Montana hits road on cusp of conference title

Montana at Portland State / Thursday / 8 p.m. (MT) / Portland, Ore.

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ON THE CUSP OF A CHAMPIONSHIP
Montana enters the final week of the regular season on the cusp of another Big Sky Conference regular-season title. The Grizzlies – at 15-3 in league play and winners of 12 of their past 13 games – can lock up the No. 1 seed for next week's Big Sky Championships with a win on Thursday. The win would guarantee at least a share of the regular-season title, and a win on Saturday as well, or a Northern Colorado loss this week, would give Montana the outright title for the second year in a row.

A LOOK AT THE STANDINGS
Montana owns a one-game lead over second-place Northern Colorado. The Bears (14-4) travel to Southern Utah on Thursday before hosting Northern Arizona on Saturday. Should the two teams finish tied, Montana would be guaranteed of the No. 1 seed, as long as the Grizzlies beat Portland State.

Since Montana and UNC split their two matchups this season, the next tiebreaker would be their records against the No. 3 seed, and so on until a tie is broken. Montana State is currently in third (UM went 2-0 vs. the Cats while UNC was 1-1). A game back from MSU is Weber State (UM went 2-0, UNC went 1-1) and Eastern Washington (both teams went 1-1). UNC has the advantage over UM with Portland State – currently in sixth place – but if the Griz beat the Vikings on Thursday, PSU, nor any other team, could finish ahead of Montana State, Weber State or Eastern Washington.

SCOUTING PORTLAND STATE

PSU enters the game with a 14-15 mark, including a 10-4 record in its brand-new arena (six consecutive wins). The Vikings are 9-9 in Big Sky play and are fighting for a top-five finish and a bye into the quarterfinals.
When the Vikings beat UM in January, it marked their first road in of the season and snapped a five-game losing skid overall. PSU has won five of its past six games, however, with its only loss coming March 2 at EWU on a last-second shot.
PSU leads the country with 15.5 offensive rebounds per game. The Vikings' 13 o-boards vs. the Griz in January resulted in 14 second-chance points.
Overall, the Vikings rank first in Big Sky play for rebounding, blocked shots and steals.
Montana (+6.2) and Portland State (+3.4) post the top-two rebounding margins in Big Sky play.
Over the past three games, PSU is limiting opponents to just 63.3 points per game on .376 shooting. However, the Vikings are scoring just 66.0 points during that span.
Sophomore Holland Woods is averaging 15.0 points per Big Sky game (seventh) and a league-best 5.6 assists per game. He is the only Viking player to average double figures.
Senior Deante Strickland has two 20-point games in the past three weeks. During Big Sky play, he ranks in the top 15 for assists, steals and three-pointers.
Junior Sal Nuhu leads the Big Sky with 2.2 blocks per game. He also has a team-most 7.2 rebounds per game (fifth) and shoots .475 from the floor (14th) and .797 from the charity stripe (13th).
Senior Jamie Orme shoots a league-best .487 from three-point range during Big Sky play, one of three Vikings to rank in the top 15.
PSU went 20-13 and advanced to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2017-18 under first-year head coach Barret Peery.

SERIES VS. THE VIKINGS
Montana and Portland State first met in 1965-66 and played at least once in 13 of the next 16 seasons. The two teams then took a 16-year hiatus before the series resumed in 1996-97, and have played every season since. Montana holds a 40-24 edge in the series overall, and looks to even the ledger in Portland (15-16 currently). From 2004-09, Montana went 1-5 in Portland. Since then, though, the Griz are 7-2.

From 2008-09 through 2012-13, Montana won nine consecutive in the series, and under Travis DeCuire the Grizzlies are 7-2. Montana is looking for revenge after the Vikings snapped UM's 20-game home win streak in January. During that game, Montana was led by 22 points from Kendal Manuel, but the Grizzlies were held to 39 percent shooting (lowest during Big Sky play), losing in overtime.

The last time the two teams met in Portland it was a memorable afternoon for Michael Oguine, who scored 39 points and was featured on SportsCenter. As a team, Montana shot 55.1 percent from the floor in the 92-89 victory. Over his past six games vs. Portland State, Oguine is averaging 18.8 points per game, scoring in double figures all six times and recording two double-doubles. Ahmaad Rorie has two games with at least 28 points vs. the Vikings.

