Lady Griz, Broncos rejoin Big Sky rivalry

The Montana women’s basketball team will open play in the WNIT on Wednesday night when it hosts Boise State in a first-round game in Missoula.

The Lady Griz (22-9) and Broncos (21-13), conference rivals from 1978-96 — Get Noisy for Boise, anyone? — will tip off at 7 p.m. inside Dahlberg Arena.

The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to face North Dakota State (21-11) in the round of 32, with the location of that second-round game still to be determined.

The teams have not met since playing a home-and-home series during the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons. This is Montana’s first trip to a national tournament since the Lady Griz played in the NCAA tournament in 2015. They played in 21 NCAA tournaments from 1983-2015, all under legendary coach Robin Selvig.

Montana has gone 8-30 in national tournament games and 2-8 in versions of the WNIT.

The Lady Griz are led by several players who earned Big Sky honors. Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, a transfer from Iowa State, was voted the Newcomer of the Year, while Gina Marxen, who came off the bench the first 22 games of the season, was named Top Reserve.

Carmen Gfeller was named first-team All-Big Sky for the second time, and Espenmiller-McGraw and Dani Bartsch were named to the second team, with Bartsch being named to the six-player All-Defensive Team.

Last week Mack Konig was voted to the Big Sky’s all-tournament team, after averaging 17 points on 50 percent shooting in two games in Boise..

The Lady Griz enter the week ranked third nationally in 3-point field goals made (10.7 per game), sixth in 3-point attempts (28.3) and eighth in 3-point percentage (.377). Espenmiller-McGraw enters Wednesday’s game needing one more made 3-pointer to break the Montana single-season record of 75, held by McCalle Feller in 2015-16.

Not far behind is Gina Marxen at 63. Mack Konig has 52 makes and Dani Bartsch 49.

Bartsch, a junior, grabbed her 319th rebound of the season in the second half of Tuesday’s semifinal loss to Northern Arizona. That broke Jill Greenfield’s single-season program record of 318, which had stood since the 1980-81 season. Bartsch’s season average of 10.4 leads the Big Sky and ranks 25th nationally.

The Broncos return to a postseason national tournament for the first time since playing in the 2019 NCAAs. Boise State won the 2020 Mountain West tournament, before Covid-19 canceled the rest of the postseason..

The Broncos lost to Big Sky champion Eastern Washington 64-43 early in the season. They are led in scoring by sophomore guard Natalie Pasco (13 ppg), who made the Mountain West all-Freshman Team last season and the 10-player All-Mountain West Team this year. She leads the Mountain West and ranks 24th nationally with 81 3-pointers made.

Sophomore guard Mya Hansen, a Billings Central graduate and one-time Lady Griz commit, averages 9.9 points and is shooting 41.3 percent from the 3-point line.

Boise State ranks second nationally in blocks (6.2) and 22nd in field goal percentage defense (.364).

Montana leads the all-time series with Boise State 38-12 and has gone 21-3 against the Broncos in Missoula. Wednesday’s meeting is the first between the programs since Montana defeated Boise State 72-51 in Missoula in December 2008.

Boise State assistant coach Mike Petrino was an assistant at Montana from 2016-20 and served as Montana’s interim head coach for the 2020-21 season.

Dani Bartsch’s twin sister, Paige, plays volleyball at Boise State. She was the Mountain West Freshman of the Year in 2021, All-Mountain West as a sophomore and junior, and the co-Player of the Year as a junior.

Wednesday’s game will stream on ESPN+ and have the usual local radio coverage on KGRZ (92.7 FM/1450 AM), KGRZMissoula.com and the Varsity Network, with Ace Sauerwein calling the action for every available outlet.