The Montana Grizzlies suffered yet another second-half meltdown, this time succumbing 68-67 in Big Sky Conference action to the Weber State Wildcats, who surged to the win on clutch shooting from guard Dezmon Harris over the final 2:38 of play.
Harris scored eight of the Wildcats’ final 11 points on isolation plays, nailing two 3-point shots before securing the win by making both ends of a one-and-one free throw opportunity with 17 seconds remaining.
Montana guard Matt Martin missed a hurried shot as time expired.
Montana – which took a two-point 48-46 lead with 9:45 remaining on back-to-back three point shots by guards Matt Martin and Ryan Staudacher – was sabotaged in familiar fashion by a familiar nemesis. The Grizzlies missed five of their eight free throws in the final nine minutes to cap off perhaps their worst free throw shooting stretch -- within their worst free throw shooting night -- of the season. Two of the misses came in the final minute of play.
Though the Grizzlies shot 55.8 percent from the field for the game (53 percent from three-point range) and outrebounded the Wildcats 30-26, they missed 14 of their 25 free throws and ended up shooting 44% for the game.
PHOTOS: Jordan Hasquet (#2 above) goes up against Weber State's Trevor Morris and Arturas Valieka. Hasquet scored 16 points and snared 6 rebounds, but made only 4-of-8 from the free throw line. Andrew Strait (#34) Scores on a baseline move past Steve Panos. Strait scored 14 points and had three steals.
‘I really feel for our guys. We so much needed a win,” an exhausted Montana Coach, Wayne Tinkle, said. “We showed more toughness and resilience tonight than we have in quite some time, and for it to come down to a missed rebound late and missed free throws down the stretch...
“Instead, it costs us another loss and probably a little more confidence.
“There’s nothing you can do as a coach,” Tinkle added. “We shoot them every day in practice. I just think it’s a little bit of confidence right now.”
In other areas of the game, the two teams battled on even terms.
PHOTO: Ryan Staudacher is guarded by Brody Van Brocklin (#23). Staudacher scored 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three-point range and had four assists.
Weber State claimed an early 11-point 34-23 first-half lead, built partly from efficient Wildcat half-court offense and partly from five missed Montana free throws. But Montana scored the final seven points of the half on four points from point guard Ceylon Elgin-Taylor to pull within 34-30 at the break.
Though the Wildcats briefly extended their lead to 10 early in the second half, Montana battled back on successive low-block power buckets from Andrew Strait, Kyle Sharp and Brian Qvale, and the game pace see-sawed on rapid action for several exchanges before Staudacher’s trey gave the Griz their first lead since the first three minutes of the game. That was also the fatal stretch, however, as Montana failed to build a gap because of the missed free throws.
As a result, neither team led by more than two from there and the lead flip-flopped four times before Harris’ free throws gave the Wildcats a 68-64 lead at the 17-second mark.
Staudacher pulled the Griz within one with a trey at the 9-second mark and the Griz quickly fouled Wildcat forward Tyler Billings, who missed his free throw, setting up a scramble that ended with Martin’s missed final shot.
The back-to-back home court losses to Idaho State Thursday and Weber State Sunday have demoralized the team, Tinkle conceded.
“I always think we’ve got some time, but there’s definitely some urgency here,” said Tinkle. “We don’t want to get into the second half of league and not put any W’s away.
“But Eastern (Washington) is here Thursday. It starts that night, so if we can play like we did tonight but put some more things together, then we have a chance to put some wins together, I believe.”
Harris paced the Wildcats with 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting from three point range. Wildcat post Arturas Valeika scored 14 and grabbed nine rebounds while Daviin Davis had 11 points and point guard Brody Van Brocklin had five assists.
Montana was led by Jordan Hasquet’s 16 points and six rebounds, followed by Strait’s 14 points, five rebounds and three steals. Staudacher scored 12 points on 4-of-6 from three-point range, and had four assists.
