The Bobcat Nation

Cats up 3 with just over a minute to go. Bussey is on fire from 3-point land.

Lady griz foul with :21 to go. Cats still up 3.

75-72 with :06 to go. Lady griz will foul on the inbound.

77-72 final. Great job ladies!

Great win cats!!! Lets keep this goin for tonight

How 'bout them Bobcats!!!! Great win for the Bobcat women. One down....one to go!!

Good win by the Cats. They are definitely playing better basketball than the Lady Griz.

Brilliant! Simply brilliant. A Bobcat team playing well on the road, playing better at the end of the season...let Binford coach the men's team!

Wow! That is just awesome. I certainly would not have predicted that one. I am now a little more optimistic about the mens game tonight.

First off the Griz are just flat out a tough team to beat. When I think what they have in young players and coming in next season, it won't be long before the Griz will be right back on top dominating the conference.

Semansky is the one post player on our team that can be just as physical as the Griz frontline especially with Ena. Great game and it was fun to watch the Katie go off during this rivalry.

Hopefully they will keep improving as they head into the tournament

That was a great win for the ladies, and it seemed to follow the pattern of many men's games this year. They shot well from behind the arc, and held on for dear life at the free throw line. A lot of the players had a great games: Sarah Strand, Katie Bussey, Erica Perry, and Rachael Semansky. Well, everyone had a great game. Here's a little perspective about the game, historically.

1. This was the first win on the road against the Lady Griz in Missoula since 1999. The Cats have lost 11 or 12 in between, including once in the Big Sky championship.

2. The last win over the Grizzlies in Dahlberg Arena happened in the mid-1970s, before Robin Selvig coached the team.

And the best one...

3. This is the first time that Robin Selvig lost to the Bobcats in Dahlberg Arena. Today's win was historical, indeed. What a game!

This team is on a tear for this part of the season, and we'll just have to see how far it goes. For now, how about those Bobcats!

I think MSU's last win there was 76-77. If it's the game that the UM yearbook has listed it was 80-61 on Jan. 22, 1977. The coach for UM was Eddye McClure. The league was the Northwest Basketball League or something like that. UW and WSU were in that league. UM was 4-14 that year.

As bozbobcat said, this was historical.

Congrats to Trish Binford and all the coaches, team and everyone associated with the team.

Bobcat Women Topple Lady Griz in Dahlberg
MSU beat Montana for the first time during the Robin Selvig era in Dahlberg Arena


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By Bill Lamberty
MSU Sports Information

After hitting one of the biggest shots of her life, Katie Bussey didn’t feel elation. She felt momentum.

“That shot was a really big momentum shift for us,” Bussey said of her three-pointer that pulled Montana State into a tie late in Saturday’s game at Montana. A moment later Bussey hit another three and the Bobcats didn’t look back, closing out a historic 77-72 win against the Lady Griz in Dahlberg Arena.


Bussey’s tying triple came with 2:22 to play, and answered a three-pointer by Montana’s Stephanie Stender that gave UM its first lead in 13 minutes. After MSU’s Rachel Semansky rebounded a missed jumper by UM’s Lauren Beck, Bussey calmly drained another deep three to give MSU a 72-69 lead and drain the energy from Montana’s home building.


“When they went up by three I knew the momentum was shifting,” Bussey said. “That was big for us, and big for them, too. It quieted the crowd.” The win not only moved MSU into a third-place tie with Montana in the Big Sky standings, but marked the Bobcat women’s program’s first win in Missoula since 1999, and the first win against UM in Dahlberg Arena since the 1970s. In fact, MSU had never beaten a Robin Selvig-coached squad in Dahlberg.


That the Bobcats would have the opportunity to steal the victory looked unlikely early. Montana jumped out to a 7-1 lead before a short jumper by Ashley Albert and a three-pointer by Bussey. From Montana’s quick start, the teams played the rest of the first half on even terms. The Bobcats could have been closer except for the team’s free throw follies. Montana paraded to the line 18 times before the intermission, converting 12, while the Bobcats made only two of their 10 first half charity tosses. MSU performed well in contested shots, out-shooting UM 46.7% to 44.8%.


Montana State did much of its damage from the three-point circle, connecting on 10 of its 19 triples. Bussey led the barrage, hitting on six-of-10 from deep. And many of them were from well beyond the men’s three-point line, although she said the depth of the shot is not a concern. “I can’t really tell (how deep the shot is),” she said. “I was just ready to shoot ‘em.” MSU’s shooting was consistent throughout the afternoon, as the Bobcats shot 46.7% in the first half and 46.2% in the second.


While the offensive fireworks by Bussey and Sarah Strand, whose 17 points paired with 10 rebounds gave the junior forward a double-double in spite of being saddled with early foul trouble, will draw headlines, Bussey was quick to laud her team’s defensive effort. “Defensively we needed to play well, and rebounding, too,” she said. “We knew we had to get on the boards. They’re a physical team.”


After the first half free throw misery the team endured, MSU picked up the pace in the second half. The Bobcats finished 15-for-27 from the line after hitting shooting 13-for-17 after the intermission. Equally important was MSU’s effort in keeping Montana off the line, limiting the Lady Griz to just three free throw attempts in the second half (UM hit two of them).


Montana State wraps up the regular season with next weekend’s road trip to Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado. The eight wins doesn’t clinch a post-season spot for the Bobcats, but pushes the program closer to a Big Sky Tourney appearance.

GREAT WIN for the Women's Program! Congrats to the players and Coach Binford. Keep on rolling, Ladies!

TomCat88 wrote: Montana State wraps up the regular season with next weekend’s road trip to Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado. The eight wins doesn’t clinch a post-season spot for the Bobcats, but pushes the program closer to a Big Sky Tourney appearance.

Sac State's win last night over UNC did clinch a spot in the tourney for MSU - not even going to try to figure out possible seedings, as there are currently four teams essentially tied for 3rd with six losses. EWU hosts the tournament with a win over Portland State this weekend, otherwise Sac State (yes, Sac State) might be able to host depending on tiebreakers.