Cats' basketball falls to Lady Griz in Missoula

MSU women’s basketball traveled to Missoula on Saturday, Feb. 26, to face the Montana Lady Griz for the second time this season. The Lady Griz proved dominant, beating the Cats, 71-57. The Cats trailed by four at halftime, but a huge third quarter for the Lady Griz found MSU down 51-40 going into the final quarter. The Cats could not find their way back into the game in the fourth quarter as their deficit never shrank below nine points.

Forward Lexi Denden and Guard Leia Beattie led the way for the Bobcats, the former notching 14 points and the latter adding 13. Beattie led the Bobcats with seven rebounds on the night. Darian White had 9 points for the Cats, but struggled to shoot the ball effectively, going 3 for 12 on field goals. White leads the Cats in scoring this season, averaging 15.4 points per game going into Saturday’s game.

For the Lady Griz, the story of this win was sheer dominance from guard Carmen Gfeller. Gfeller had 34 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks in one of the greatest games of her career with Montana. Gfeller brought the Lady Griz their first win over MSU since February of 2018.

The Cats have two regular season games remaining, facing Sacramento State on Wednesday, March 2, and Northern Colorado on Friday, March 4. MSU currently sits in second place in the Big Sky Conference, led only by Idaho State. With the Big Sky Conference Championship tournament fast approaching, the Cats are looking to make at least as deep a run into the tourney as they did last year, when they fell to Idaho in the semifinals.