Grizzlies hang tough with Oregon

Friday, November 10

Eugene, Ore.

7 PM (MT)

Montana

1-1,0-0Big Sky

Oregon

2-0,0-0Pac-12

Montana

Oregon

11/10/2023 10:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana Grizzlies gave Oregon all that they could handle on Friday night inside Matthew Knight Arena, holding a lead in the second half and playing tough for 40 minutes, but an upset bid came short down the stretch.

Montana rode the hot hands of Aanen Moody in the first half and Money Williams in the second to put up an impressive fight. The Grizzlies started aggressive, jumping out to a 9-2 lead early on the back of a 7-0 scoring run, but couldn't maintain the pressure for a full 40 minutes.

The final score doesn't tell the full story as Montana were within a point with 10 minutes to play and outplaying the Ducks in a variety of categories. The hosts, playing their season opener in front of a packed arena, scored 22 of the final 31 points in the game.

The Grizzlies showed plenty of promise for the season to come with the performance, particularly for a team that played three true freshmen during the stretch and have plenty of newcomers seeing their first action against a D-I team while members of Montana.

"The guys believed that they were capable and they are," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "I just feel like we lacked a little bit of experience down the stretch in closing games. Teams are going to make adjustments at halftime and I thought they got a little more aggressive defensively. For us to only have eight assists tells you we just didn't do a good enough job offensively moving the ball."

The Grizzlies got 17 points from Moody, who had his way in the first half with an impressive shooting display. As the Oregon defense focused in on the senior, it opened the door for the true freshman Williams to take over.

Money Williams scored 13 in the game with six rebounds, and did a lot of his damage in the second half. He had eight points and five rebounds after the halftime break, keeping Montana in it for the opening 10 minutes.

The Grizzlies held their own against the superior size of the Ducks. Oregon had a narrow advantage in points in the paint with 32-28, and despite 12 offensive rebounds the Griz only allowed nine second chance points.

"I thought the guys did a good job executing the scout for the most part, especially early. I thought we forced them into some low-percentage shots. We struggled to keep them off the glass and I think that's why we didn't have the lead at halftime. Once we sured that up in the second half we did a better job when they missed, unfortunately we had a flip of field goal percentages and I think that really was the difference in the game."

Montana outshot the Ducks by five percent in the first half, but the hosts flipped it to a 14 percent advantage over the final 20 minutes. Their offense began to click as they made over 46 percent from the floor in the second half.

There were 13 ties and 11 lead changes in the game as it went back-and-forth for much of the game. Montana just had one too many scoring droughts down the stretch. The Grizzlies were held to just eight makes and 32 percent shooting in the final half.

Dischon Thomas joined Moody and Williams in double figures with 11 points and also grabbed six rebounds.

Giordan Williams, starting and making his Grizzly debut after missing the opening game with a slight injury, opened up the scoring. After Oregon answered, Montana put together its best run of the game to silence the large crowd.

Thomas knocked down a triple and was fouled in the process for a four-point play. Montana played at a slow place early on, taking the shot clock down to the final seconds on several possession. Moody knocked down his first of three triples on the night with 16:30 to play to extend Montana's lead to 9-2.

The lead disappeared in 80 seconds as the Oregon offense caught fire, and the Ducks would take their first lead at 10-9. The Grizzlies went on a drought early, missing six straight shots at one point and also faced an early deficit on the boards at 15-8, with over half of Oregon's rebounds coming on the offensive end.

That advantage, plus a steal and slam that got everyone in the arena on their feet, threatened to turn the game heavily in favor of the hosts. But Montana weathered that storm, and when Moody hit another three later in the half retook the lead at 18-17.

Chase Henderson scored his first career points as a Grizzly to tie it at 22-all, and Moody again gave the Grizzlies a lead at 24-23 during a stretch where the Ducks missed five straight shots.

The pendulum swung again, as Oregon went up 27-24 for the ninth lead change of the opening half. It came during another three-plus minute scoreless stretch for the Grizzlies, who started the game settling for threes, attempting 14 of the first 28 shots from beyond the arc.

For a second time in the opening half Oregon looked to get some separation, building the lead up to seven points inside the final two minutes. But for the second time, Montana answered. Thomas and Moody scored to cut the lead to three.

The Griz entered freshman Connor Dick into the game for the final defensive possession, and he rose up to block an Oregon shot. The ball deflected off the Ducks, and gave the Grizzlies a possession with under four seconds remaining.

They moved the ball quickly, and Money Williams hit a buzzer-beater three to send the teams to the locker room tied up at 37-all.

"Guys were excited. Happy for Money, happy for where we were sitting," DeCuire said. "We felt we took a punch and survived it and then when we went in to meet with them they were calm, cool, and collected. I thought they were ready to come out and compete, we just didn't execute well enough on either side."

Moody had 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting at the break as the Grizzlies outshot the Ducks 42.4 percent to 37.8 percent. The defense held the Ducks' guards in check, but 7-foot center Nate Bittle was able to get eight points at the break.

The Grizzlies went ahead early in the second half 42-39 on yet another Moody three, bringing his scoring total up to 17 points with over 17 minutes to play. Oregon would change all focus to limiting the senior guard down the stretch, as they would be his final points.

The Ducks responded with back-to-back threes to go ahead 45-42 on the 11^th and final lead change of the game. They extended the run to 9-0 with another three that made it 48-42.

That's when Money Williams started to take over for the Grizzlies. He scored a tough basket to cut the lead to four and then added back-to-back buckets to cap off a 6-0 personal run that tied the game up at 48-all.

Oregon went ahead 53-50 before two more Williams points at the free throw line cut it to 53-52. The game changed following those points, as Montana would go through a couple of long scoring droughts down the stretch that allowed Oregon to build the double-digit lead.

Montana returns home in just two days, playing against UC Davis in the opener of the of the Basketball Travelers Mike Montgomery Classic on Sunday at 7:00 p.m. There will be a neutral site game on Tuesday before Montana closes out the event against North Dakota State at 8:00 p.m. on Nov. 16.