Griz begin Big Sky play at home

MONTANA vs. EASTERN WASHINGTON
Thursday, Dec. 29 / 7:00 p.m. / Missoula, Mont.
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MONTANA vs. IDAHO
Saturday, Dec. 31 / 2:00 p.m. / Missoula, Mont.
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Montana begins conference play on Thursday night in Missoula against another perennial Big Sky power in Eastern Washington. They take on Idaho on Saturday in the only afternoon conference game of the year, a New Year's Eve matinee against the Vandals.

It's a chance for the Grizzlies to learn exactly where they stand in the Big Sky after a challenging non-conference schedule. The Grizzlies played against 11 D-1 opponents, winning six games that they may have been expected to and losing to six teams that combined for a .753 winning percentage in the non-conference.

The theme all along as they played tough game after tough game was that the challenging non-conference slate would better prepare them for the 10-week gauntlet that is the Big Sky conference season. Now is the time to find out if the struggles were worth it.

There is no denying that Montana appears to be a team that has found its identity. The Grizzlies won three consecutive games down the stretch of the non-conference season, entering a matchup against No. 11 Gonzaga with confidence at a season-long high. They used that to nearly pull of a historic upset, getting within five points down the stretch against a team that is on the longest home winning streak in modern NCAA history.

The test now will be to roll that confidence and chemistry over to Big Sky play. Montana enter with a fearsome foursome of players all averaging at least 12 points per game in Josh Bannan, Aanen Moody, Brandon Whitney and Dischon Thomas. Bannan and Whitney are in their third year together, but it took some time for the lineup to fully come together with transfers Moody and Thomas.

Montana's starting lineup is perhaps the top unit in the Big Sky. The Griz have four players in the top 20 in the league in scoring. Northern Colorado is second with three players, but no other school has more than two. It's a lineup that should cause problems in conference play.

They start the Big Sky schedule with a matchup against the two best teams in the conference since head coach Travis DeCuire started at Montana. The two sides have combined for over 200 conference wins in the last nine seasons.

Montana then finish the weekend against Idaho, another regional rival that the Griz split the 2021-22 series against. The Vandals have two of the most dynamic playmakers in the league and are exceeding expectations through their non-conference schedule. It should make for a fun weekend to cap off 2022 and begin the Big Sky schedule.

SCOUTING EASTERN WASHINGTON

The Eagles enter Big Sky play 6-7 overall and on a two-game winning streak. They have a few impressive results already on their resume including a Pac-12 win over California and a narrow loss to an impressive Texas Tech team.
After a 1-4 start to the season, the Eagles have won five of the last eight games. They are coming off a 76-point victory against Northwest Indian College.
Cedric Coward earned the Big Sky Player of the Week award on Tuesday after his triple-double against NWIC. His 10 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists were good for just the second triple-double in Eastern Washington program history.
Coward was the second Eagle to earn Big Sky Player of the Week honors, joining teammate Steele Venters who won it on Dec. 6. Venters scored 33 points in an Eagle win over North Dakota State.
Venters leads the team and is 12^th in the Big Sky in scoring at 14.5 points per game. He is one of just 11 players in the conference to average at least two three-pointers per game.
The duo of Tyreese Davis and Angelo Allegri are both in the top 10 in the Big Sky in assists per game. Davis (3.3/game) and Allegri (3.2) are also top seven in the Big Sky in assist-to-turnover ratio.
On the defensive side, Ethan Price is third in the Big Sky in blocks per game (0.9) while Casey Jones is third in steals (1.3).
As a team, Eastern Washington is right in the middle of the pack in terms of both offense (72.5 points per game) and defense (69.2 points allowed per game). Despite a losing record, they are one of four Big Sky teams with a positive scoring margin, although that is drastically helped by the 76-point margin against Northwest Indian.
The Eagles are one of the best rebounding teams in the Big Sky, averaging 37.2 per game and ranking second in the conference with a positive 5.0 rebounding margin.
On the road, Eastern Washington is just 1-5 this season. The only road win came against 1-12 Cal on Dec. 7.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE EAGLES
Montana is in control of the all-time series against regional rival Eastern Washington, winning 74 of the 122 meetings between the schools. The Grizzlies are coming off a season sweep against the Eagles in 2021-22, getting revenge after a year in which Eastern Washington won both regular season meetings and ended the Grizzlies' season in 2020-21.