CHAMPIONSHIP SPEAK
Throughout its history, it's hard to find many teams across the region with more success than Montana. The Grizzlies have won 11 regular-season conference titles, 10 tournament championships and have played in the NCAA tournament 11 times. Perhaps Griz fans have never had it better than the last several years, however. A win on Thursday would clinch a regular-season Big Sky title for the fifth time in the past eight seasons (additionally, in two of the other three years, Montana finished runner-up).

Montana's 11 (for now) regular-season titles rank second to Weber State, but more recently, the Griz have asserted their dominance. Montana has the most Big Sky titles in the past decade and would be tied with Weber State since the turn of the century. Eight of the Wildcats' titles came prior to 1973.

BACK-TO-BACK
A win on Thursday would give Montana a Big Sky regular-season title for the second consecutive season. Montana was the most-recent Big Sky team to accomplish the feat, doing so in 2012 and 2013. The Grizzlies also won back-to-back regular-season championships in 1991 and 1992.

ONE... TWO... THREE?
In its history, eight different Griz coaches have won a Big Sky Conference regular-season title. Three coaches – Blaine Taylor, Wayne Tinkle and DeCuire – have won two, but none have earned a third regular-season title. DeCuire could become the first to do so with a win on Thursday.

A look back at some of the key plays from last night's win, including every angle of @michaeloguine's huge dunk!#GrizHoops #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/x0GkgUptOo
— Montana Griz BB (@MontanaGrizBB) March 5, 2019

105 AND COUNTING
With Monday's win over Northern Arizona, Travis DeCuire earned his 105th win as head coach of the Griz. The number is the highest total ever by a UM coach through his first five seasons. Blaine Taylor, DeCuire's head coach while he was a player, had 104 wins through his first five seasons. Other notable coaches are Stew Morrill (98), Wayne Tinkle (91), Mike Montgomery (89), Jud Heathcote (80) and George Dahlberg (70).

DeCuire is the only coach in UM history to win 20 or more games in both of his first two seasons (he's now done it four times). The 2018 Big Sky and NABC District 6 Coach of the Year also is the fastest coach in Big Sky history to win 50 league games.

OGUINE TAKING OVER
Senior Michael Oguine made his final two home games ones to remember. In wins over Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, Oguine averaged a double-double with 18.0 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, in addition to 2.5 assists, 2.0 blocked shots and 1.5 steals. Despite standing just 6-2, Oguine led the team for rebounding both nights and led Montana for scoring against Northern Arizona (22).

Montana trailed for more than 27 minutes against NAU, but used a 14-2 run late in the second half to regain the lead. Oguine was a key part of the run, scoring four points and recording two assists, a steal, blocked shot and offensive rebound. He had a one-handed slam through the lane to tie the game at 58-58 and an even bigger highlight reel jam on a putback to put the Griz up by five and force an NAU timeout.

On Senior Night vs. Southern Utah, Oguine nearly recorded another double-double, totaling 14 points and nine boards, in addition to two blocked shots and two steals. Against the Thunderbirds, Montana used an 11-2 run to turn a four-point game into a 62-49 advantage. Oguine scored the final five points of the run (alley-oop dunk and three-pointer), forcing a timeout.

Oguine, who ranks seventh in school history for career points scored, is three steals away from passing Chris Spoja (1994-97) for third all-time. He has also started 117 career games.

IRON-MAN MOOREHEAD
Over the past four seasons, senior Bobby Moorehead hasn't missed a game, let alone a practice. The Tacoma native has played in 128 career games (including 73 starts and 66 in a row), and is within reach of passing former teammate and roommate Fabijan Krslovic (132) for most career games played.

Complete Game Notes in PDF format, including more notes, charts and player pages

We should be the ones thanking them... but a thank you from the #GrizHoops seniors to #GrizNation! pic.twitter.com/ch2zhUa8eR
— Montana Griz BB (@MontanaGrizBB) March 6, 2019

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Players Mentioned

Fabijan Krslovic

Kendal Manuel

Bobby Moorehead

Michael Oguine

Ahmaad Rorie

University of Montana Athletics