Montana Upsets Weber State, Moves On To Play Eastern Washington
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BOISE, Idaho (March 11, 2021) -- The No. 6 seed is still alive in the Big Sky Conference Championship Tournament, as the Montana Grizzlies knocked off the No. 3 seeded Weber State Wildcats 80-75 in a contest that went down to the final minute inside Idaho Central Arena on Thursday night.
“Defense wins,” Montana head coach Travis DeCuire said. “That’s really been the challenge for this group. We have been defending well for long stretches throughout the year, and statistically we’re a good defensive team, but we’ve had stretches in the second half where lackluster effort, loss of concentration, and not being detail oriented has cost us some games. And that's what youth is, we’re just an inexperienced group. Tonight was the first time I felt that through adversity we continued to focus on the details. … To be able to hold that team to 37 percent in the second half is amazing effort wise defensively.”
The opening four-and-a-half minutes of the contest featured three ties and three lead changes, with the score all knotted at 8-8 with 15:13 to play in the first half.
Neither team built too much of an advantage over the other in the opening 20 minutes. Montana’s largest lead of the first half was six, while Weber State’s was three. The largest run both teams had was 5-0.
The even play translated into the halftime score, as things were all knotted at 34-34 at the break.
It was so even in fact, that the leading scorer for both teams at the half had 14 points. Those two players were Mack Anderson for the Griz, and Cody Carlson for the Wildcats.
As the second half opened up, the Griz started to find momentum. They used the biggest run of the game to that point (6-0) to take a 46-38 lead and pushed that to a 50-42 advantage with 11:24 to play.
The further the game crept along, the more momentum the Griz gained. With 7:58 to play, they took a 58-47 lead after hitting four consecutive shots from the field. During that same stretch, they also kept Weber State off the board for over three minutes.
That scoreless streak continued, as the Wildcats went over six full minutes without scoring a field goal. By the time they did, the Griz had taken all the momentum and led 65-53.
However, it is March, and games are never over until the final buzzer sounds.
With 3:42 on the clock the Griz held a 69-54 lead, and that’s when Weber State started mounting their comeback. They used a pair of 5-0 runs to cut Montana’s lead to just six with 2:13 to play, and pushed it all the way down to a single point with 17 seconds remaining.
Following a pair of free throws by Montana's Cameron Parker, Weber State hoisted a triple that was blocked by Montana’s Mack Anderson, and that would be the final field goal attempt of the evening for the Wildcats.
Robby Beasley III led the scoring effort for Montana, finishing with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. He played 37 total minutes, and also shot 4-of-7 from behind the three-point line. Anderson finished with 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and tied for the team lead in rebounds with Josh Bannan with seven.
Cody Carlson dropped in 18 points for the Wildcats, as did Seikou Sisoho Jawara, to lead the total scoring for WSU.
As a team the Griz shot an impressive 62 percent from the field, going 32-of-52 over the 40 minutes of play. They also held a 46-34 advantage in the painted area.
The Wildcats forced the Griz into 19 turnovers, and pushed the tempo to finish with 14 fast break points.
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