MISSOULA -- Idaho State's offense exploded in the fourth quarter as the Bengals raced past the Montana Lady Griz for a 67-53 Big Sky Conference women's basketball win on Thursday evening in Dahlberg Arena.
The loss was Montana's third straight.
Montana Oltrogge scored 18 points to lead the Bengals while Diaba Konate added 15. The Bengals shot 47.4 percent from the field in the win.
The Lady Griz finished shooting 18 for 54 (33.3 percent) but went cold in the second half. After leading 34-33 at halftime, Montana went on to shoot just 4 for 23 from the field in the second half, including 1 for 11 in the third quarter.
"It's disappointing in the fact that (Thursday) was one of the first nights I'd say I didn't feel like we came and competed as well as we should've," Lady Griz head coach Shannon Schweyen said. "Got off to a slow start and allowed them to get off to a hot start. They were able to keep that going and down the stretch, fourth quarter especially, they out-hustled us to a lot of balls and beat us on a lot of plays and just played harder than we did in the fourth quarter, and that's something this team hasn't typically done this year."
Idaho State entered the fourth quarter up 46-42 but out-scored the Lady Griz 21-11 in the final frame, including a 14-4 run in the final 4:39 to ice the game away.
McKenzie Johnston led the Lady Griz with 11 points, while Emma Stockholm and Gabi Harrington each added 10. Stockholm also grabbed seven rebounds.
Idaho State improves to 8-9 overall and 4-4 in Big Sky Conference play while Montana falls to 9-8 and 4-4. The Lady Griz host Weber State on Saturday at 2 p.m.
