By JOEL CARLSON
North Dakota enters Wednesday’s quarterfinal game against Montana having won 12 of its last 13 games. The Lady Griz have won nine of their last 10. …UND’s only loss during that time was a 65-59 home-court setback to Idaho. Montana’s only defeat since the end of January was last Wednesday’s 73-61 loss at North Dakota.
* With its 78-63 victory over No. 12 Northern Arizona in Monday’s first round, No. 5 Montana improved to 20-10. It marks the 31st time in 38 years under coach Robin Selvig that the Lady Griz have reached 20 wins.
* With Monday’s win, Montana improved to 45-10 in Big Sky Conference tournament games. The Lady Griz are now 12-6 in neutral-site games at the tournament. … Counting the team’s Mountain West Conference days (which essentially was the Big Sky Conference before the Big Sky welcomed women’s sports prior to the 1988-89 season), Montana is 55-12 in conference tournament games.
* McCalle Feller became the 33rd player in Lady Griz history to reach 1,000 career points in the third quarter of Monday’s win over the Lumberjacks. … Feller also broke the Montana single-season record for 3-pointers in Monday’s win. She enters Wednesday’s game with 74, which surpassed the old mark of 72, set by current UM assistant coach Sonya (Rogers) Stokken in 2007-08, the same season she led the NCAA in 3-point field goal percentage (.486). … For comparison’s sake, Rogers made her 72 3-pointers that season on just 148 attempts. Feller this season is 74 for 199.
* North Dakota coach Travis Brewster is 5-4 in his head-to-head matchups against Robin Selvig. He is the only current Big Sky coach with a winning record against Montana. Selvig is 105-25 against the league’s other 10 current head coaches, notably 20-4 against Idaho’s Jon Newlee and 16-2 against Idaho State’s Seton Sobolewski.
* Kayleigh Valley, who had 28 points and a career-high eight assists in Monday’s win, enters Wednesday’s game with 648 points on the season, the second-best total in program history. She is 21 away from breaking Shannon Cate’s program standard of 668 from 1990-91.
* Valley is averaging 21.6 points this season on 51.0 percent shooting. In two games against North Dakota she is averaging 18.0 points on 35.5 percent shooting. Alycia Sims’ numbers (6.0 points, 5.5 rebounds) in two games against the Fighting Hawks are also under her season average. … McCalle Feller is averaging 25.0 points against North Dakota this season, going 11 for 26 (.423) from 3-point range.
* Kayleigh Valley’s 181 made free throws this season are a new program record. She breaks the previous record of 179, set by Mandy Morales in 2006-07.
* Alycia Sims’ 281 rebounds this season are tied for fourth in program history. The single-season record is 318, set by Jill Greenfield in 30 games in 1980-81.
* Valley became the 32nd player in program history to reach 1,000 career points in Montana’s 81-50 win at Southern Utah on Feb. 11. With 1,176 points, she is already up to No. 17 on the list. With a comparable senior season in 2016-17, she will be one of the top three scorers in program history by the time her career is done next March. Her face will be on the Mt. Rushmore Sentinel of career scoring leaders, with Shannon Cate and Mandy Morales.
* Star power: Montana’s Kayleigh Valley and North Dakota’s Mia Loyd were both voted to the six-player All-Big Sky Conference first team over the weekend. UM’s McCalle Feller and UND’s Makailah Dyer were voted second team.
* Despite a slow start in Monday’s win, Montana still averaged 1.21 points per possession, its sixth-best average this season against Division I opponents.
* Montana had 24 assists (on 28 baskets) and only six turnovers in Monday’s win. That moved the Lady Griz up to 13th nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.27). Montana also ranks 12th nationally in fewest turnovers (12.3/g). … Individually, Kayleigh Valley ranks 13th in the nation in scoring (21.6/g), Haley Vining ranks 17th in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.48), and McCalle Feller ranks 20th in 3-point field goals (2.74/g).
* North Dakota ranks 15th in the nation in rebounding margin (+9.8). The Fighting Hawks were +10 in their win in Missoula in January and +19 in their win over Montana in Grand Forks last week. The Lady Griz had just six offensive rebounds in the latter and only two second-chance points.
* Montana leads the all-time series against North Dakota 7-6, but the Fighting Hawks are 5-2 against the Lady Griz in the teams’ last seven meetings. … This is the second time the teams have met in the Big Sky tournament since UND joined the league on July 1, 2012. North Dakota won 72-55 in the championship game in Grand Forks two years ago.
Montana Sports Information