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MISSOULA- With the Big Sky Conference tournament starting in just one month, the Montana women's basketball team begins its final stretch of regular-season games by hosting Sacramento State Thursday at 7 p.m. at Dahlberg Arena.

Montana will conclude its short two-game homestand when it faces Northern Colorado Saturday at 2 p.m. The Lady Griz (13-10, 6-4 BSC) are currently tied for fourth in the Big Sky with four weeks of regular-season games remaining. The Hornets (8-16, 3-8 BSC) are in seventh.

The Lady Griz are nearly a lock to be playing in their 30th consecutive postseason conference tournament in March, and it is nearly as certain that they won't be hosting the tournament, which will make the host-less drought three years. Montana is three back of Big Sky leader Idaho State with six games remaining, and the Bengals hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

That means even if Montana went 6-0 to close out the season, Idaho State would need to go 2-4. And that does not even factor in Eastern Washington, which is just a half game behind the Bengals.

Sacramento State is sitting in seventh place in a league that advances its top six teams to the postseason tournament. The Hornets are three games behind sixth-place Portland State in the loss column, and Sac State only has five games remaining. Two of those, however, are against the Vikings, so there is at least a mathematical chance.

Montana will play three of its final four games on the road, with a trip to Weber State and a road trip to Portland State and Northern Arizona sandwiching the Montana State game and that will leave just one practice on Friday in preparation for Northern Colorado.

The good news is that Montana has played both Sacramento State and Northern Colorado this season, so the team will be preparing for teams it is already familiar with.

"With a quick turnaround off a tough road trip, the good thing is that we're seeing people we've already played," UM coach Robin Selvig said. "It shouldn't be hard to get ready."

Sacramento State, which Selvig understatedly says plays "a unique style for this league," will pressure full court on nearly every Montana possession, which in turn leads to quicker shots and more overall possessions for both teams. When they met at Sacramento in mid-January, Montana ran its way to an 88-79 victory.

It was the only time this season the Lady Griz have cracked 80 points. The Lady Griz scored 54 points in the opening half of that game while turning the ball over just four times. Montana routinely beat Sac State's pressure and got easy baskets at the other end.

Sac State forces over 22 turnovers per game, is taking more than a third of its shots this season from 3-point range (36.5 percent), is allowing its opponents to shoot 43.3 percent (which ranks 324th out of 336 Division I teams) and is getting outrebounded by over seven boards per game (which ranks 322nd).

Sacramento State is allowing more points (80.8/g) than any of the nation's 335 other NCAA Division I women's basketball teams, but that is mostly due to its preferred style of play. The Hornets rank fifth in the nation in assists (18.5/g), ninth in steals (13.1/g), 10th in 3-pointers (7.6/g) and 30th in scoring (72.3/g).

Eastern Washington laid 90 points on the Hornets last Saturday, Northern Arizona scored 94 the week before that.

In their first meeting with Montana, the Hornets fell behind by 21 points early in the second half and trimmed the lead to seven points late. In Saturday's 90-84 loss to Eastern Washington, the Hornets rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to take a short-lived lead before losing.

Sac State can also give up the big lead. "It's definitely not over until the final horn sounds with them," Selvig said. "They can put big runs together, so you've got to be ready for 40 minutes of playing hard."

Third-year coach Jamie Craighead, the mastermind behind Sacramento State's unique approach to the game, is finally getting the roster filled with her players. The Hornets went a surprising 10-6 in league in Craighead's first season to tie for second, then dropped off to 1-15 last season (4-25 overall).

Six of this year's team's top 10 -- the five starters and five key reserves -- are underclassmen. Point guard Fantasia Hilliard, who had 21 points, six assists and three steals in the team's first meeting with Montana, is the favorite to be named the Big Sky Freshman of the Year.

In the first meeting between Montana and Sacramento State, the Lady Griz shot 51.2 percent in the first half to jump out to a 54-36 halftime lead. The Hornets scored 43 second-half points and outscored Montana by nine over the final 20 minutes, but seven was as close as they would get.

Katie Baker went 9 for 15 and scored a game-high 22 points. Torry Hill balanced the point guard position to near perfection, finishing with 19 points and six assists. She had just three turnovers while playing 38 minutes.

Sac State connected on 13 threes in the game, with 10 coming from Hilliard and sophomore guards Alle Moreno and Se'nyce Parrish.

Montana has an all-time record of 30-1 against Sacramento State. The Lady Griz have never lost to the Hornets at home. In those 15 home-court victories, Montana has won by an average of more than 27 points per game. In those 15 games, Sac State has only once come within 16 points of winning: Montana's 57-54 victory in 2004-05.

Montana notes: Katie Baker was named the College Sports Madness Big Sky Conference Player of the Week Monday for her 19-point, 9-rebound game at Montana State. Eastern Washington's Brianne Ryan and Montana State's Katie Bussey were the official Big Sky Conference Players of the Week. ... Baker went 4 for 5 from 3-point range in Monday's loss at Idaho State. That jumped her career makes total from 3-point range from 12 to 16. ... Baker has shot 48.6 percent the last five games and is averaging 16.6 points during that stretch. ... Kenzie De Boer earlier this season had a consecutive makes string from the free throw line of 24. She is currently working on one that has reached 15. De Boer is shooting 87.3 percent for the season. ... De Boer went 3 for 20 from the field on the Montana State-Idaho State road trip. ... Alyssa Smith has gone 9 for 16 (.563) from 3-point range the last four games. ... Torry Hill has scored in double digits the last five games while averaging 4.2 assists per game. ... Montana has shot 40.7 percent from 3-point range the last three games and is shooting 34.3 percent in league games, which ranks second in the Big Sky. ... In its two losses to Big Sky leader Idaho State, Montana had scoring halves of 26, 25, 23 and 25 points.