Montana-Idaho set to square off Thursday night in Moscow

Montana at Idaho
Thursday, Feb. 17, 7 p.m. (MT)
• Watch: ESPN+
• Listen: KGVO (1290 AM/98.3 FM) / The Varsity Network
• Live Stats: GoVandals.com

MISSOULA, Mont. – Back in the winning column after defeating Portland State for the 1,000^th game in Dahlberg Arena, the Montana men's basketball team returns to action Thursday night to face the Idaho Vandals in Moscow.

The Griz take to the road to face the Vandals for the second time this season after falling to NAU and topping PSU last week. Montana looks to improve its 10-5 conference record, to potentially boost them to fourth place in the conference.

Montana has played four games in a seven-day span, traveling to Weber State and Idaho State on Feb. 5 and 7, then hosting Northern Arizona and Portland State Thursday and Saturday.

With just five regular-season games remaining, Montana enters Thursday sitting in the top half of the Big Sky table at 10-5 (17-9 overall) and looks to make a run at the Big Sky Conference Tournament with three of five remaining games at home.

LAST TIME OUT
Montana hosted Northern Arizona and Portland State for a pair of home games, which resulted in a 1-1 record on the week.

The Griz faced the Lumberjacks Thursday, where they trailed by two in the first period, 25-27, but tied the game up by the end of the second period to bring the game into overtime. This was the first game of the season the Griz took a team to overtime. Once in overtime, NAU came out on top, beating UM by five (72-67). Brandon Whitney led the team in points, scoring 25, the second most he's scored this season.

Two days later, Montana hosted Portland State for the 1,000^th game in Dahlberg Arena, where they won 85-76 to improve 17-9 (10-5 BSC) on the season. The Griz shot 68% at the three-point line, compared to the Vikings' 16%. Robby Beasley III led the team in points and tied as the leader for assists with 24 and five. The sophomore also logged a career-high of 39 minutes.

GRIZ BITS

The Griz have won three of their last nine games by double digit margins, including the 78-67 win over SUU on Feb. 7 and the Jan. 22 win over NAU.
Montana went 6-1 during the month of January, its best record during that month since going 7-0 in 2018, a year in which the Grizzlies won the Big Sky regular-season and tournament titles.
Montana's 85 points scored vs. Portland State were the second-most this season against Division-I competition.
The Grizzlies beat Eastern Washington despite shooting .389 from the floor, their lowest percentage in a win this season. That's in large part because Montana's defense limited the Eagles to .368 shooting. Montana is now 10-0 this season when opponents shoot below 40 percent and 11-1 when they shoot below 45 percent.
Montana lost its first game this season when recording a better shooting percentage at Weber State. The Griz shot .481 from the field while the Wildcats shot .434 and still came away with a 75-80 win. UM is now 16-1 with a better shooting percentage than its opponent on the season.
A season after setting a school record at the free-throw line, Montana ranks second nationally with an 80.7 free throw percentage, second only to Villanova.
Opponents are averaging just 64.9 points per game against the Grizzlies, a figure that ranks 65th nationally.
After ranking 348th out of 350 teams for 3-point defense entering January (.424), the Grizzlies have moved up over 100 spots in the national rankings in just a month (.346, t-235th).
Montana is 10-0 when holding opponents under .400 shooting this season and 16-4 when keeping them under .499 shooting.
The Griz are also 15-1 when dishing out more assists than opponents this season.
The Grizzlies are 5-2 this year in games played on Thursdays.

SERIES VS THE VANDALS
The series between Montana and Idaho dates back more than a century, to the 1915-16 season. The Grizzlies have played Idaho more than any other opponent besides Montana State, and have beaten the Vandals more than any team aside from the Cats and Idaho State. Overall, Montana is 93-110 against Idaho, including 9-5 since the Vandals rejoined the conference in 2014. After losing three consecutive games through 2017-18, Montana has won five in a row in the series since the last meeting this past January. The last time the Griz played the Vandals, Montana scored 81 points making it the third-most this season against Division-I competition.

