MISSOULA — The Montana Lady Griz came out firing on Thursday night before burning out down the stretch and dropping their third straight Big Sky Conference women's basketball game in a home loss to Portland State 61-60.
Coming into Thursday night's game, the Lady Griz were trying to shake the feeling of being swept by rival Montana State last week.
After two poor shooting performances against MSU, Montana looked much better against Portland State.
In the first half, Missoula native and Sentinel High grad Kylie Frohlich scored 10 points as the Lady Griz shot 11 for 31 from the field and 4 for 6 from 3-point range to take a 29-24 lead into the half.
In the third quarter, Portland State cut into the Montana lead as Desirae Hansen hit a 3-pointer to make it a one-point Montana lead.
Montana then went on a 10-4 run to regain a seven-point lead after a 3 from Madi Schoening.
With 3:39 left in the third quarter, Hansen hit another 3 to cut the Montana lead to one point once again.
Montana recovered well and took a five-point lead into the final 10 minutes of the game.
In the fourth quarter, though, Montana's offense fell off, shooting 5 for 15 from the field and scoring 11 points to Portland's 17.
Montana still held the lead until Portland's Kylie Jimenez drove baseline and scored to give the Vikings the lead with 2.3 seconds left. It was Portland's first lead since the 7:20 mark in the first quarter.
The Lady Griz inbounded to Abby Anderson and there looked to be a lot of contact but nothing was called as the Vikings walked away with the victory.
Frohlich led the way for Montana with a career-high 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field and a perfect 4 for 4 from the line. As a team, Montana finished 21 for 59 (35.6%) from the field and 5 for 12 (41.7%) from beyond the arc.
Hansen led the Vikings with a game-high 22 points on 5-for-13 shooting from the field, 4 for 9 from beyond the arc and 8 for 9 from the free throw line. As a team, the Vikings finished shooting 17 for 55 (30.9%) from the field and 6 for 26 (23.1%) from 3-point range.
The Lady Griz (4-5 in conference) will host Portland again on Saturday at noon.
