Johnson leads MSU women past Lady Griz

MISSOULA — Not as bad as last time, but still not very pretty.

Ella Johnson scored 17 points to lead four Montana State players in double figures, and the Bobcats ran out to a huge early advantage in a 72-55 win over Montana in Big Sky Conference basketball Saturday. 

Addison Harris added 15 points for MSU and Taylee Chirrick — who had four rebounds, four steals and three assists in what maybe was a subpar game for the sophomore — added 14. Jamison Philip checked in with 11 points; she and Johnson had six rebounds each to lead MSU (18-6 overall, 11-2 in the Big Sky) to a 34-27 advantage on the glass. 

Montana lost the first regular-season matchup 82-44 in Bozeman on Jan. 17; this time around the Lady Griz opened in a zone defense to try to corral the Cats — and fell behind 34-10 on Philip’s basket at 5:03 of the second quarter. 

By then Johnson, who came in averaging five points, had two 3-pointers and eight points.  

Montana (7-17, 4-9 in league) got the Dahlberg Arena crowd of 3,149 involved with a 12-0 surge, capped by two straight buckets from Kennedy Gillette, to trail 34-22 with 1:34 left in the half.  

Then Chirrick and Johnson bombed in 3-pointers to push the gap back to 40-22 at intermission. The Bobcats’ lead didn’t get under from there. 

“It’s really hard when you don’t start playing until it’s 17 minutes into it,” Montana coach Nate Harris said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting off to a good start. 

“To be honest I thought our defensive intensity was pretty good early, we got some good looks, but give them credit. Ella Johnson steps up. We kind of had it in our game plan to make her shoot those, and that’s 15 points right there.” 

Harris had three 3-pointers and 13 points by the half.  

Both teams hit nine threes; UM was hurt by turnovers, most of them keeping momentum at arm’s length. The Lady Griz opened in a zone, went to a man-to-man defense and saw the Bobcats shooting 50 percent (29 of 58). 

Montana struggled to finish at the rim the first half and finished at 39 percent (20 of 51). 

“We’re trying to get better at some of those counters,” MSU coach Tricia Binford said of the defenses thrown at her team. “But more importantly we’re trying to set the tone defensively and get some stops, because this team can score points very quickly and we’re on their home floor.” 

Gillette led the Lady Griz with 12 points off the bench, and fellow reserve Rae Ehrman had 10. Avery Waddington hit a pair of 3-pointers on the way to 11 points.