By AUSTIN SMITH
Photos By MIKE HUBERMAN
The Lady Griz continue to dominate the Big Sky Conference, enjoying a decisive 90-43 victory over the Weber State Wildcats on Thursday evening. The win leaves Montana a half-game ahead of the Northern Colorado Bears in conference standings.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the outcome was decided within a couple minutes of tip-off. Player of the Game Kenzie De Boer scored two of her team-high 19 points off a steal in the first 20 seconds, sparking an uncontested nine-point run for Montana and igniting what would soon be a serious shellacking.
The matchup featured zero lead changes and a dismal Wildcat shooting average of 24% from two-point range. Weber State’s offense struggled mightily to move the ball, repeatedly coming up against a Lady Griz zone defense that forced 15 turnovers converted for 19 points at the other end of the floor.
Erecting a 25-point buffer by halftime (the scoreboard read 48-23 at the whistle) allowed Head Coach Robin Selvig to give his backups some playing time as early as the second half’s 10:00 minute mark. All Lady Griz with minutes scored at least two points, and as a team they tallied 20 assists and 58 total rebounds.
For the second game of this season’s final series at home, Montana will face the Idaho State Bengals for the second time in a month on Saturday, February 16th. Their previous meeting in January resulted in a 57-52 win for the Lady Griz, an outcome they’ll seek to replicate before taking a week-long rest and hosting the Southern Utah Thunderbirds on Thursday, February 28th.