By JOEL CARLSON for GoGriz.com
For the second time in two games this season the Lady Griz endured a long scoring drought. On Monday it didn’t cost them. Four nights later it did.
Montana went more than 10 minutes without a field goal and that allowed Pacific to pull away for a 62-50 victory Friday night at the Alex G. Spanos Center in Stockton, Calif.
The Lady Griz (1-1) led 25-21 late in the first half against the Tigers (2-1), but by the time Montana hit another field goal — at the 13:54 mark of the second half — Pacific had gone on a 26-1 run to take a 47-26 lead and put the game out of reach.
The Lady Griz, who went nearly 11 minutes between points in Monday’s 55-44 victory over Montana-Western, missed their final three shots of the first half and first six of the second half. They also had six turnovers in that stretch.
“The start of the second half killed us,” said UM coach Robin Selvig. “I thought we should have had the lead at half, and that slips away, then we come out in the second half and don’t score for about five minutes, and all of a sudden we’re down 16, 18 points.
“We dug ourselves a hole and never did make a run.”
Redshirt senior guard Kellie Cole Rubel had 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists, all team highs. Redshirt sophomore guard Shanae Gilham had 10 points and six rebounds off the bench.
Madison Parrish led Pacific with 14 points.
Despite the lengthy scoring drought that cost it the game, Montana did plenty of good things while facing its first Division I opponent and first road game of the season.
The Lady Griz limited the Tigers to 32.4 percent shooting and 19 points below their scoring average through their first two games, against Cal State Stanislaus and California. And Montana turned the ball over an acceptable 15 times against pressure and was close on the boards.
“I think we were capable of winning tonight,” Selvig said. “This team is going to be pretty good offensively because we have so many kids who can shoot it. But tonight we had a bunch of kids not shooting it very well on the same night.
“I thought we defended them pretty well, and we were basically even on the boards, so it was a good game for us. They trapped us and pressed us and did some things that we haven’t seen, and that will make us better. You need experience against it to get better at facing it.”
Senior forward Maggie Rickman hit one of two free throws at the 16:27 mark of the second half for Montana’s first point since the 4:11 mark of the first half. The team’s first basket did not come until 13:57 remained when redshirt junior guard Hannah Doran hit a 3-pointer.
Pacific’s lead reached a game-high 21 points when a basket in the paint by Hailie Eackles made it 58-37 with 6:21 to play.
Montana ended the game on a 13-4 run to pull within a dozen at the end.
The Lady Griz will depart Monday for Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, and the Cancun Challenge. Montana will face UNC Charlotte on Thursday, Princeton on Friday and Wake Forest on Saturday.
Montana Sports Information