GREAT FALLS, Mont. – Nneka Nnadi scored 17 points in the second half to lead (RV) Lady Argo basketball to a hard fought 77-69 win over Frontier Conference foe, the University of Montana Western.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair with each team leading by as much as four multiple times but neither team able to pull away by more than that. Both team's struggled to make shots, each hitting just over 36 percent from the field in the first half, and were found offensive production from one specific source.
For UGF that source was junior Morgan Grier. The guard score a third of her team's first half points while hitting four of seven attempts including two 3-pointers. For UMW that source was the free-throw line. The Bulldogs went to the line seven times in the first two quarters and converted on almost 80 percent of their chances.
"Morgan is an important scorer for us and we really needed her in that first half," head coach Bill Himmelberg said. "She shot it really well and her teammates did a good job of identifying that and getting her the ball in the right places."
While the first half was about Grier for UGF, the second half was shaped by the play of the team's leading scorer Nneka Nnadi. The junior forward scored the team's first points of the third quarter, answering an early Bulldog three with a long ranger hit of her own. That shot came 40 seconds into the quarter and Nnadi would only score once more until just under two minutes left in the third period.
Then at the 1:48 mark Nnadi made a layup and drew a foul for a three-point play that ended a three minute long UMW lead and gave UGF a two point lead it would never again relinquish. Thanks to that play and another Nnadi score, the Lady Argos went into the third quarter with a three point lead that ballooned to eight a few minutes into the fourth quarter.
Not only did Nnadi get more aggressive on the offensive end as the game continued, but the UGF team as a whole increased its effectiveness defensively in the final 10 minutes. The Lady Argos held the Bulldogs to just 14 points in that span of time to help close out the game.
"It was nice to see our girls step up and execute the defensive changes that we made for the fourth quarter," Himmelberg said.
The increased defense and Nnadi's attention demanding play helped open up things offensively for the rest of the Lady Argos including senior Erin Legel who scored 12 of her 17 points in the second half. Overall the UGF team increased its first half shooting percentage of 36 to 42 in the second half while also getting to the line more often.
"We've just really been emphasizing 'do what you do well and do it a lot while setting someone else up to do what they do well'," Himmelberg said. "Nneka did what she does well and that set up other people like Morgan and Erin to do what they do well."
Nnadi and Legel led the Lady Argos in scoring with 22 and 17 points respectively while Grier finished with 16. Legel also led the team with nine rebounds and five steals. Another important stat for the UGF offensive was a total of just five turnover which falls well below the team's season average.
The win is a good start to an important weekend for the Lady Argos by bringing the team's conference record to 4-3, good enough for a three-way tie for third place in the Frontier Conference standings. The team's next step will be a home game against (RV) Rocky Mountain College, one of the teams they are now tied with in the FC, on Jan. 23 at 5:30 p.m.
