Griz pick up home sweep with win over Spartans

Wednesday, December 7

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

3-6

San Jose State

4-4

San Jose State

Montana

12/7/2016 11:34:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score UM SJSU PDF Box PDF Box Score PDF Season Stats MBB Season Stats

By: Montana Sports Information

Outside Dahlberg Arena the temperatures were cold. Inside, the Griz were white hot.

The Montana men's basketball team avenged last year's loss to San Jose State in emphatic fashion on Wednesday, as the Griz scored 30 points off Spartan turnovers and shot nearly 52 percent from the field, leading to a high-flying 81-62 win over the visitors from the Mountain West Conference.

Now enjoying the team's first win streak of the season, the victory over SJSU gives the Griz two in a row and puts them at 3-6 on the year, while snapping a three-game streak for the Spartans that included wins over Idaho, Washington State, and Santa Clara.

In their last two outings, SJSU held their opponents under 60 points. The Griz racked up 46 points by halftime.

The win also gives the Griz two-straight wins over nonconference D-I opponents for the first time since 2012, when UM defeated Idaho and San Diego in consecutive outings.

Five players scored in double figures for the Griz for the first time this season and junior Fabijan Krslovic had the best all-around game of his career, finishing two steals shy of a triple-double. He finished with 11 points and tied his career high of 13 rebounds while also taking eight steals, just three short of breaking the school record.

"He's got the heart of a lion," said Montana head coach Travis DeCuire. "Fab is phenomenal at rebounding the ball right now. He's physical, he's in all the right places, and the best thing is he's starting to score the ball as well."

For Krslovic, the big numbers came as a surprise. All the Australian forward was looking to do was to ensure UM picked up a second home win.

"Trav told me I almost had a triple-double and I said: Nah you're lying," said the Sydneysider.

"Being on the road is always tough, especially on such a long road trip against such good teams. We didn't come back as well as we wanted to, so coming in we knew we had a couple of games at home and we knew we had to be aggressive. These are two big wins against two good teams, and we just need to keep that momentum going and not let our focus slip."

While Krslovic earned Player of the Game honors, the return of Michael Oguine from injury has been another major spark for the Grizzlies over the past two games. The sophomore guard netted 16 points against the Spartans, but his defensive effort paired with Krslovic's was the difference maker.

"You've got that two-man combination (Oguine and Krslovic) where they want to dominate you defensively. They could care less about what's going on in the offense; they can make sure that defense turns into offense and that puts a lot of people on their heels," added DeCuire.

(12/7/2016) MBB: vs. SJSU 12/7/16

Walter Wright led all players in scoring with 19 points, hitting 7-of-14 from the field and going 4-for-4 from the free-throw line, keeping him perfect on the year.

Montana's leading scorer Ahmaad Rorie was also instrumental with ball in hand, chipping in 13 points on 4-of-9 from the field, and going perfect from the line as well, hitting 5-of-5. As a team, the Griz shot 87 percent from the free throw line.

Jack Lopez had ice in his veins for the Griz, tallying 15 points while hitting clutch three-pointers just when UM needed them, and going 4-6 from behind the arc.

At the start of the game, the Grizzly defense jumped them out to the early lead, forcing the Spartans into six turnovers in the first eight minutes and San Jose State went scoreless for nearly four minutes. In that time, Jack Lopez scored five points of the Grizzlies' nine points in a run that put the hosts ahead 13-4.

"We became the aggressor early," said DeCuire. "Our press, I think, caught them off guard and you look up at the end of the game, and we'd scored 30 points off their turnovers. That was the difference."

Wright slashed his way into the lane before dropping one of his seven assists to Krslovic, who slammed it home to give the Griz a double-digit lead with 10:30 remaining in the half. The Spartans wouldn't be within single digits for the rest of the period.

San Jose State did rally to cut it to 11, but Montana scored six unanswered from the free throw line to build the lead back up to 34-17. But Wright, who finished the half with 14 points, buried a pull-up jumper from the free throw line just before the halftime buzzer to give the Griz a 46-30 lead at the break.

Montana built the lead up to 20 points early in the second, but San Jose State went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 13 with about 15 minutes left.

The Spartans threatened again halfway through the second. Already on a run, Brandon Clarke soared through the lane for a thunderous two-handed slam that cut the lead to 62-51. The Spartans would score 11 straight before Oguine ended the run with a defensive stop on one end and a huge slam off an alley-oop from Wright on the other, bringing the 3,024 in attendance to their feet.

Lopez then gave Montana control of the game late, hitting back-to-back threes to put Montana up 74-60 going into the final media timeout. To put a cherry on top of the Griz win, Wright lobbed a no-look pass behind him that Oguine caught and slammed home, putting the Griz up 19 and letting them coast to the win.

Montana now gets another shot at redemption as the Griz complete a home-and-home series with the Wyoming Cowboys on Sat. Dec. 10 in Laramie. The Cowboys eeked out a 73-72 win in Montana's home opener this season in mid-November.

"What we're concerned about now is how do we handle success? Now we've got two wins under our belts, and we face a team that came into this gym and we didn't feel like we played them very well. How do we respond to that? That's the challenge. We need to go into Saturday's game with the same amount of aggression as we had in this one," added DeCuire.

The Griz and 'Pokes are set to tip off at 4 p.m. in the first of a three-game road stretch that sees them travel to face No. 24 Oregon and UC Riverside as well on Dec. 13 and 17, respectively.

The Griz return home on Dec. 22 to face Pepperdine.