MISSOULA — For a Montana State women's basketball team that's largely been led by its freshmen and sophomores this season, it was a junior who made the biggest impact Saturday against rival Montana at Dahlberg Arena.
Ella Johnson, playing in her 78th game with the Bobcats, scored 13 first-half points as Montana State opened up a 24-point lead in the second quarter. She finished with a career-high 17 points, and the Bobcats coasted to a 72-55 win to complete the regular-season sweep of the Lady Griz. MSU has now won five consecutive games in the series.
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"I thought (Johnson) was really attack-oriented," MSU coach Tricia Binford said. "Sometimes when she catches the ball she's looking to pass, and today she was looking to score.
"Her freshman year, we always made the joke ... that in the first few weeks it was Ella 'Don't Shoot the Ball' Johnson, and then about two months in, I'm like, you're middle nickname is 'Shoot the Ball' Johnson. So, we're trying to build off that and get her to shoot the ball. She's got a really nice-looking shot, especially faced up, but she's getting more aggressive, and I just felt like she was focusing on making right plays and being aggressive."
With both teams struggling to generate offense in the opening minutes, Johnson scored on a layup that sparked an 11-0 run by the Bobcats. She also had a 3-pointer during the stretch, and Montana State ultimately led 21-7 at the end of the first quarter.
The Cats' onslaught continued into the second, and they started the quarter outscoring the Lady Griz 13-3 to build a 34-10 lead — with Jamison Philip, Brianne Bailey and Johnson each making 3-pointers during the run.
Montana started to show some life midway through the period and cut the deficit to 34-22 following two 3s by Avery Waddington and two buckets by Kennedy Gillette. Taylee Chirrick and Johnson, though, answered with a pair of MSU 3-pointers to give momentum back to the Bobcats. They led 40-22 at halftime.
"Ella Johnson, especially, did such a good job of carrying them through that first half with some big shots in some moments," Lady Griz coach Nate Harris said. "I thought her last 3 of the half after we had cut it to 12 — Taylee buries one and then for (Johnson) to have the big play on one end with the block and then kind of come back down into a trail 3 to make it an 18-point game, I thought that was a gigantic play."
The margin stayed between 13 and 20 points the entirety of the second half, as Montana slowed the pace and neither team was able to sustain momentum. Addison Harris picked up the scoring for MSU, putting in 11 points after intermission, including a personal 6-0 run in the fourth quarter.
Harris, a sophomore, totaled 15 points, Chirrick added 14 and Philip had 11. Johnson added six rebounds, two blocks and two steals to her stat line.
Chirrick, another sophomore, swiped four steals, giving her 100 on the season after she had 113 last year. She's just the second player in Montana State history with multiple 100-steal seasons. Liz Holz had three such seasons in the 1980s.
With five games remaining in the regular season, Chirrick, who is averaging 4.2 steals per game, has a shot at MSU's single-season record of 124 steals set by Holz during the 1988-89 season. The Bobcats (18-6 overall, 11-2 Big Sky) are back at home next week to host Weber State on Thursday.
Montana State also saw the return of Brooke Fatupaito on Saturday. The junior guard had missed the past 17 games with an injury, but she played nearly 12 minutes against the Lady Griz and grabbed two rebounds.
"I thought her minutes were fantastic. She gives us great energy," Binford said of Fatupaito, a Billings Skyview alum. "She's actually one of our most vocal junior leaders, and it's great to have her out there."
Gillette led Montana with 12 points, and Waddington had 11. The Lady Griz (7-17, 4-9) have now lost four consecutive games and return to Dahlberg Arena to host Idaho State on Thursday.
