Schoening, Griz fall short vs. EWU; at Idaho today

CHENEY, Wash. — For more than 35 minutes Montana, with former Bulldog standout Madi Shoening starting, looked like a team that was ready for a breakthrough win, and on the road no less. But the final four minutes proved costly, and the Lady Griz will have to wait for another day to pick up their first Big Sky Conference victory of the season.

Eastern Washington (11-8, 6-2 BSC), which trailed 36-29 at the half and by 11 in the third quarter, held young and rebuilding Montana (3-17, 0-9 BSC) without a field goal the final 4:23 to finish off a big rally, winning 64-57 at Reese Court in Cheney on Thursday night.

Schoening continued her recent spate of strong play, posting nine points, three assists, two rebounds and two steals in the loss.

Down 59-57, Montana failed to score on three straight possessions, then picked up an ill-advised foul 40 feet from the basket in the final minute while trailing by just three. Tisha Phillips’ free throws with 48 seconds left made it 62-57 and sent the Lady Griz to their 11th straight loss.

“We haven’t been in a lot of games like this, so I don’t expect us to be super experienced,” said first-year coach Shannon Schweyen. “We’ll learn from this for sure.”

The loss and cold-shooting in the final minutes spoiled what had been the team’s best offensive display of the season. The team shooting 33.2 percent for the season went 16 for 25 (.640) in the first half to build a 36-29 halftime lead.

“Finally tonight we made those shots we’ve been missing all year,” said Schweyen. “They played well. They came to play. It was nice to play tough on the road. I was really proud of them.”

Montana will face Idaho (9-10, 4-4 BSC) at 2 p.m. PST on Saturday at Moscow. The Vandals fell 66-61 at home to Montana State on Thursday night. The Bobcats held Idaho to six 3-pointers and Mikayla Ferenz, who scored 41 points five days ago at Northern Arizona, to just eight on 2-of-16 shooting.