Griz travel to EWU looking to tie school records

MONTANA AT EASTERN WASHINGTON
Thursday, Feb. 15 / 7 p.m. MT / Cheney, Wash.
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With five games remaining in the regular season, Montana will now face the relatively unknown. The Grizzlies have played 13 games so far in Big Sky Conference play, against the same seven teams. However, four of their final five contests are against teams they have yet to play this season.

It's the way an unbalanced schedule works, with 12 teams in an 18-game league schedule. Montana will travel to Eastern Washington on Thursday and Idaho on Saturday, before returning to Missoula for its final three contests of the regular season.

"It is what it is," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "I'd like to play everybody, but you work with what's on your schedule, and Eastern Washington is up next for us."

Montana is coming off of its gutsiest win of the season, defeating Sacramento State in overtime, 71-69. Montana did not hold a lead over the final 15:44 of regulation, and trailed aside from the final 12 seconds. The Grizzlies faced a five-point deficit with under 3 minutes to play, and a one-point deficit without the ball with 26 seconds on the clock. They did not allow a point over the final 2:55, though, forcing Sacramento State into 0-for-5 shooting from the floor and free-throw line, in addition to a huge steal by Fabijan Krslovic that set up the game-tying basket with 12 seconds to play.

"We hung together," DeCuire said. "We continued to have confidence in each other down the stretch. We tried to get the ball to the right places and take the extra pass. We grinded it out."

The win kept several streaks intact, extending Montana's conference record to a sparkling 13-0. A win on Thursday at Eastern Washington would tie a school record for consecutive wins.

In order to do so, the Grizzlies will have to overcome a tall task in senior Bogdan Bliznyuk. The all-conference player ranks third in the Big Sky for scoring (22.1 per league game) and fifth for rebounding (7.5). He also ranks second for assists, second for free-throw percentage and 14th for field-goal percentage.

"It's going to be heavy on Bogdan," said assistant coach Rachi Wortham, an EWU grad who used to work for the Eagles. "He likes to spread you out, and then they have phenomenal shooters in the corners. You want to help on Bogdan, but you also can't leave your guy."

EWU has the league's second-best scoring defense – trailing only Montana – and is the top free-throw shooting team. The Eagles also rank in the upper third for three-point shooting and defense, including first for total three-pointers made (9.0 per game). The team's top three-point shooter is Cody Benzel (.513; third in BSC), who also leads the team for steals (1.1 per game; 10th). Mason Peatling ranks second in the league with 1.8 blocked shots per game. He also ranks sixth for rebounding (7.2) and 15th for shooting (.524).

Thursday will be the first leg of a difficult road trip. Since Idaho rejoined the conference in 2014-15, last year's Grizzlies are the only Big Sky team to sweep the Eastern Washington-Idaho road trip.

"We don't talk about the streaks, we just go out and play and try to win the next game," DeCuire said. "I think they're ready to go. Our guys are fired up."

A WIN ON THURSDAY WOULD...

Tie a school record for consecutive wins (14; also 2012-13 and 2011-12).
Tie the best start to Big Sky Conference play in school history (14-0; also in 2012-13).
Extend Montana's program record for consecutive road wins to eight.
Mark the team's best 26-game start to a season (21-5) since 1991-92).
Decrease the team's magic number to winning the Big Sky regular-season championship and locking up the No. 1 seed in the tournament to three.

JUST KEEP WINNING
In more than a century of basketball at the university, Montana's 13-game winning streak is tied for the third-longest in school history.

In fact, the winning streak is also one of the longest active streaks in the NCAA, only trailing Cincinnati (16), Rhode Island (14) and Vermont (13).

"We're just trying to stay hungry," Travis DeCuire recently said. "Any hint of complacency we deal with it right away, but I haven't seen much of it. They're playing for the bigger picture. They're playing together. When you get a group willing to give up for the better of the whole, you've always got a chance to win, and right now we have a lot of guys doing that."

STARTING STRONG
Montana is off to a 13-0 start to begin Big Sky Conference play, marking the second time in the Grizzlies' 55-year history in the league. The Grizzlies also did it in 2012-13, winning their first 14 games.

The streak is the fourth-best start in Big Sky history, trailing only Weber State (15-0 start in 1969), Weber State (14-0 start in 2003) and Montana (14-0 start in 2013).

25 GAMES IN
At 20-5 through 25 games, Montana is off to one of its better starts in school history. The Grizzlies have begun a season 20-5 or better five times prior to this season, most recently in 2005-06 (20-5 through 25 games).

20 AND COUNTING
Montana reached the 20-win plateau for the third time in head coach Travis DeCuire's four-year tenure with the Grizzlies. Montana will finish with a .500 or better record for the 10th consecutive season.

