Waddington had 11. The Lady Griz (7-17, 4-9) have now lost four consecutive games and return to Dahlberg Arena to host Idaho State on Thursday.