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Lady Griz Beat Grand Canyon 72-67

PlayerRep

Well-known member
The LG had a bigger lead, but let it go down later in the game. Once again, a visiting team was knocking down the 3's, this time 12-20. LG led the whole game.

The LG won at the free throw line and with rebounding. I hadn't noticed the big disparity in fouls until I looked a the stats. 23 to 11. LG were 21-27 from the line. GC only 3-4. GC was fouling late, which affected the fouls and free throws a bit. LG had only 10 TO.

Johnston played 40 minutes and scored 19. Didn't take a 3. 5 assists to 2 TO. Stockholm and Stiles had 15 and 14 and played well. Anderson didn't score in 25 minutes, but had 7 rebounds and 4 assists. She needs to be more aggressive in shooting near the hoop.

A CG player off the bench scored 24 on 8-12 shooting and 6-10 from 3.

I assumed GC wasn't that good, but I see they beat SU and lost by 2 to North Dakota in OT.

2271 in attendance.
 
Nice improvements overall! But we need to get more balanced scoring, 3's and shooting in general. There were more than a few missed shots around the basket...ducks! The uptempo play is paying off! Hopefully no more injuries, the taped/braced up LGriz seem to be holding up ok for now
 
Agree w/your perspective, PlayerRep. A very good outing by Montana against a Big Sky caliber GCU team overall. GCU is a very physical team with dominant size in the frontcourt (6-4 & 6-2) and their game plan was to deny Montana any access into the paint. In that regard, I agree with the naming of Emma Stockholm as player of the game. Her 9 rebounds and 2 steals (with several other disrupted passes) gave Montana an overall advantage through 3 quarters. The Griz countered the GCU defense with drives into the high key by McKenzie Johnston, Sophia Stiles & Gabi Harrington, who then kicked passes out for medium range jumpers to Stockholm, Harrington and Pickens, who all shot for good percent.

I also thought Stiles had an outstanding game overall. She's gaining game strength and is starting to get all that oncourt hoops memory back. Very encouraging. She sank a critical 2nd half trey (along with one by Sammy Fatkin) and then knocked down a perfect 5-5 from the ft line.

Johnston (for a full 40 minutes) was her usual sterling, outstanding point-guard self. Her drives and quick pull-ups (8-14, 19 pts) kept GCU defenders off-balance until they started jumping Johnston in the second half. She played 40 minutes because Montana needed her leadership. I'm hopeful that won't be necessary throughout the season. Taylor Goligoski didn't play a lot of minutes, but I believe she'll be a valuable outside shooter as the season progresses.

The foul disparity wasn't much of a surprise. Montana played a zone that was not very physical, compared to a very physical GCU defense in the paint... and a ton of over-the-back fouls on reebounds. I'm seeing Montana bigs getting into rebounding position very capably at this point. Very encouraged by their frontcourt play overall.

Sunday will be tough all around (Arizona isn't beating teams... they're demolishing them), but this LG team looks to have pretty good on-court chemistry. Two somewhat tentative players, Fatkin and Anderson, are also looking more comfortable on the floor. Jamie Pickens isn't lacking confidence, but still needs to pick up some basics on defense. It won't be long though. I thought last night's win was important at the right time. Go Griz.

Add-on: Arizona's D1 games so far this season: Beat North Dakota 74-42, beat Santa Clara 65-52, beat Chicago State 82-50, beat Texas 83-58.
 
Yes, the win was a better win than I had initially given the LG credit for. I didn't think GC was weak, but just assumed they were not at Big Sky quality until I looked up their games so far. The LG started fast and were consistent the whole way, without big loss of focus or big gaps. That's also a positive.

Stockholm has improved significantly each year she's been a LG.

I really like Stiles' game and always have. Looked like she might have rolled her ankle or something later in the game, but shook it off and didn't come out.

To me, some obvious keys to improvement are: getting Anderson more involved in offense, improvement from Pickens which will surely come (she's going to be a force for the LG), getting more from Fatkin, getting off all the rust on Stiles, and better defense. Also, no serious injuries. Most of the others are already on their game and contributing nicely. Several have potential to contribute more too, and I assume that will come.
 
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