The two schools have combined for the most Big Sky victories since head coach Travis DeCuire joined the Big Sky in 2014-15. Montana (103) and Eastern Washington (101) have been the premier programs in the conference for nearly the past decade.

SCOUTING IDAHO

The Vandals have exceeded expectations so far this season and enter conference play at 6-7 overall. They are 2-4 in road games this season, and are coming off an 82-75 loss to Long Beach State.
Prior to the loss at LBSU, the Vandals had won five of their previous six games.
Isaac Jones has been among the Big Sky's best this season, leading the league in scoring (18.9 points per game) and ranking sixth in rebounding (7.5).
Divant'e Moffitt has also put together a highly impressive season so far, ranking sixth in the Big Sky in scoring (16.8 points) and leading the league in assists (5.6).
Jones was named Big Sky Player of the Week on Nov. 29 after a two-game stretch that saw him average 25 points and 6.5 rebounds per game on 73 percent shooting.
The duo have helped Idaho to the league's second-best offense (79.7 ppg) and also the best scoring defense (68.2 ppg). The 11.5 point scoring margin is by far the best in the Big Sky, although similar to Eastern Washington it is greatly impacted by a couple of outliers. The Vandals beat both Walla Walla and Northwest Indian College by 74 points each.
It has been an efficient offense so far for Idaho, as they lead the league in both field goal percentage (50.2 percent) and three-point field goal percentage (37.5 percent). They are also fourth in threes made per game with 8.5.
They protect the ball, ranking second in the Big Sky in turnover margin (1.77) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.22).
The Vandals were 6-14 in Big Sky play last year and were picked to finish 9^th in both the coaches and media polls.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE VANDALS
This is Montana's second-most played series of all time, as the Griz and Vandals have faced off 204 times in the history of the two programs dating all the way back to the 1915-16 season. Montana is 93-111 vs. Idaho all time, the third-most wins for Montana against a single opponent trailing only Montana State and Idaho State.

The two sides split the season series in 2021-22, with Idaho's win ending a five-game winning streak for the Griz in the series. Since Idaho rejoined the Big Sky in 2014, the Griz have a 9-6 record against them.

Montana won its 1,000^th game at home in program history against the Vandals in the 2019-20 season before COVID-19 issues within the Vandal program wiped out the 2020 series between the two teams.

ALL-BIG SKY BANNAN

Preseason All-Big Sky selection Josh Bannan has been off to a tremendous start this season, averaging a near double-double with 15.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
He had the best scoring game of his career in Montana's win over North Dakota State, pouring in 27 points – including 20 in the second half – on 11-of-16 shooting.
Bannan also leads Montana this season with 35 assists (2.9 per game). The Griz have operated through him often, and his playmaking ability has been on full display. He now has over 100 assists in his career.
Bannan ranks in the top 12 of the Big Sky in all the major categories. He is 3rd in rebounding (8.7 per game), 7th in scoring (15.7), and 12th in assists (2.9).
One of the best rebounders in the Big Sky, Bannan also holds his own in the national standings. Bannan is 48th in the country in rebounds per game. He is 27^th nationally in defensive rebounds, averaging just under seven per game.
In Montana's win against St. Thomas at the Zootown Classic, Bannan had a career day with 23 points, 17 rebounds and six assists. He is one of just eight players to reach those numbers in the same game since 2010, according to the website sports-reference.com.
Bannan earned the Zootown Classic MVP award for the second consecutive season. He averaged 14.3 points and 13.3 rebounds per game as Montana went 2-1 to share the tournament title.
Bannan leads Montana and is in the top 100 nationally with three double-doubles this season.
In his first 69 career games, Josh Bannan had just a single game with three makes from beyond the arc. He hit that number in consecutive games against NDSU and Prairie View, matching his career high in back-to-back games while missing just a single three-pointer in the process. In the last three games, Bannan is shooting 8-for-9 from the arc.
Bannan eclipsed 900 career points in the loss at Gonzaga and is on pace to reach the 1,000-point mark in the coming weeks.
He has been an efficient scorer for Montana, shooting 53.1 percent from the floor to rank second in the Big Sky.