ROAD STREAK
While Montana owns a 13-game winning streak overall, the Grizzlies' seven game road winning streak is a school record and is tied for the fourth-longest actively in the NCAA. Nationally, the Grizzlies trail Saint Mary's (14), Old Dominion (8) and Vermont (8).

SCOUTING EASTERN WASHINGTON

Eastern Washington is 12-13 overall, including 7-5 in Big Sky play. The Eagles are coming off of a two-point road loss to Idaho in their only game last week.
The Eagles are 7-1 at home this season, only falling to Idaho (58-51).
EWU is one of the nation's top free-throw shooting teams, connecting on 76.6 percent of its shots from the charity stripe (27th in NCAA).
EWU turns the ball over just 11.5 times per contest, a figure which leads the Big Sky and ranks 40th nationally.
EWU averages 8.8 three-pointers per game (9.0 in BSC play), an average that ranks in the top quarter of the NCAA. Its .363 three-point shooting percentage ranks in the upper-third.
All-Big Sky selection Bogdan Bliznyuk is EWU's all-time scoring leader, closing in on 2,000 career points. The senior ranks third in Big Sky play for scoring (22.1 ppg), fifth for rebounding (7.5 rpg), second for assists (4.3 apg) and second for free-throw percentage (.982).
Cody Benzel ranks third in the Big Sky with a .513 three-point shooting percentage.
Mason Peatling ranks second in the league with 1.8 blocked shots per game. He also ranks sixth for rebounding (7.2 rpg) and 15th for shooting (.524).
Shantay Legans is in his first season as head coach and ninth season overall at EWU.
The Eagles went 13-5 in Big Sky play in 2016-17, finishing runner-up to North Dakota.

NATIONAL RANKING
Montana cracked the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll for the first time this season on Jan. 15, and has steadily moved up each week since. The Grizzlies are No. 12 in this week's Mid-Major Top 25 and No. 16 in the Mid-Major Madness power rankings.

The Mid-Major Top 25 ranks the top teams from the America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic conferences, in addition to independents. The poll, now in its 19th season, is voted on by 31 head coaches.

TERRIFIC TRIO
Montana is the only school in Big Sky play to have three players rank in the top 10 for scoring, with juniors Jamar Akoh (16.8; eighth) and Michael Oguine (16.7; ninth) and Ahmaad Rorie (16.5; 10th) accomplishing the feat.

Rorie has been in double figures 22 times this season – including 20-plus on 11 occasions. Oguine has been in double figures in all but three contests, while Akoh has accomplished the feat in 16 of his past 18 contests, including seven double-doubles.

LEADING THE BIG SKY
With five games remaining, Montana holds a 2.5-game lead in the Big Sky standings. The Grizzlies, though, also are atop the conference for many offensive and defensive statistical categories. The Grizzlies rank first for:

Scoring offense (81.9)
Scoring defense (66.9)
Scoring margin (+15.0)
Field-goal percentage defense (.385)
Three-point field-goal percentage defense (.304)
Rebounding (38.0)
Steals (8.3)
Turnover margin (+3.8)
Assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2)

The Grizzlies also rank second for three-point field-goal defense (.320) and rebounding margin (+4.2), and third for field-goal percentage (.490), three-point shooting (.400) and assists (13.3).

FORCING TURNOVERS
Montana has forced at least 11 turnovers in every game this season and ranks among the nation's best, forcing 16.3 turnovers per game (17th in NCAA). The Grizzlies have turned the ball over more times than their opponent just four times in 25 games and hold a +3.6 turnover margin (20th in NCAA).

On four occasions, Montana has forced 20 or more turnovers in a game, and in a win at Pitt (Nov. 13), the Grizzlies forced the Panthers into 19 turnovers, converting them into 30 points – an average of 1.58 points per turnover.

SIMPLE ROUTINE
Montana is one of eight NCAA Division I schools to use the same starting lineup in every game this season, using guards Michael Oguine and Ahmaad Rorie, and forwards Jamar Akoh, Fabijan Krslovic and Bobby Moorehead.

The other schools to use the same starting lineup every game are: Army, Central Michigan, Davidson, Old Dominion, Penn, Purdue and Virginia.

LOOKING AHEAD
Montana will play its final road true road game on Saturday, traveling to preseason favorite Idaho, a team that currently sits in third place. Montana's final three contests of the regular season will all be at home.

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Players Mentioned

Jamar Akoh

Fabijan Krslovic

Bobby Moorehead

Michael Oguine

Ahmaad Rorie

University of Montana Athletics