Montana
Great Falls
Griz hoopsters edge Argos 60-59
11/14/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 14, 2011
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Guard Kareem Jamarrecorded his first career double-double as The University of Montana Grizzlies struggled to a 60-59 home win over the University of Great Falls Argos Monday evening in UM's Dahlberg Arena.
The Argos (4-1), an N.A.I.A. team and member of the Frontier Conference, overcame a 16-point Grizzly (1-1) lead and went on a 28-9 run and took their first lead (48-47) of the game on a jump shot by sophomore guard Marcel Towns with 7:40 left to play.
UGF upped its lead to 50-47 less than a minute later (6:49), as a Towns' steal led to a jumper by senior forward Ken Anderson with 6:49 remaining.
The teams battled to a pair of ties after Anderson's make, the last one (56-56) coming with 2:41 to go and a steal and lay-up by senior guard Melvin Williams.
Montana regained the lead for good at 58-56 with 44 seconds left to play on two clutch free throws by senior forward Art Steward. Griz junior guard Will Cherrypushed the lead to four (60-56) on two free throws with 13 ticks left.
The Argos answered with a three-pointer by Towns with three seconds to play, cutting the Griz lead to 60-59. Griz senior guard Shawn Stocktonwas fouled, missed both free throws (the second intentionally), and UGF had the ball with one second left on the clock.
UGF then in-bounded the ball from UM's baseline, and junior forward James Holmes' desperation shot from the top of the key was long and bounced off the right side of the backboard, and the Grizzlies had the hard-earned victory. Montana now leads the series with the Argos 10-0.
"It was disappointing, but we are going to learn from that one," said Griz head coach Wayne Tinkle. "I was talking to one of our assistant coaches earlier today and said I thought it could play out that way. It's their Super Bowl, they've got some games under their belts, and they out-played us and had us playing a bit scared in the second half.
"They key is that at least we found a way to win, because this game could have easily gone the other way," Tinkle said. "They turned a 16-point deficit (UM led 40-24 at the 15:30 mark in the second half) into a three-point lead, and we had some scored players out there.
"Kareem was the one bright spot for us," Tinkle said. "He was not going to be denied. We have some other guys who need to step it up. It was frustrating to see some of our guys playing scared out there, but I hope we will learned from it and it will help us to get better."
The lead changed hands just twice, and there were only two ties (50-50 and 56-56), but all that drama occurred in the last six-plus minutes of the game.
Jamar did a lot of his damage in the first half, grabbing 10 rebounds and 9 points, as the Griz led 33-22 at intermission. The 6-5 sophomore from Venice, Calif., He finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds.
Cherry was UM's other double-figure scorer with 11 points and he also had 4 steals. Redshirt freshman center Billy Readeradded 9 points and 7 rebounds.
Anderson led the Argos with a game-high 18 points, while Towns had 17 points and an impressive 8 steals.
Montana had a convincing 42-25 rebounding advantage, but had 21 turnovers (UGF had 16). The Griz made just 6-of-18 (33%) field goal attempts and 15-of-23 (65.2%) free throws in the second half., while UGF was 13-of-24 (54.2% ) from the floor and was 8-of-9 from the line in the final 20 minutes.
The Griz host Idaho on Thursday, Nov. 17.