FEELING WHITNEY
Brandon Whitney missed two and a half games earlier this season, but returned for Montana's game against Air Force and has been a dominant force since.

Whitney is averaging 19 points per game over the last four and has done so shooting better than 70 percent from the floor in each game. He has made 32-of-41 shots from the floor in the month of December.

He also has an assist in every game since his return from injury and is 17-for-20 from the free throw line.

In the loss to Gonzaga, Whitney nearly brought the Griz back into the game late, scoring 12 of his 15 points in the second half and 10 of those in the final six minutes as Montana got it within five points in the closing stretches.

Whitney is shooting a team-high 61.3 percent from the floor this season, which would be one of the best marks in the conference if he qualified. The Big Sky requires 5.0 made field goals per game to qualify in that category.

IN A GOOD MOODY
After missing three games, Aanen Moody made a fantastic return to the court for Montana in the win against South Dakota State (12/6). The guard scored 20 points on 60 percent shooting. He kept it up when back in his home state of North Dakota, scoring 17 in the win against NDSU while adding a team-high six rebounds.

Moody has reached double-figures in his last seven appearances for Montana, bouncing back from a shaky start to the season to become an anchor for the Griz offense. He is shooting 38.2 percent from the arc and has made a team-high 21 threes.

His 14.9 points per game is 10^th best in the Big Sky and his 2.3 makes per game is the sixth highest rate of any conference player. He also cracks the top 10 in minutes per game with an average of 32.4.

DOWNTOWN, DT
When Dischon Thomas transferred to Montana, the coaching staff hoped he would add a couple of things to the Montana squad. Size and shooting. The big man from Colorado State has delivered. Thomas has scored in double-figures in nine of Montana's 12 games while being second on the team and 13^th in the Big Sky with 5.3 rebounds per game.

He has heated up from behind the arc in recent games, going 11-for-28 (39.2 percent) in the last five games. He has three games this season with at least three made shots from the arc, and is 19^th in the conference in scoring at 12.3 points per game.

GRIZ NOTES

Montana's top four players all rank in the top 19 in the Big Sky in scoring. The Grizzlies currently have all four players averaging better than 12.0 points per game. For perspective, Montana has had just one player over the past two full seasons average that number (Josh Bannan's 15.1 points in 2021-22).
The Grizzlies are a defensive minded team, ranking third in the Big Sky in points allowed per game (68.8). They are seventh in the Big Sky in scoring at 68.4 points per game.
Defensively, Montana contests nearly everything beyond the arc. As a result, the Grizzlies have allowed the second-fewest three-pointers in the Big Sky and are holding opponents to a 30.2 percent clip from the arc, the best three-point defense in the conference.
Although the Griz pull down the second-fewest rebounds per game in the Big Sky, they rank near the top of the conference with a positive 1.6 margin on the glass.
Lonnell Martin Jr. scored a season-high 18 points against Southern Miss (11/29). He also played well against the Golden Eagles last year, scoring a career-high 20 points against them in a Griz win in Missoula. He also eclipsed 1,000 career minutes in the win against South Dakota State.
Martin Jr. is fifth on the team in scoring at 7.0 points per game, and averages nearly 30 minutes per game. He has the second-most threes made (18) and has done so on 35.3 percent shooting.
After using four different lineups in the previous four games, the Griz returned to the starting lineup they began the season with against South Dakota State. The Griz are now 5-3 this season when using their preferred starting five.
Montana came back from a halftime deficit in the win against North Dakota State, the first time this season that the Griz won a game in which they trailed at the half.
Josh Vazquez played in his 100th career game at Montana in the win against North Dakota State. He has over 2,000 minutes in a Griz uniform, and recently surpassed 500 career points. He averages just over 5.0 points per game in his four years in Missoula.
It's a pretty simple formula for Montana. When they shoot a better percentage than their opponent, the Griz are 6-0. When they are outshot from the floor, they are 0-6. The Griz are also 4-1 when holding opponents to fewer than 60 points.
Montana finished with a 6-6 non-conference record. It is the fifth time in the last six seasons that Montana has been .500 or better in non-conference play.
Moody is three assists away from 100 in his career.
Thomas set a new career-high with six made free throws in the Gonzaga game

AN EXPERIENCED SQUAD
For the first time in several seasons, Travis DeCuire has a roster full of upperclassmen and experienced players. The Griz currently have four different players with at least 100 D-1 appearances under their belts.

