FARGO, N.D. — Montana women’s basketball coach Brian Holsinger has seen his team play at both ends of the competitive spectrum this season.
He watched as his team shot better than 56% and couldn’t be handled by Washington, as his team blitzed North Dakota early and ran away from the Fighting Hawks on the road.
And he’s watched his Lady Griz give up 31 first-quarter points at Gonzaga, 29 at Minnesota and 30 through the opening 10 minutes on Wednesday night in Fargo as Montana opened the Big Sky Conference-Summit League Challenge at North Dakota State.
The Bison had their way in the first half, going 18 for 29 (.621) and building a 20-point halftime advantage, 51-31.
For as off as Holsinger’s team was in the opening 20 minutes, Montana was the best version of itself in the second half, shooting 17 for 29 (.586) and cutting North Dakota State’s lead to six before ultimately falling 83-74.
It’s a team story being written by Robert Louis Stevenson.
“We’ve got issues with this team, to be honest,” Holsinger, always forthcoming, said after the game. “This is multiple games when, for whatever reason, we have not come to play.
“As good as the second half was, I’m just really disappointed. We get down, then we decide we want to play. We’ve got to figure it out. It’s going to be a long season if we don’t.”
The outcome and the way it came about overshadowed another gem of a game by Mack Konig, who had 23 points, five assists and a pair of steals while playing all 40 minutes, and a breakout performance by Izabella Zingaro, who scored 25 points on 10-of-12 shooting off the bench.
Konig was three points off her career high, while Zingaro entered Wednesday’s game with a collegiate high of a dozen. She had more than that (13) by halftime.
“I thought Izzi and Mack were fantastic,” said Holsinger. “Mack played all 40 minutes and was just a warrior. She was the only person who came out right in the first half and competed right.
“Izzi, awesome. This is what we thought she was capable of. She’s been injured and is slowly coming back. She was unstoppable in the post. We need that from her going forward.”
After Dani Bartsch hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute to give Montana a 5-2 lead, it was all North Dakota State the rest of the opening half.
That included Bartsch picking up two fouls less than four minutes in, then getting her third midway through the second quarter when Holsinger tried to get his senior some extra minutes in a game that was slipping away.
Montana would be called for 26 fouls, four more than any other game for the Lady Griz under Holsinger, who was coaching his 100th game at Montana on Wednesday night.
Those whistles sent the Bison to the free throw line 36 times, twice as many as Montana’s 18 attempts.
North Dakota State took 14 shots in the first quarter, missed on only three of them, and led 30-15 after the first quarter, 18 of those points coming in the paint.
The Bison led by 20 at the half after shooting 62.1% through 20 minutes, their three leading scorers — Abbie Draper, Avery Koenen and Marisa Frost — going 13 for 14.
What looked like a team dead in the water at the half nearly boat-raced North Dakota State in the second, scoring the third quarter’s opening nine points, then cutting its deficit to single digits, 68-60, with nearly seven minutes still to play in the fourth.
The shot of the game may have been a Frost 3-pointer that pushed the lead back to 11 with 6:18 to go and took some of the steam out of the visitors’ comeback attempt.
Montana kept fighting and three times got within six in the closing minutes but could get no closer, the Bison going 14 for 18 from the free throw line in the second half.
“We’re searching. When we want to play right, we’re pretty good. When it seems we don’t want to care, we’re not very good. We’ve got to figure that out,” said Holsinger.
Tyler McCliment-Call added 13 points. No other Lady Griz had more than four. Montana’s fours starters outside of Konig combined to score just nine points.
Frost went 10 for 12 from the free throw line and led NDSU with 27 points off the bench. Draper finished with 17, Koenen with 13. The threesome shot 19 for 26 for the game.
Montana (4-4) will close out the Big Sky-Summit Challenge hosting South Dakota State (6-2), a team that is known for taking care of business from start to finish, on Saturday at 2 p.m.
The Jackrabbits had no trouble with Eastern Washington on Wednesday night in Brookings, S.D., outscoring the Eagles 28-8 in the third quarter on the way to an 81-58 victory.
