Surging Grizzlies host Eagles Saturday night
2/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2014
THE GAME: The University of Montana Grizzlies (6-5/11-9) play their second Big Sky Conference home game in a row, hosting the Eastern Washington Eagles (5-6/10-12), Saturday, Feb. 8, at 7:05 p.m. in UM's Dahlberg Arena.
UP NEXT?: The Griz are on the road at Northern Colorado in an Altitude TV game on Thursday, Feb. 13, and at North Dakota on Saturday, Feb. 15.
RADIO: The longtime "Voice of the Grizzlies" Mick Holien calls the play-by-play, and Greg Sundberg serves as the color commentator. UM's flagship station is KGVO 1290 AM/ & 101.5 FM on the Grizzly Radio Network from Learfield Sports. (Network listed on add 4).
LIVE STATS: gogriz.com/all-access.
TWITTER: @umgrizzlies_bb & umgrizzlies_sid.
VIDEO STREAMING: www.watchbigsky.com.
TV: There is no TV for the game.
GRIZ VERSUS EAGLES EARLIER THIS SEASON: At E. Washington 69, Montana 62: Martin Seiferth and Tyler Harvey combined for 46 points to lead the Eagles. UM cut EWU's lead to five points three times in the second half, but could get no closer. Keron DeShields did not start for the first (and only) time this season, but scored a team-high 17 points and Jordan Gregory added 13. Kareem Jamar scored 10 points and picked up his third foul with 19:31 left to play, playing a season-low 24 minutes. Griz true freshman guard Mario Dunn had his first career start and scored 6 points. Harvey scored 25 points, while Seiferth had 21 points and 12 rebounds.
TINKLE THIRD IN CAREER WINS: Griz head coach Wayne Tinkle's 152 career wins are the third most ever at Montana. Tinkle needs only three more wins to move up to second and pass Mike Montgomery, who had 154 career wins in eight seasons from 1979-86. Tinkle's 152 career wins ties him for eighth in Big Sky history with former Weber State mentor Ron Abegglen, who went 152-83 from 1991-99.
JAMAR MOVES UP TO SEVENTH IN CAREER SCORING & FIFTH IN CAREER ASSISTS: Jamar now has 1,496 career points which moves him up to seventh, passing former teammate Will Cherry, who scored 1,484 points from 2010-13. Jamar needs just five more points to pass Coach Tinkle, who scored 1,500 points from 1986-89.
Jamar now has 377 career assists, which moves him up to fifth all-time, as he passes Micheal Ray Richardson, who had 372 career assists from 1975-78. (See add 3-3-3).
MONTANA GRIZZLIES (6-5/11-9)-------PPG--RPG--MISC.
C-41-Andy Martin, 7-0, 222, So., 1V--2.3--1.8--53.3 FG%/6 starts
G-1-Mario Dunn, 6-0, 171, Fr., HS--6.1--2.4--34 pts. last 3 games
G-10-Jordan Gregory, 6-2, 194, Jr., 2V--14.3--3.3--86.3 FT%
G-15-Keron DeShields, 6-2, 177, Jr., 2V 12.9--2.6--19 pts. in PSU win
G/F-32-Kareem Jamar, 6-5, 207, Sr., 2V 19.4--5.6--19/7/5 vs. PSU
6-33-Mike Weisner, F, 6-7, 193, Jr., 2V--7.3--2.3--25 pts. last 2 games
6-24-Chris Kemp, F, 6-7, 236, Jr., JC--2.5--2.2--54.1 FG%
6-45-Eric Hutchison, C, 6-9, 243, Sr., 3V--3.9--2.1--50.0 FG%/14 starts
Head Coach: Wayne Tinkle (Montana, 2005/8th season at Montana: 152-87)
EWU EAGLES (5-6/10-12)------------PPG--RPG--MISC.
F-00-Ognjen Miljkovic, 6-7, 220, Fr., HS--9.5--3.8--Has 5 starts
F-12-Martin Seiferth, 6-10, 235, Jr., 1V--6.2--4.4--59.7 FG%
C-55-Venky Jois, 6-7, 230, So., 1V--13.2--8.1--3rd in Sky in ppg
G-1-Tyler Harvey, 6-4, 180, So., 1V--21.0--4.0--Leads Sky in ppg
G-22-Drew Brandon, 6-4, 180, Jr., JC--10.5--7.0--5.4 apg
6-10-Parker Kelly, G, 6-4, 194, Jr., 2V--10.3--2.7--89.8 FT%/20 starts
Head Coach: Jim Hayford (Azusa Pacific, 1990/3rd season at EWU: 35-50).
SERIES: The Griz lead 63-39. UM has won 12 of the last 15.
COACH Wayne Tinkle QUOTES:
ON EWU: "It's a tough match-up. They are a talented team. I am sure they will come in here confident. They beat us at their place earlier this year, and then they had a big win at Montana State last (Thursday) night. They are a challenge to guard. We just have to do a good job defensively on their top two guys, and not let somebody jump up and bite us like they did (forward Martin Seiferth had 21 points and 12 rebounds versus UM in the first match-up on Jan. 9) the first time that we played them. I think we will get the looks that we want if we are patient and take care of the ball."
ON THE UM-EWU GAME EARLIER THIS SEASON: "It was awhile ago, but I do remember him being in foul trouble and I was proud of our guys for keeping it close at halftime without Kareem. And then he picked up his third to start the second half. They did a nice job defensively, but I think a lot more of it was just Kareem was in foul trouble and he lost his aggression. He'll remember that game.
"I remember doing a pretty good job on everyone defensively except Seiferth. We just lost him, and he hurt us much like (PSU forward Kyle) Richardson did (he had 25 points and 12 rebounds versus UM on Thursday) last night. We'll challenge our bigs to try and do a better job on him (Seiferth)."
ON THE LEAGUE RACE: "Anything can happen. We saw that last night. It's going to go down to the wire, so you do really have to make sure that you can take care of your home court, and then maybe you can sneak out some wins on the road, which we have done a bit of so far."
