MISSOULA — Last week served as a homecoming for Montana natives Kourtney Grossman and Emily McElmurry.
With the New Year here and Big Sky Conference basketball play underway, the duo returned to their home state, only this time, wearing the red and black of Eastern Washington.
"It was really weird, especially just with everyone from the hometown, being huge Cats or Griz fans, and then being like, 'I'll come back here,' but then be playing against their team," Grossman said. "So it was funny."
"It's super fun," McElmurry added. "It's kind of like a weird moment to be back here after playing here for state basketball this last March, and then now being back here and playing with Eastern, and then against the Griz, it's just, it's really exciting."
The two have wasted no time making an impact in their new home as true freshmen, as both have seen the court right away for the Eagles.
Grossman, a Billings native and West High graduate, has been one of the Big Sky's best newcomers this season, having already won a Big Sky player of the week award back on Dec. 23.
Midway through the season, she was inserted into the starting lineup for the Eagles, and has run with her opportunity. In 13 games, Grossman has started in six of them, and is averaging 8.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.
"It's been huge, just for my confidence," Grossman said. "I feel like knowing that I'm trusted to a degree, to just do my job. My goal is to just come into every game and leave it better than I found it, and just try to step into that role as best as I can.
"Just been super lucky, especially where I didn't get to play a bunch in high school because I was hurt for quite a bit. So it's just been really fun to just play and not be on the sidelines.
"It's been really fun. Super grateful for the opportunity, and I'm grateful that I have older teammates that are super experienced and are willing to share their knowledge. So it's just been a lot of learning, but a lot of fun."
McElmurry, who hails from Missoula and graduated from Sentinel High School, had a later recruiting process than most, as she committed to Eastern in April.
Still, the Eagles needed her to contribute right away, so McElmurry sees the floor in a rotational role as she gets used to the college game. McElmurry has played in 12 games and is averaging 3.4 points per contest.
"Definitely at the beginning, it was like, 'Whoa,'" she said. "This is a lot. But then I feel like I had just a lot of people help me along the way, and our teammates are super understanding when we make mistakes, as we all do.
"So just having people that are on your side and looking out for you. So it's been good. I feel like I've grown a lot. So it's been fun.
"I'm just super grateful to get to play. And it's just really fun to be a part of the team and a part of the program. And so I've just been really excited to just be a part of it all."
For EWU coach Joddie Gleason, she found a pair of gems from the Treasure State that give her plenty of optimism for the future, as the Eagles look to repeat as Big Sky champs.
"We're excited. We're always trying to recruit the best talent, obviously, and Montana has a nice core of players here that we love to try to recruit and get over to Eastern Washington," Gleason said. "And these two are great basketball players, but they're even better people.
"And so, we do a pretty detailed job of recruiting families and recognizing whether people would be the right fit, and Kourtney and Emily are just great fits for our program. We love having them them here."
