@UNCBearsWBB On The Road Again At Montana Thursday

Thursday, January 14

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 pm

University of Northern Colorado

Montana

Photo by: Dean Popejoy

1/12/2016 3:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball

UNC women's basketball starts challenging road trip at Montana

By: Ryan Pfeifer, UNCBears.com

GREELEY, Colo. – Northern Colorado women's basketball returns to Montana's Dahlberg Arena for the first time since last year's Big Sky Championship game on Thursday night. The Bears and Griz tip-off at 7:00 p.m. MST in a key early season Big Sky game.

For all information on the game, visit GameDay Central

Game Notes: Northern Colorado | Montana | Big Sky

The Matchup
Thursday night's game will be a key early game as the Bears and Griz battle it out for positioning in the Road to Reno.

Northern Colorado is coming off a pair of comeback buzzer beater victories last week. UNC erased deficits of 14 and 12 to earn wins over Idaho State and Weber State, respectively.

Montana entered last week with a perfect Big Sky record, but ended it with a 3-1 BSC record after falling to Sacramento State on the road in overtime.

Scouting the Griz
Head coach Robin Selvig once again has another solid club in his 38th season at the helm in Missoulia.

This year's team is led by the dynamic inside-out duo of Kayleigh Valley and McCalle Feller. Valley is averaging 20.3 points a game while grabbing 6.9 rebounds. Feller is not far behind with 17.5 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.9 assist.

In conference games this season Valley is scoring an outstanding 27.0 points.

As a team Montana is in the top half of the conference in both offense and defense. The Griz average 69.9 points (4th BSC) a game on 44.3 percent shooting (1st). Meanwhile they hold their opponents to 62.2 points (5th) a game and just 35.8 percent shooting (2nd).

UM is coming off its first conference loss of the season on Saturday at Sacramento State. The Hornets defeated the Griz 83-75 in overtime in Sacramento.

Last Time Out
It was another thrilling game inside Bank of Colorado Arena on Saturday afternoon. Savannah Scott hit the game winning shot as time expired to give UNC a 65-63 comeback victory over Weber State. It was Scott's 17th points of the game as she led the team in scoring. The Bears had battled back from a 12 point deficit early in the fourth quarter to earn the win.

Last Time Against Montana
Stakes were high the last time Northern Colorado and Montana met, for the Big Sky Championship and NCAA Tournament berth.

UNC got out to a great start in the game leading 29-16 at half.

The second half was all Griz though, going on a 21-7 run to come back and take the lead, defeating the Bears 60-49 and clinch the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

D'shara Strange and Stephanie Lee combined for 34 points.

On This Date
Northern Colorado will be playing for the 10th time in program history on January 14 when the ball tips-off this week. In the previous nine games the Bears have gone 4-5. The last time UNC played on the date was in 2012 at Eastern Washington, squeaking out the road win 56-53.

Against the Big Sky
UNC is 96-118 all-time against Big Sky opponents. Since joining the conference in the 2006-07 season, the Bears are 86-82 all-time. Last season the Bears went 12-6 in the conference to finish third.

Month of January
Northern Colorado is just a bit below .500 in the first month of a new year. The Bears have accumulated a 174-177 mark in January. Under current head coach Kamie Ethridge the team is 6-6.

Comeback Week
The Bears had a pair of comeback victories last week inside Bank of Colorado Arena. On Thursday night UNC recorded its second largest come-from-behind win in the programs DI history vs Idaho State. The 14 points were four shy of the record. On February 2, 2012 UNC trailed by 18 in the first half vs Sacramento State, but came storming back to win 64-56. Kourteney Zadina hit the game winning shot with 1.9 seconds left.

On Saturday it was another double digit comeback for Northern Colorado, this one of the 12 point flavor. After leading the majority of the game and even by 11 points at one points the Bears ended up down 12 to Weber State early in the fourth quarter. Savannah Scott hit the game-winning jumper as time expired to give UNC the 65-63 win and cap off a 19-5 run during the final 7:02 of play.

Finding Their Roles
Northern Colorado seems to be settling into its roles on the team as conference play has started. While Kourteney Zadina and Kyleigh Hiser are looked at as sharp shooters, Savannah Scott and Kianna Williams have stepped up as stat sheet stuffers. Another couple roles that have been well defined for the team are the solid inside presence of Rebecca Howell and Courtney Smith on both ends of the court.

D-D-D-Defense
UNC put the clamps down on defense last Thursday night in the second half. For the half the Bears made a stop on 24 of Idaho State's 31 possessions. They also held ISU to just two points in the third quarter and 1-of-12 shooting. The Bengals were held scoreless for an 11:06 period allowing UNC to come back and take a seven point lead.

Kiwi Stuffing the Stat Sheet
Kianna Williams has taken off in her sophomore season doing it all for the Bears. She ranks fourth on the team in scoring (8.5 ppg), second in assists (2.7 apg), tied for first in rebounds (4.4 rpg) and first in steals (1.9 spg).

Swaggy Z Hitting Her Stride
Kourteney "Swaggy Z" Zadina had a slower than usual start to the season, but has turned it on since Thanksgiving. In UNC's games post-Thanksgiving she is averaging 12.1 points a game, shooting 43.6 percent and 37.5 percent from 3-point land. In Big Sky games she is the team leader averaging 12.0 points on 30.8 percent shooting and hitting 41.5 percent of her 3-pointers.

70 is the Mark
Coach Ethridge always preaches to her team that if they score 70 points they are in a good position to win. This season that has happened in four of the teams seven wins.

From Downtown
The Bears have been feeling it from behind the arc this season averaging 8.6 made threes a game. That ranks for 16th best in the nation, but only third best in the Big Sky. Both Idaho (5th) and Sacramento State (1st) are ahead of UNC.

Stuck Like Glue
After the game against South Dakota State, Kamie Ethridge called Savannah Scott, "the glue that keeps the team together." Scott has had a strong start to her sophomore season. She has stuffed the stat sheet with her play averaging 10.3 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 steals a game.

Valuing the Ball
Once again this year UNC is valuing the rock, and forcing teams into turnovers. They rank 16th in the country and second in the Big Sky with a 1.27 assist-turnover ratio.

Youth is Served
With the graduation of four key seniors from last year, youth will definitely be a big part of the team this season. So far, 50.9 percent of the team's scoring is coming from underclassmen and 42.9 percent of the rebounds.

RPI Report
UNC is ranked 156 as of 1/12, fourth best in the Big Sky. Idaho is the highest at 119.

What's on Deck?
Northern Colorado heads across the state of Montana to take on Montana State Saturday afternoon. It will the first of two meetings this season between the Bears and Bobcats.