Bobcats Rally from 14 Down to Take Spirited 66-61 OT Win in Missoula

Saturday, February 1

Missoula, MT

2 p.m.

Montana State University

13-6,9-1Big Sky

Montana

11-9,6-5Big Sky

OT 1

Montana St.

Montana

Fallyn Freije

Photo by: Andrew Pedersen

Bobcats Rally from 14 Down to Take Spirited 66-61 OT Win in Missoula

2/1/2020 6:35:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Montana State women win for the eighth time in the last 11 games against UM

By: Bill Lamberty

MISSOULA, Montana – For the first 35 minutes of Saturday's Cat-Griz women's basketball game in Missoula, the shots weren't fallin'. And then the Bobcats turned to Fallyn.

MSU senior Fallyn Freije's 12-foot jumper with 14 seconds to play sent the game to overtime, then she scored 10 of Montana State's 15 points in the extra period to boost the Cats to a 66-61 win over the Lady Griz. The win was Montana State's eighth in the last 11 against Montana, and second in its last three trips to Dahlberg Arena.

Freije propelled an incredible comeback, and an amazing turnaround. MSU trailed 46-32 with 3:12 to play in the third quarter, and after shooting 14-for-56 in the game's first 38 minutes the Bobcats made seven of their last 12 shots, including 5-for-9 in overtime. Bobcat coach Tricia Binford said the solution to MSU's cold shooting was getting the ball inside. "The answer came down through the paint for us," she said. "I thought Fallyn really stepped up." Freije, the Preseason Big Sky MVP who has only enhanced that status in the months since, finished with a career-high 27 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

"As a coach I'm trying to think of ways to get (Freije) touches in ways that she doesn't have a triple or quadruple team," Binford said. "When you look at Fallyn, she's a special payer. She's extremely versatile, she can stretch the floor and she's also really good around the basket. Most of the time she's catching it and she's got arms all around her, so I thought we got her in some situations where she was able to face up and take that mid-range jumper, which was good for us. She stepped up when we needed her to."

The biggest moment of the game came in the last seconds of regulation. Madeline Smith's for MSU tied the game 49-49 with 1:47 to play, then Montana's Jamie Pickens nailed a pair of free throws. The teams traded missed shots, and the Cats possessed with 34 seconds to play. With 13 seconds left, Freije found herself with the ball just inside the right elbow of the lane. "The right-hand pullup is my bread-and-butter," she said, and she calmly drained it to send the game to overtime.

Freshman Darian White scored 13 points with five boards and four steals, and Smith, a senior, added 10 points with nine boards. Binford said one of the game's keys was White's effort defensively. She helped the Bobcats hold UM to 31.7% shooting on the afternoon, 15.2% in the second half, and 0-for-15 in the fourth quarter.

"When you let Darian go be Darian in the backcourt, we want her to help us get the (opposing) offense started a little further away," Binford said of the attacking mentality the Bobcat defense took after halftime. "We were also in a situation where we needed to make something happen, too. She's got a lot of spirit out there, and we wanted to pick up some pressure and get out of switching out of everything so we could keep guards on the perimeter. They did a great job of isolating our guards and posting up, so we wanted to get out of that situation. I thought that helped getting our bigs back inside."

The Lady Griz matched MSU's defensive performance for most of the game. MSU's 30.9% shooting game was its worst of the season, and its 9.5% three-point shooting was its second-worst. The Cats shot below 30% from the floor in each of the first three quarters.

"I want to give Montana a lot of credit, they played a great game today," Binford said. "They've got a great matchup (zone) and they've got man(-to-man). At times they look very similar. We got to the point where we wanted to work with spacing and we didn't want to hold the ball. That's where we were all kind of frustrated is we were stagnant on our end, trying to think about what they were in rather than hold the ball one second and move the ball. Most of our actions work against both, and we're trying to keep it that way. Most of the credit goes to Montana."

The Lady Griz used an early spurt to lead 19-11 after the first quarter. The Bobcats used a 10-2 run in the middle portion of the second quarter to cut the margin to 28-25 four minutes before halftime, with free throws by Martha Kuderer, Freije, and Kola Bad Bear keying that run. UM entered the intermission with a 33-27 lead, but came out of the break in full charge. The Lady Griz scored the first four points of the third quarter, then used a 9-0 run midway through the period to take control of the game. Montana led 48-37 at the end of three quarters.

Although the score looked lopsided to that point, Binford credited White's effort after halftime for keeping the Bobcats within striking distance. "I thought Darian's third quarter for us was critical," she said. "She was a kid I couldn't take off the floor at that point. When you talk about the fight we have on the defensive end, it all starts with Darian. That kid's just a tough competitor and I thought that gave us a chance."

Freije also credited MSU's defensive effort, and a key halftime adjustment. ""As a leader, as a captain, we definitely put a strong emphasis on our defense," Freije said. "I felt like from the start of the game it wasn't quite us. It wasn't awful, but it definitely wasn't where we've been before. At halftime we really closed the gap and knew we were going to have to play a lot better defense. We switched from switching everything to staying locked on and I think that helped our intensity a little bit."

White opened the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws, and after Montana's Madi Schoening made one of two White made two more charity tosses, and then a short jumper. Halfway through the period, MSU trailed 49-43. Freije hit a jumper to cut the lead to four, and Kuderer's two free throws trimmed it to two. That set up Smith's layup, Pickens' free throws, and Freije's heroics.

"When you can find ways (to win) when offense isn't going you've got something special on your hands," Binford said.

Including Saturday, Montana State's last six games have included three with free basketball – a double-overtime loss at home to Idaho, and a double-overtime win at Eastern Washington. Freije said the team fed off the confidence from that experience. "Man, this team's gone through enough overtimes," she said with a laugh. "We feel like any overtime's in our favor these days."

Freije's jumper opened the overtime – "After I hit that baseline jumper the rim got pretty big," she said – and after Montana tied the score Oliana Squires hit MSU's second three-pointer of the night. Schoening's layup cut MSU's lead to one, but Freije answered with a basket. A pair of free throws by Abby Anderson and a layup by McKenzie Johnston gave Montana a 59-58 lead, then Freije answered. Schoening hit a layup, and again Freije answered. That gave Montana State a 62-61 lead with 32 seconds left. Schoening missed a three-pointer, and the ball bounded out-of-bounds off UM hands. Freije's two free throws with 23 seconds to play gave the Bobcats a 64-61 lead.

With 23 seconds to play, the Bobcats made one of the game's most important defensive stands. Blaire Braxton's steal with three seconds left, and the corresponding free throws after she was fouled, sealed the MSU victory.

The win raises Montana State's record to 13-6 overall, 9-1 in Big Sky play. The Bobcats maintain their hold on first place as the conference season moves into the second half. UM is 10-9 overall, 5-5 in the league. Montana State's next outing is at Idaho on Thursday, and the Bobcats return home to face Eastern Washington at 2 pm Saturday.

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