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MISSOULA- The Montana women's basketball team will play its final home game of the season Saturday when it hosts Montana State. The Lady Griz and Bobcats will tip off at 2 p.m. at Dahlberg Arena.

Montana (15-11, 8-5 BSC) is tied for fourth in the Big Sky Conference standings with Northern Colorado (16-10, 8-5 BSC). Montana State (17-9, 9-5 BSC) is alone in third, just a half game up on the Lady Griz and Bears.

Those three teams, along with first-place Idaho State (20-6, 12-1 BSC) and second-place Eastern Washington (16-10, 10-3 BSC), have locked up five of the six spots for the three-day, six-team Big Sky Conference tournament, which begins two weeks from Thursday at either Pocatello, Idaho, or Cheney, Wash.

What's at stake: 1) In-state bragging rights. 2) With just two weeks of regular-season games remaining, Saturday's result at Dahlberg Arena and other results from around the league will have a large impact on positioning in the final regular-season standings and ultimately tournament seeding.

The winner of Saturday's game will keep alive the slim chance that it could move up the standings to the favored No. 2 position by season's end and get a bye to the semifinal round of the tournament.

The dust will soon be clearing: Five of the Big Sky Conference's nine teams will have just a single game remaining once Saturday's games have been completed. With two games Thursday -- featuring both first-place ISU and second-place EWU -- and four more Saturday -- including the delicious ISU at EWU matchup -- questions like, Who is hosting the tournament? and Who is the sixth team that will be filling out the tournament field? could be answered. Or it could come down to the final Saturday.

If you can't make it to Dahlberg Arena: Saturday's game will be broadcast in the Missoula area on KPAX and statewide on the Montana Television Network, with Ted Dawson, sports director of Bozeman's KBZK, on the play-by-play and Derek Buerkle, sports director of Missoula's KPAX, providing color commentary.

Tom Stage and Dick Slater will handle the radio coverage on KENR 107.5 FM, and Shaun Radley and Krista Pyron will cover the Big Sky TV broadcast. GoGriz.com will offer live stats.

The first meeting: With three weeks of reflection and study, it's been determined that the teams' first meeting was 60 percent Montana winning and 40 percent Montana State giving the game away. The Lady Griz rallied from a 38-32 deficit in the final 10 minutes to win at Worthington Arena for the fourth straight year, 61-54.

Montana State went up 38-32 with 15:28 remaining in the second half. With Montana mired in a seven-minute scoreless drought, the Bobcats missed their next nine shots when they had a golden opportunity to extend their lead to perhaps a decisive margin.

The Lady Griz scored 32 points the first 30 minutes, then closed with a flourish. They shot 58.8 percent the final 10 minutes and scored 29 points, going 5 for 7 from 3-point range.

Alyssa Smith hit three of those treys in the final 3:36, and Torry Hill's three with 1:07 left was the game's deciding basket.

MSU's Katie Bussey scored a Big Sky-record 41 points two days before the teams' first meeting in the Bobcats' upset victory at Idaho State. She did not score in the opening 17 minutes against Montana and totaled just nine points on 3-of-17 shooting.

A common path: Montana and Montana State have had similar results their last two games. Both lost their last home game on Feb. 11, with the Lady Griz falling to Northern Colorado, 56-54 in overtime, the same afternoon the Bobcats were losing to Sacramento State, 77-76.

Both teams rebounded with expected but never-to-be-taken-for-granted road wins last Thursday. Montana won at Weber State, 62-52, Montana State won at Northern Arizona, 83-78.

Montana-Montana State, by the numbers:

83 -- The number of times Montana coach Robin Selvig will have faced Montana State by the end of Saturday's game.

.817 -- Selvig's winning percentage (67-15) against the Bobcats in the first 82 meetings.

8 -- Number of days off for both teams since their last game.

0 -- The number of times a conference opponent has won at Missoula three consecutive seasons. Montana State has won its last two games at Dahlberg Arena: 72-69 last season and 77-73 in 2009-10.

.462 -- Montana State's shooting percentage from 3-point range (10 for 19 in 2009-10 and 8 for 20 last season) in its two recent wins at Montana.

1,148 -- Days (from Saturday) since the home team has won a game in the series. The road team has won the last six meetings. Montana's 95-75 win Jan. 3, 2009, at Dahlberg Arena was the last time a home team won.

90 -- Previous meetings between Montana and Montana State on record, dating back to 1974-75. The Lady Griz hold a 70-20 advantage.

33 -- Uniform number of Tianna Ware, who will be playing her final home game Saturday. Ware, who has scored 85 career points in 74 games played, is the lone senior on this year's team.

242 -- Career 3-pointers for MSU's Katie Bussey. She became the Big Sky Conference career leader in that category in Thursday's win at Northern Arizona. Montana's active career leader is Torry Hill with 84.

85 -- Points needed by Katie Baker to become Montana's 28th 1,000-point scorer. Since Montana as a team only averages 61.8 points per game, it is doubtful Baker will reach 1,000 career points Saturday.

More on Montana: The Lady Griz have not won or lost more than two consecutive games during Big Sky Conference play. ... Katie Baker scored a career-high 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting last Thursday in Montana's road win at Weber State. ... Baker has gone 5 for 7 from 3-point range that last four games. ... Kenzie De Boer has picked off 10 steals the last three games. ... If Torry Hill and Jordan Sullivan get their shooting performances in sync, watch out. Hill averaged 15.3 points on 50.0 percent shooting over a six-game stretch leading up to Montana's home loss to Northern Colorado. In the team's last two games she has gone 4 for 27 and scored a total of 11 points. Sullivan was on a 4-for-24 stretch leading up to the Northern Colorado game. She shot 9 for 12 against Northern Colorado and Weber State. ... Hill matched a career high with seven assists against Weber State, Sullivan scored a career-high 15 points.

Upcoming: Montana will close out its regular season with a road trip to Portland State and Northern Arizona next week. The Lady Griz will face the Vikings at 8 p.m. (MT) next Thursday at Portland, Ore., and the Lumberjacks at 6:30 p.m. next Saturday at Flagstaff, Ariz.