BOISE, Idaho — It became clear at about 1 p.m. Saturday that Avery Waddington, Montana's second leading scorer and an integral piece to the team's fortunes — would not play in the first round of the Big Sky Conference tournament at Idaho Central Arena.
Waddington was battling the onset of an illness since earlier in the morning that neither rest nor fluids could quell. Another starter — Jocelyn Land — wasn't feeling her best, either, nor were two Lady Griz assistant coaches.
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Some kind of bug had infiltrated the Montana women's basketball team. But coach Nate Harris and the remaining Lady Griz weren't about to bug out of the postseason, and went on to claim a 61-60 victory over Northern Arizona to keep their season intact.
No. 8-seeded Montana (6-13) advanced to secure a matchup with No. 2 seed and rival Montana State (23-6) in a Big Sky second round game on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
"We just made it about, how hard can you play?" said Harris, who pumped his fist and celebrated with his team after NAU's final shot rimmed off at the buzzer. "Everyone in here can defend their tail off, so let's just get out there and guard, guard, guard and see if we can have one more point than the other team."
Harris' words proved to be prophetic. Montana won by surviving a last-second shot by Northern Arizona's Naomi White, an attempt she had to work hard to create after taking an inbound pass with less than three seconds left.
With the way they bowed out of last year's Big Sky tournament — on a last-second shot by Montana State's Marah Dykstra in the championship game — the Lady Griz were grateful to be on the other end of the drama.
"There have been situations where that memory has kind of come up (this season) and made me really nervous, and definitely today was one of them," UM's Mack Konig said. "However, you learn from your mistakes, and I think our team was prepared to play until the very end, so that was great."
After gutting it out in the first half, Montana's Land left the game in the second half due to her malaise. But Konig scored a team-high 17 points and Rae Ehrman added 16 to pace the Lady Griz. Kennedy Gillette contributed 15 points and nine rebounds.
NAU's White led all scorers with 24 points while hitting 10 of 10 from the foul line.
As Harris stated, defense did the trick for the Lady Griz. With that as a focus, and with players defending out of position, notably Gillette and Konig in the post, Montana held the Lumberjacks to 31.7% shooting and a 5-for-20 showing from 3-point range. White, one of the league's best players, shot 6-for-22 from the floor.
The Lady Griz are moving on to a rematch with Montana State in the second round. The Bobcats won both regular-season matchups by an average of 27.5 points. Throw in the memory of last year's title-game chaos, and it's a matchup Montana is looking forward to.
"It just makes us really excited for (Sunday)," Gillette said. "Chloe (Larsen) said in the locker room that it's hard to beat a team three times, so that kind of gives us some juice. We know what we need to do and what to focus on."
"It's not a hard answer, right?" Harris said. "You have to take care of the rock, you have to rebound and you have to match, if not exceed, their level of toughness. I think today was a great lesson moving into that game."
Big Sky women's tournament scoreboard
Saturday, March 7
Game 1: No. 9 Weber State 76, No. 10 Portland State 53
Game 2: No. 8 Montana 61, No. 7 Northern Arizona 60
Sunday, March 9
Game 3: No. 1 Idaho vs. No. 9 Weber State, 12 p.m.
Game 4: No. 2 Montana State vs. No. 8 Montana, 2:30 p.m.
Monday, March 10
Game 5: No. 4 Idaho State vs. No. 5 Sacramento State, 12 p.m.
Game 6: No. 3 Northern Colorado vs. No. 6 Eastern Washington, 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 11
Game 7: Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 12 p.m.
Game 8: Game 4 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 2:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 12
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 3 p.m., championship
