Griz open season at USC on Friday

Friday, November 11

Los Angeles, Calif.

9:00 PM (MT)

Montana

Southern California

11/10/2016 5:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

By: Montana Sports Information

UM NOTES | USC NOTES | WATCH

The Montana Grizzlies (0-0) officially begin the quest for a return trip to the Big Sky Conference championship game as UM opens the regular season on the road to face the Pac-12s Southern California Trojans (0-0) in the opening matchup for both squads.

The Griz and Trojans tip off at 9 p.m. MT on Friday, Nov. 11 at the Galen Center on the USC campus in downtown Los Angeles.

COVERAGE: The Griz and Trojans season opener can be seen on the Pac-12 L.A. Network, and online at Pac-12.com. Ted Robinson will call the play-by-play and Ben Braun will provide the courtside analysis.

"Voice of the Griz" Riley Corcoran will bring you the call statewide on the Montana Grizzlies Radio Network in his regular season basketball debut. Fans can also tune in to hear the radio broadcast online at gogriz.com/watch.

Live stats of the game are also available at USCTrojans.com.

SERIES HISTORY: You have to go back to the 1930-31 season to find the last time Montana has faced Southern California on the hardwood. It was a much different time back then, with the Griz making the most of the long travel to Los Angeles, playing a pair of games and coming away with a split. In the first game, the Trojans got the better of the Griz 28-21. In the second game of the series, Montana picked up a 29-27 win to even the all-time series with USC 1-1.

LAST TIME OUT: The last official time the Griz took the court, Montana battled a tough Whitworth team in the program's first and only scrimmage of the season, pulling away in the second half for a 90-80 exhibition win at Dahlberg Arena.

Ahmaad Rorie showed what he was capable of in his first outing as a Grizzly, leading all scorers with 27 points supported by Walter Wright's 22.

Since then though, the Griz played an unofficial closed-door scrimmage at Colorado State on Nov. 5, traveling to Fort Collins and picking up a 75-65 win over the Rams. Brandon Gfeller led Montana in scoring with 24 points and Fabijan Krslovic pulled down 11 rebounds, as UM beat CSU on the boards by seven.

GRIZ TRACKS: Montana enters the 2015-16 season on the heels of two 20-win seasons under head Coach Travis DeCuire, playing for the Big Sky's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in each of those two seasons, and advancing on to the NIT in 2015 and CBI in 2016.

The game at USC is the first of two guaranteed games against Pac-12 opponents this season, the other coming at Oregon Dec. 13 in Eugene. The Grizzlies could get another Pac-12 opponent at the Paradise Jam tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands, with Washington State lined up on the opposite side of the bracket.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' (of a win): Travis DeCuire is seeking his first win in the state of California since taking over as head coach of the Grizzlies in the 2014-15 season. Overall, the Grizzlies are 0-6 in their last six visits to the Golden State. The last win for the Griz in California came in the spring of 2014 when the Griz defeated Sacramento State 70-55.

RETURN TO THE PAC-12: While the Griz have not played USC since the 1930s, one Montana player is awfully familiar with the Trojans.

Former Oregon Duck and current Griz redshirt sophomore Ahmaad Rorie will take the court against the Trojans for the third time in his career on Friday, after having played for Oregon in two separate Pac-12 conference games against USC as a freshman in the 2014-15 season.

In the first of those contests, Rorie scored four points and dished out three assists in 22 minutes of action in a 75-67 win for the Ducks in Eugene. On the return trip to face USC in LA, Rorie went 1-3 from the field for two points and dished out four assists in 26 minutes in a 80-75 win for the Ducks. Rorie is 2-0 lifetime against USC.

ON DECK: Montana will play its home opener in short order following the season opener at USC. The Griz host the first game of a home-and-home series with the Wyoming Cowboys at Dahlberg Arena on Monday, Nov. 14, in a 7 p.m. tipoff.

FIGHT ON: The Trojans are coming off a 21-13 season and their first NCAA tournament birth since 2011, where they dropped an opening-round game to Providence 70-69 in Raleigh, N.C.

The Trojans have been picked to finish No. 7 in the Pac-12 race this season, with defending champs Oregon selected to win the conference for the second-straight season.