by Six players scored at least eight points and Montana outscored Minot State 45-21 in the second half as the Lady Griz posted a 75-46 victory over the Beavers Friday night at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula in the team’s final exhibition game of the preseason.
Montana opens its regular season on Monday, Nov. 17, when it hosts Montana-Western.
Junior McCalle Feller scored 15 points and added nine rebounds, three assists and three steals to lead the Lady Griz, who forced Minot State into 24 turnovers and limited the Beavers to five second-half field goals.
But all is not season-ready for Montana. The Lady Griz got outrebounded 45-41 by the Division II Beavers, and UM’s 30-25 halftime lead matched its largest advantage of the first half.
“I’m kind of glad we got beat on the boards, because I’ve been saying that we are not doing a good job of fundamentally rebounding. Blocking out seems to be a mystery to us,” said UM coach Robin Selvig.
“We outrebounded Great Falls bad (on Tuesday), but we had a size advantage at every position. We didn’t need to block out and be really strong. Minot has size, and they’re pretty quick. We’ll definitely take that away from this game.”
And yet there was plenty to like. Montana had 19 assists and only eight turnovers, and the Lady Griz put up 75 points on a quiet offensive night for redshirt senior Kellie Cole Rubel, who now makes 12 points and five assists seem ho-hum.
“This was good, because we need to be able to score if Kellie has an off night,” said Selvig.
Helping pick up the slack was Feller, whose fat statistical line is a continuation of her play at the end of her sophomore season. She went 3 for 5 from 3-point range and used her athleticism to get into the paint and then finish.
“McCalle’s game has really expanded,” said Selvig. “She had some big rebounds, and she had some steals as well. She’s getting better at some of the things she really didn’t used to do.”
Sophomore Kayleigh Valley, who’s been to the line 16 times in two exhibition games, scored 12 points, and senior Maggie Rickman added nine points and a pair of blocks.
Redshirt sophomore Shanae Gilham (Blackfeet Nation) went 2 for 2 from 3-point range and added eight points off the bench, and redshirt junior Hannah Doran finished with eight points, six rebounds and three steals.
“Hannah played really well. She was active, and not only did she make a couple of shots, which always catches your eye, but she had rebounds and steals,” said Selvig.
Montana struggled to score in the early going and trailed 18-16 13 minutes in. Valley tied it with a jumper in the paint, and Doran hit one of two free throws with 6:36 left to give the Lady Griz a lead they’d hold the rest of the game.
Montana steadily pulled away in the second half, partly because of its defense but mostly because Minot went ice cold.
The Beavers hit just one basket over the opening 11 minutes of the second frame, and by that point the Lady Griz had built a 22-point lead, 53-31.
MSU went 5 for 29 (.172) in the second half and missed all 10 of its attempts from the 3-point line.
“It was kind of two different halves tonight,” said Selvig. “I don’t know that our defense in the second half was all that good, but they couldn’t throw it in the ocean.”
For the second time this week, all 11 healthy players saw good minutes and everyone but sophomore Alycia Sims, who started but went scoreless in 21 minutes, scored.
Montana scored 34 points in the paint and converted Minot State’s 24 turnovers into 22 points.
“These games don’t count, but everybody got minutes and is trying to show what they can do,” said Selvig. “Now the games start counting in the record book, so we’ve got a week to get a lot better.”
