Montana
20-13
Texas A&M University
21-11
Host Aggies defeat Griz 81-64
3/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Box Score
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS - The University of Montana Grizzlies made a gallant run, but their 2014-15 season ended Tuesday evening, as the host Texas A&M Aggies defeated them 81-64 Tuesday in a first round NIT game in the Aggies' Reed Arena.
The Grizzlies' and first-year head coach Travis DeCuire ended their surprising and successful season with an overall record of 20-13 record. Montana went 14-4 in the Big Sky Conference to finish as the league's co-champion, after being picked to finish eighth by the league's coaches and fifth by the media in the Big Sky's two preseason polls.
The Aggies improve to 21-11. Texas A&M will now play the winner of the Central Michigan at Louisiana Tech game in a second round NIT game later this week.
After trailing by 18 points (33-15) with 4:53 left until halftime, Montana out-scored Texas A&M 18-5 in the final five minutes of the opening half, cutting the Aggies' lead to 38-33 at intermission.
A big key to the comeback effort by the Griz was the shooting of sophomore guard Brandon Gfeller, who made 4-of-5 three-pointers for 12 points in the first 20 minutes.
"Just keep believing," is what DeCuire said in the postgame press conference when asked what he told his team when they trailed by 18 points in the first half. "Just keep playing. We've been down before. We have a knack for starting slow, but tonight was little slower than usual. We knew our defense could get us back in the game, and it did. Unfortunately, our offense let us down a little bit."
The Grizzlies had the lead four different times in the second half, and their final advantage was at 48-46 on a trey by Gfeller with 13:36 left in the game.
The Aggies tied the contest at 48-48 for the fourth deadlock after that though, and when senior guard Jordan Green made lay-up with 12:40 remaining in the game. Texas A&M then regained the lead (49-48) when Green converted 1-of-2 free throws, and led the rest of the way.
Texas A&M then went on a run of its own, going up by 18 points again, this time the score was 72-54 on a dunk by junior guard/forward Jalen Jones with 3:31 left to play, and the Aggies coasted the rest of the way for the victory.
"We've seen that zone earlier this year," DeCuire said. "We scored 90 points on it. We got the same shots tonight, we just didn't make it. Mike Weisner missed three straight threes in the corner, Brandon Gfeller missed three straight threes and Jordan Gregory missed two. If we had made those shots, we would have had a lead going into the 8-minute media. It would have been a different ball game, but we just didn't make the shots.
"I told my team before we even practiced yesterday (Monday) that we were going to let the three ball fly tonight," DeCuire said. "We knew with the way [A&M] defends it was going to be hard getting stuff to the basket. We knew we were going to have to make some jump shots to win this game. We had a stretch where we fought back. Thirty five attempts, that was our game plan. We shot it decent, but we did not shoot as well as we know we could have. We had shots going in, but they just weren't going down.
"All due respect to this A&M team, they came ready to play, and they were a very difficult matchup for us size and length-wise," DeCuire said. "I'm very proud my team. It's a team that was not expected to get where we're at. For the team to go out and fight the way they did, I am very proud to be a Grizzly."
Gregory scored a team-high 20 points, while Gfeller added 18, and Breunig had 12 points and led UM with 7 rebounds. It was Gregory's 13th 20point effort of the season and the 19th in his career.
Jones led the Aggies with a game-high 25 points, while Green and freshman guard Alex Robinson added 15 points each. Jones and senior forward Kourtney Roberson led the Aggies with 8 rebounds each.
With his 1,234 points Gregory moves up to 14th on the career scoring list, passing Charles Davis (1,214 points) and Darren Engellant (1,224 points, 1989-92).
Gregory remains seventh in UM history in points scored in a season with 562. He 87 made three-pointers this season - the third most in UM's single-season history.
Gregory (562 points) and Breunig (534 points) combined for 1,096 points this season - the highest combination by any two players in Montana's basketball history in a year. His 192 career three-point makes are the 20th most in Big Sky history, and fifth most ever at UM.
It was the final career game for seniors Gregory, Chris Kemp, and Mike Weisner.
The Aggies will play the winner of the Central Michigan at Louisiana Tech game,on a day and time to be determined.
