Montana to host Zootown Classic

After a difficult road trip east against top competition, the Montana men's basketball team returns home for a streak of four consecutive games in Missoula beginning on Thursday. The Griz will host the Zootown Classic for the second consecutive season.

The tournament provides Montana (0-2, 0-0 BSC) with an opportunity to settle into the season. The Grizzly defense struggled over the course of the road trip to a couple of red-hot opponents in Duquesne and Xavier, and will be glad to be back inside the friendly confines of Dahlberg Arena. They will face off against a newer team to the D-I ranks in St. Thomas, the NEC's Merrimack and end against Troy from the Sun Belt.

It will be a round-robin-style tournament with six total games played over the course of three days. The games will begin at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every night, with Montana playing in the night game every day.

St. Thomas may be new to the D-I level but they've already had plenty of success and showed earlier this year that they are dangerous in a 12-point loss to No. 8 Creighton. Merrimack enters 1-1 with a loss to St. John's and perhaps the biggest unknown of the three. Troy is fresh off a seven-point victory against Florida State, and enter a perfect 3-0.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

Thursday, Nov. 17
Troy vs. Merrimack at 5:00 p.m.
Montana vs. St. Thomas at 7:30 p.m. (Stats / Tickets)

Friday, Nov. 18
St. Thomas vs. Troy at 5:00 p.m.
Montana vs. Merrimack at 7:30 p.m. (Stats / Tickets)

Saturday, Nov. 19
St. Thomas vs. Merrimack at 5:00 p.m.
Montana vs. Troy at 7:30 p.m. (Stats / Tickets)

WATCH: ESPN+
LISTEN: KGVO (1290 AM/98.3 FM) / The Varsity Network

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
This is the second straight season that Montana will host a multi-team event (MTE). It will be just the fourth time under head coach Travis DeCuire that the Grizzlies have participated in an MTE. They went 1-2 at the Paradise Jam tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands in November 2016, before going 2-1 and playing in the championship game of the Islands of the Bahamas Showcase in Nassau in November 2018.

The Grizzlies have been dominant in tournaments hosted in Missoula going back through the years. The Grizzlies went 2-0 in the inaugural Zootown Classic last season, running up their win streak to nine consecutive tournament games in Missoula. The Grizzlies were 2-0 in 2003, 2-0 in 2006, 3-0 in 2009 and then 2-0 last season. They have not lost a home tournament game since the 1999 season.

GRIZ BITS

Josh Bannan picked up right where he left off and has been living up the Preseason All-Big Sky billing through two games this year. He is in the top 15 in the Big Sky in all three major categories, averaging 15.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
Dischon Thomas provided some offensive punch in his first two games as a Grizzly. Thomas scored 15.5 points per game while shooting 57 percent from the floor and 43 percent from long distance. He also hauled in 6.0 rebounds per game to share the team lead.
Lonnell Martin Jr. had a big game against Xavier, scoring 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting. He also added two steals on the defensive end of the ball.
Montana had five newcomers see action on the road trip. Thomas, Aanen Moody and freshman Jaxon Nap all saw double-digit minutes per game while Jonathan Brown and Laolu Oke also received action. Brown kicked in eight points in seven minutes against Duquesne.
The Griz shot just 41 percent as a team on the opening weekend and allowed opponents to shoot 64 percent. Montana contested a lot of shots, but ran into opponents that caught fire. That mark ranked last in the country through the first week of games in the NCAA.

SCOUTING ST. THOMAS (2-1, 0-0 Summit)

The Tommies are playing just their second full season at the D-I level. In their final three years (two full seasons and one COVID shortened season) at the D-III level, they went 57-8.
St. Thomas went 10-20 overall and 4-14 in the Summit League in 2021-22.
In their season opener against nationally ranked Creighton, the Tommies trailed by just five at the half and lost by just 12. They shot over 40 percent from three and held Creighton under 40 percent from the field in the loss.
On the season, they are outscoring their opponents by over 15 points per game.
The Tommies are shooting 42 percent from deep as a team over the first three games. They have 24 made threes and rank in the top 40 nationally in distance shooting. From the floor, they are shooting 53 percent overall.
Andrew Rohde is averaging a team-high 15 points per game, and also shares the team lead with 10 assists on the season. Rohde also has five steals, tied with Brooks Allen for the most on the team.
Riley Miller has been hot from downtown, making 10 threes on 59 percent shooting. He averages 13.7 points per game.

SCOUTING MERRIMACK (1-1, 0-0 NEC)

The Warriors are 1-1 on the season with a 16-point win over D-III Clark University and a 25-point loss to St. John's.
Last season, Merrimack finished 14-16 overall and 10-8 in the NEC. They are recently promoted from the D-II level, and were unable to play in the postseason despite finishing fourth in their conference. They are not postseason eligible until the 2023-24 season.
The Warriors are located in North Andover, Mass. and will be travelling over 2,500 miles for this tournament.
Merrimack has struggled on the glass, being outrebounded by 20 through their opening two games. They have been good defensively, holding teams to 43 percent shooting and under 30 percent from the three-point line.
They have caused opponents problems with their defense, turning teams over 23 times per game and converting that into 25 points per game. They average 12.5 steals.
Jordan Minor leads the team in scoring and rebounding, going for 17.0 and 8.5 in two games. He's shooting 63 percent from the field and has gone to the free-throw line a team high 13 times.

SCOUTING TROY (3-0, 0-0 Sun Belt)

The Trojans are coming off a massive win against Florida State. They went to Tallahassee and won their first game against a power-five opponents since 2012. They had a seven-point lead at halftime and held on down the stretch. They forced 19 turnovers and had 11 steals in the win.
This is the first time since the 1992-93 season that Troy has started 3-0.
They went 20-12 overall last season and 10-6 in Sun Belt play, reaching the conference tournament semifinals. They competed in the College Basketball Invitational, losing to Abilene Christian in the first round of that tournament.
The Trojans have ridden a high-flying offense to the good start. They are in the top 50 nationally with 87.3 points per game.
Their 27-point scoring margin over the opening three games is the 37^th best in the country. They are holding opponents to just 60.3 PPG.
Defense turns into offense for the Trojans. They are 17^th in the country in steals per game with 12.7 and are top 10 in turnover margin. They have forced 66 turnovers while giving it away just 37 times.
The offense has been balanced with five players averaging double figures and another two players scoring at least 9.0 PPG. Nelson Phillips leads with 13.3 points on 40 percent shooting. Aamer Muhammad averages 13.0 points and has a team-high eight threes made this year (42 percent).
They average 7.7 more rebounds, 3.3 more assists, 6.0 more steals and 2.0 more blocks than their opponents this season.

SERIES HISTORY
This is the first-ever meeting between Montana and all three schools competing in the Zootown Classic.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Bannan

Jonathan Brown

Lonnell Martin Jr.

Aanen Moody

Jaxon Nap

Laolu Oke

Dischon Thomas

University of Montana Athletics