In the last meeting, the Griz outscored the Vandals 81-62, with Josh Bannan leading Montana in points, rebounds and minutes. Robby Beasley III scored 13 points and totaled two assists. Four Griz players shot 100% from the free-throw line: Bannon, Beasley, Lonnell Martin Jr., Mack Anderson.

SCOUTING IDAHO

Idaho enters the week owning a conference record of 3-11 (6-18 overall). The Vandals have beat Sacramento State, Portland State and Weber State most recently.
UI beat Sacramento State 73-72 in OT on Jan. 22, recording its first Big Sky win of the season. Keeping the momentum from Sac State, the Vandals went on to beat Portland State two days later, 84-79. Most recently, Idaho beat top-two conference leader, Weber State, 83-79 on Feb. 12.
Idaho's Mikey Dixon leads the team averaging 17.7 points per game and junior Trevante Anderson leads the team in assists with 85 on the season.
Dixon enters Thursday's game ranking first in the league in free throws made with 137, as well as free-throw percentage with 87.3 percent.
Philip Pepple Jr. leads the team in blocks with 25, which ranks third in the conference. Pepple Jr. ranks second in the league in blocked shots per game, averaging 1.32.
Idaho brings 11 new faces onto the team's roster, making up over 70% of the team.
Head coach Zac Claus is in the midst of his third season with the Vandals, owning a record of 15-63.

BANNAN TAKING OVER
Montana has featured a balance scoring offense, with eight different Grizzlies leading the team in scoring in a game this season. While the Grizzlies still feature some parity, sophomore forward Josh Bannan is quickly becoming the team's go-to threat, leading the team for scoring in six of its last nine games.

In fact, since returning from the holiday break, Bannan has been in double figures in 12 of 13 games, recording five 20-point contests and four double-doubles.

During league play, the Aussie is averaging 14.35 points (9th) and 7.96 rebounds (5th). He is also shooting .502 from the floor (5th).

COOL FROM THE FREE-THROW LINE
Montana is connecting on an impressive 80.7 percent of its free-throw attempts this season (398-of-493), a figure that ranks second in all of Division-I college basketball behind Villanova.

Montana has shot a better percentage than its opponent in all but four games this season, with one being the loss at Weber State.

The Grizzlies have six rotation players who are making at least 80 percent of their free-throw attempts, including two players who have yet to miss a shot. Lonnell Martin Jr. and Josh Vazquez are perfect at 18-18 and 15-15, respectively, with Beasley, Whitney, Parker, and Owens each shooting 80 percent or better.

A season ago, Montana owned the nation's 15th-best free-throw percentage, connecting on a school-record 78.2 percent of its attempts from the charity stripe. Both Robby Beasley III (.929) and Josh Vazquez (.929) broke individual school records, which now rank second in Big Sky Conference history.

PROTECTING THE BASKETBALL
The Grizzlies are among the nation's leaders for protecting the basketball, ranking 19th in the NCAA with just 10.2 giveaways per game. The Grizzlies also rank 25th nationally for turnover margin (+3.5) and 28th with a 1.36 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Montana has recorded more turnovers than its opponent just four times this season and has recorded fewer than 10 turnovers in nearly half of its games.

LOOKING AHEAD
Montana will head to Cedar City for its final road game of the season at Southern Utah, Thursday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.

The Grizzlies will then play their final three regular-season games at home, including the Griz/Cat game on Sunday, Feb. 27 in Dahlberg Arena. Northern Colorado then comes to town on March 3, with Sacramento State visiting Missoula to close out the regular season.

The Big Sky tournament gets underway March 9 in Boise with the championship set for March 12.

Montana-Idaho set to square off Thursday night in Moscow

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mack Anderson

Josh Bannan

Robby Beasley III

Lonnell Martin Jr.

Josh Vazquez

Brandon Whitney

University of Montana Athletics

Montana-Idaho set to square off Thursday night in Moscow

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Mack Anderson

Josh Bannan

Robby Beasley III

Lonnell Martin Jr.

Josh Vazquez

Brandon Whitney

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