Mack Anderson (120 games played), Aanen Moody (103), Dischon Thomas (102) and Josh Vazquez (102) lead the way in total experience for Montana, while they also have a pair of three-year starters in Brandon Whitney and Josh Bannan that have combined for 133 career starts.

HAVE TO MAKE THE FREE ONES
Montana has broken the school record for team free throw percentage in back-to-back seasons. It may be early in the year, but the Grizzlies are in a good position to make yet another run at the record. The team is shooting 78.2 percent from the line this year. It is the 11th best percentage in D-1 basketball.

They shot 78.5 in 2021-22, and 78.2 in 2020-21.

The Griz have six players on the roster who have double-digit free throw attempts, and all of them are shooting over 78 percent. They have three players in the top 10 in the Big Sky with Moody (84.1 percent, 5th), Whitney (82.4, 7^th), and Bannan (81.3 percent, 8^th). This doesn't even count the team-leader in Thomas, who doesn't have enough attempts to qualify but is shooting 85.7 percent on 28 attempts.

IMPROVING ON THE GLASS
One of the keys to the off season for Montana was to improve in the rebounding department. So far, it has been a success. The Grizzlies have outrebounded their opponent in six games and tied in two. They are 6-2 when even or holding the advantage on the boards. On the reverse side, all four games in which Montana has lost the rebounding margin they have also lost the game.

They have limited rebounding chances in games. Montana is giving up fewer than 30 rebounds per game to the opposition, and rank 10^th in the country in that department.

Bannan has been a big reason for the advantage on the glass. The junior set a new career high with 17 rebounds against St. Thomas and is currently averaging 8.7 on the season to rank 3^rd in the Big Sky. The added size of Dischon Thomas has also been helpful, as the transfer has grabbed 5.3 rebounds per game for 13^th spot in the Big Sky lists.

CONTROLLING THE TEMPO
Montana has controlled the pace of the game through the non-conference schedule, slowing it up and limiting chances for the tough opposition they have faced this season. The Griz are 348th of 352 teams in field goals attempted per game, but they also allow just the 15^th fewest shots to their opponents. It has led to just 7.3 offensive rebounds (11^th), 29.5 total rebounds (10^th) and 5.7 threes made (39^th) per game from their opponents.

IT'S HOW YOU START
The first half has been very indicative of the final result for Montana. In the Grizzlies' six wins, they are outscoring their opponents by 57 points (9.5 per game). On the other hand, in the six losses for Montana they have been outscored by 49 points in the opening 20 minutes (8.2 points per game). In Montana's 12 games, the team with the lead at halftime is 9-2. The Grizzlies won the only game that was tied at the half against Merrimack (11/19).

The come-from-behind win against North Dakota State (12/10) was the first time Montana emerged victorious from a game they trailed at halftime.

TOUGH SCHEDULE
Montana played the 67^th most difficult non-conference schedule in all of D-1 according to NET Rankings, and did just about as expected. The Griz were a perfect 4-0 against Quadrant 4 teams, while they went 0-4 against teams from Quadrants 1 and 2.

The six losses for Montana all came against teams with winning records. In fact, those six teams combined for a 58-19 non-conference record (.753 winning percentage) with nine of the 19 losses coming against ranked opponents.

All told, a .500 record and six wins is a pretty good mark for Montana as they enter Big Sky play.

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Players Mentioned

Mack Anderson

Josh Bannan

Lonnell Martin Jr.

Aanen Moody

Dischon Thomas

Josh Vazquez

Brandon Whitney

University of Montana Athletics