Saturday's first-round playoff game against the Montana State Bobcats at Dahlberg Arena will be the final time on-court for three Grizzlies. But those seniors – and their teammates – will put it all on the line because a win over the Cats propels them into the Big Sky Conference Semifinals in Ogden, Utah on Tuesday March 10th.
In a brief pre-game interview with Montana's seniors – Ceylon Elgin-Taylor, Jordan Hasquet and Kyle Sharp – and assistant coach Nate DuChesne, the message was the same. I asked what was the most important single key to success against Montana State. Their answers?
Defense got Montana this far. Defense will be required to move the Grizzlies one more game into the post season.
NATE DuCHESNE: "We have to play Grizzly basketball, which is defense first. In both the previous games we had a couple of really nice runs where we were able to reel of eight to 10 points. I’m sure they (the Bobcats) are going to try to control that this time and minimize our runs... But what we did in those stretches is we played great defense and were able to get the ball up the floor and get good
shots.
There isn’t going to be anything different between what we’ve done in the past and what we’ll try to do against the Cats again in order to be 12-5 in this league"
CEYLON ELGIN-TAYLOR: "First-off, to win, but to just take that next step... to play hard, to get better, to do the things we need to get to the next round. They’re a rival, so of course they’re going to come out and play hard to be the aggressor, so it’ll be our job to do the things we need to be the aggressor. The biggest thing about this team compared to the past
years is that we’re more competitor and we look to do the things to make ourselves better every game. I’ve never won a basketball championship. Ever, in all my years as a player. So, I mean, I want us to finish with a bang and just win it all."
JORDAN HASQUET: "Definitely defense. We know what weapons they’ve got and we’re keying on all their guys with a game plan on each guy, knowing their guys, knowing what they want to do and just putting a stop to it. They had moments in our past games where they outplayed us, so they’re going to look at those things and see what they can do to try and expose us. The thing they’ve got going for them... they say it’s hard to beat a team
three times. So, we’ll see. Grizzly basketball this year has really started on defense. It starts for us on defense and everything else will come naturally for us."
KYLE SHARP: "The Cats have had a couple of tough losses, so I’m sure their coach has them ready to play. But more important is we’re going to have to be ready for them just as much as they’ll be ready for us. We have to make sure that their great shooters don’t get good looks. They have a lot of good scorers, especially on the post. Mbunga is a great player and it’s our job to try to shut him down. If we can go out with energy, that’ll get us going early and we can start playing our style of basketball. You don’t personally want do do anything too extreme, too different. I just want to keep an even keel, to keep an even game... I don’t care if I score zero points, I want to do what we need to win."
