Montana
Eastern Washington
Griz suffer heartbreaking overtime loss
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2011
Complete Release in PDF Format 
The University of Montana Grizzlies lost their opportunity to win at least a share of the Big Sky Conference's regular-season championship, losing a 59-55 heart-breaker in overtime to the host Eastern Washington Eagles Saturday night in EWU's Reese Court.
The Griz finished conference play with a 12-4 record, and trails Northern Colorado, which is 11-3 in league after a 72-71 home win over Northern Arizona Saturday night. The Bears still have two league games remaining next week, playing at Idaho State on Monday, and hosting Sacramento State on Wednesday. Weber State also remains in the title hunt with an 11-4 league record, after a 73-70 win at Sacramento State on Saturday.
Montana (20-9 overall) led throughout most of the game, but EWU (9-19/6-9) took its first lead of the game with 5:22 left in regulation on a three-point shot by sophomore guard Dean Glen, giving the Eagles a 42-41 advantage.
The Griz tied the contest up twice after Dean's go-ahead trey, first at 44-all, and then again at 46-46 with 34 seconds to play on a pair of clutch free throws by senior center Brian Qvale. The Eagles had a chance to win it in regulation, but UM freshman guard-forward Kareem Jamar blocked a jumper by Dean with one second to go to force the overtime.
It was close throughout the overtime, but with the game tied at 53-53, Dean nailed another three-pointer, giving the Eagles a 56-53 lead with 55 seconds left. UM reduced the EWU lead to one point (56-55) on a lay-up by Qvale, but the Eagles answered with an impressive dunk by junior forward Laron Griffin, followed by a made free throw by junior forward Cliff Enderaine. Enderaine came into the game and took the charity shot for Griffin who was fouled an injured on his dunk, making it the final score of 59-55.
Montana jumped out to an early 8-0 lead at the 16:33 mark of the first half on a jumper by Qvale, and maintained its lead the entire first half . The Griz maintained their lead the rest of the half, and their largest advantage was 10 points (37-27) came with 11:38 left to play on a pair of free throws by junior forward Art Steward. Montana led 22-17 at intermission.
EWU scored 21 of its points from three-point range, making 7-of-13 (53.8%) treys, while Montana made just 3-of-20 (15.0%) shots from behind the arc. The Eagles out-rebounded the Grizzlies 36-27.
Qvale and Stewart led the Griz with 12 points each. Sophomore guard Will Cherry had a team-high 6 rebounds, but was 2-of-10 from the field and finished with 5 points. With his 12 points at EWU, Qvale now has 1,004 in his career, making him the 26th player in school history to score 1,000 on more points.
Dean scored a game-high 17 points, making 6-of-8 shots and he also hit all three of his three-point attempts, while Griffin grabbed a game-best 9 rebounds.
Montana will now wait for the rest of the Big Sky teams to complete their schedules. The Griz still have a chance to win the Big Sky's regular-season title, as do the Bears and Wildcats. A regular-season title gives a host role to the winner for the post-season tournament, March 8-9.
Other league games next week include Portland State at Northern Arizona, Idaho State at Montana State, and Eastern Washington at Weber State.
The first round of conference's post-season tournament is next Saturday, March 5, and pits the number six seed at the number three seed, and the No. 5 seed plays at the No. 4 seed. The two winners from those quarterfinal games then advance to the semifinals which will played at the home court of the league's regular-season champion. The lowest remaining seed and quarterfinal winner faces the tourney host, while the highest remaining seed and victor in the other quarterfinal plays the team that finished second in the Big Sky's regular-season standings.
