On their way to an 81-66 win over the Northern Colorado Bears, the Montana Grizzlies may most remember a five-minute span where panic reigned and an otherwise easy win teetered in the balance of a sudden momentum shift.
The Grizzlies – leading by a comfortable 26-point margin at 73-47 with 6:36 remaining – staggered under the sudden shock of 17-straight points from frenetic Bears’ pressure, before a breakaway layup by guard Cameron Rundles with 1:38 remaining broke both the Griz scoreless stretch and the Bears’ attack in the 16-point Big Sky Conference win before 4003 happy but subdued fans Thursday.
PHOTO: Cameron Rundles' breakaway layup from a three-quarter court inbounds pass by Jordan Hasquet with 1:38 remaining, broke a Montana scoring drought and ensured the otherwise efficient Montana win.
The win moved Montana’s conference mark to 8-7 (14-14) and assured the Griz a first-round playoff game with a chance to host still in play. The Bears dropped to 5-10 (12-16) and eighth place in conference play.
“This was a huge game for us,” said Montana post Andrew Strait. “Northern Colorado has struggled but they’ve won some games recently. Despite that we knew the importance of this game and the coach really stressed that we had to jump out on them early with a lot of energy and I think we did a good job doing that.”
Montana built its insurmountable lead with its own mad dash... this one erupting from the opening tip. Fueled by seven treys – two each from Jordan Hasquet, Ryan Staudacher and Rundles, and one from Matt Martin – Montana surged to a 33-11 lead over the game’s first 11 minutes and appeared headed for a runaway romp over the stifled Bears.
Montana point guard Ceylon Elgin Taylor’s 10 first-half assists on quick penetration drives and dishes to open perimeter sharpshooters, put the Bears quickly on their heels and spung the Grizzlies to a 48-32 first half margin which Griz shooters converted at a 56.6 percent shooting clip.
Rundles credited Elgin-Taylor with the team’s blazing start.
“We’ve got a perfect point guard in Ceylon,” said Rundles. “He just loves getting other guys involved. When you’ve got a combination of inside-outside and you’ve got guys that can do both, it’s tough to stop.”
Dominant board work by Hasquet (nine) and Montana post, Strait (13) provided
insurance for a relentless Montana attack. When the Griz weren’t clearing the boards, an efficient ball-hawking man-on defense created havoc and resulted in 12 Montana steals and 21 Nothern Colorado turnovers.
Though the teams played on even terms at the early stages of the second half, Montana built steadily on its 16-point lead by converting several point-blank opportunities in the low blocks... most of them coming from any of five assists by Hasquet.
The lead seemed comfortable enough that Tinkle inserted a lineup of reserves with seven minutes remaining. Oops. Havoc reigned.
Three Montana timeouts and 17-straight NCU points later, Montana clung to a 73-64 lead with 1:38 remaining. During the stretch, the Bears forced six Montana turnovers and converted easy points off of early offense looks.
But an inbounds pass from Hasquet to a streaking Rundles in the open court ended in a layup and broke the spell, forcing the Bears to foul for posession. Montana converted six of seven free throws from there to extend the lead to the final 16-point margin.
PHOTOS: Ceylon Elgin-Taylor penetrates into the key during second half action. ET is guarded by Terry Anderson. Bottom – Jordan Hasquet is double-teamed by Bears defenders in first-half action. Jefferson Mason (#34) swats the ball away.
Tinkle stressed that, despite the late-game swoon, Montana beat a quality team.
“It was a great win. I told the guys, don’t take it wrong. It’s a Big Sky win. We have to enjoy it. We can’t be relieved that we won, we’ve got to rejoice that we won when we beat a good team that had their backs against the wall.”
“It’s nice to get going early and kind of get a little bit of a cushion.” said Strait. “But then you can’t relax. You can’t get your foot off of the pedal, and we did that a little bit in the second half.”
Four Montana players reached double figures in scoring. Strait (8-for-11), Staudacher (4-for-7 treys), and Rundles (3-for-5 treys) scored 16.
Hasquet’s stats line was impressive: 14 points, nine rebounds, five assists and six steals.
“It’s awesome,” said Tinkle of Hasquet's play. “I think something clicked somewhere along the second half against Weber State when he was frustrated. We talked about him becoming a complete player and making plays for his teammates and focusing upon defense and rebounding instead of putting so much pressure on himself to score and it’s really showed the last couple of games.”
Senior guard Martin battled illness but still scored seven points, enough to become the 23rd player in Montana history to register membership in the 1000-point club (1004 points). Martin joins Hasquet and Strait as active members of the elite Grizzly fraternity.
Said Tinkle: “We’re going to go to the court on Saturday night with three guys in the thousand-point club. That’s pretty darn special.”
Northern Colorado power forward Jabril Banks paced the Bears with 15, followed by 12 from Devon Beiltzel, 11 from guard Sean Taibi, and 10 from Neal Kingman.
The teams ended tied in rebounds at 34. Montana shot 48.4 percent from the field while the Bears finished with 42.1 percent.
