Montana coach Wayne Tinkle’s three-word summary of his team's 77-54 loss to the Gonzaga Bulldogs in Spokane Sunday was concise enough: “It was ugly,” said a distressed Tinkle in his post-game interview with Montana announcer Mick Holien.
In basketball, a win or a loss can occasionally be linked to an intangible factor. For instance, I was encouraged at the solid Griz floor game. Led by Cameron Rundles’ efficient point guard play (2 turnovers, 3 assists and 2 steals in 31 minutes) the Grizzlies worked the ball inside very well and -- when the Bulldog defense collapsed and double-teamed Andrew Strait -- they kicked it back outside for clear, wide-open, well-set three point shots from the perimeter. The only problem was that the open shots Grizzly perimeter shooters took were off-target.
Had the Grizzlies shot, let’s say, 48% or 45%... or even 40% they would have made a game of it.
But post-game analysis of this 23-point loss is easy: the Montana shooting statistics tell the story in black & white.
For the game the Grizzlies shot 30.9% from the field (22.7% from three-point range) and 65.2% from the freethrow line.
The other area of concern, rebounding, saw Gonzaga notch a commanding 40-29 edge. Otherwise the stats were remarkably even.
But the inability to put the ball into the bucket spelled early doom for the Griz.
Here’s how dramatic those shooting woes were: their first trey came at the 17:48 mark of the first half -- a pretty baseline jumper by Jordan Hasquet that gave the Griz their only lead of the game at 3-2. It was the last first-half trey they would get. The next nine missed their mark, which means the Grizzlies' first-half three-point shooting percentage was 11.1%.
No doubt, many of the shots the Griz took in the paint were contested by the Zags. But when that happened, an inside-out pass usually found its mark to an open shooter in the corner or at the tip of the key. That’s where the Griz floor game broke down.
Despite all that, the Griz could have made a game of it. Trailing 44-25 at halftime, Montana made a nice run, outscoring the Zags 12-4 and pulling to within 51-37 at the 16:14 mark. Then a strange string of events happened: over the next four minutes the Grizzlies turned the ball over on 4 flubbed inbounds passes. At the end of that strange run the Gonzaga lead surged back to 20 and their win was effectively sealed.
Despite all that I’m encouraged. Besides the solid offensive floor game there were numerous team and individual bright spots. The Griz man-on defense was bulldog tough, even though their transition D broke down occasionally.
Individually, Matt Martin played a gritty game, pushing the offensive flow with heady aggressive play to the tune of a team-high 18 points. Freshman post Brian Qvale contributed a stalwart game in the post, scoring 9 points on 4-5 shots, grabbing 4 rebounds and notching one block in 19 minutes of play. And Kyle Sharp had a superb 18 minutes on court. Sharp snared a team-high 8 rebounds and scored 4 points by converting offensive second chances. If Sharp continues this style of play, he’ll add a dimension to the Grizzlies’ offensive versatility in the low blocks.
As a team the Grizzlies ran an efficient inside-out offense against a tough GU squad that hung a defensive double-team collar around Strait.
That means the Griz will simply just keep running their O and keep shooting good shots.
At some point the perimeter shots will start falling, the game will open up, and the results will be statistically verified by the final score.
