Griz get wire-to-wire win over UC Davis

Sunday, November 12

Missoula, Mont.

7 PM

Montana

2-1,0-0Big Sky

UC Davis

2-1,0-0Big West

UC Davis

Montana

Photo by: Tommy Martino/UM Athletics

11/12/2023 10:39:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana picked up an impressive 78-65 wire-to-wire win on short rest against UC Davis Sunday in the opener of the Basketball Travelers Mike Montgomery Classic. The Grizzlies had five players in double figures and led by as many as 15 in the first half of a big win against the previously unbeaten Aggies.

The Grizzlies (2-1) showed no signs of fatigue after traveling back from Oregon on Friday night with just one day in between games. They went ahead early, forcing 19 total turnovers and scoring 24 points off of them, and led for nearly 39 of the 40 minutes in a comfortable win.

Dischon Thomas led the way with 23 points as the Grizzly frontcourt dominated against a guard-focused UC Davis team. It's a season-high for Thomas and came just two short of his career high. Laolu Oke did set a career-high with 15 points, including some highlight reel slams that brought a good crowd in Dahlberg Arena to their feet.

The duo also combined for 11 rebounds while shooting 60 percent.

"(Thomas) has had a great offseason," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "Very aggressive offensively, and I think his focus defensively and rebounding has taken pressure off his offense. Sometimes you play better on offense when you focus on other things. His mind has just been in the right place and I think we're seeing the growth."

Thomas made three of his four three-point attempts in the game and went 8-of-13 from the field. Grizzly fans likely grew accustomed to Thomas' scoring last season, but for Oke the 15-point game may have come as a bit of a surprise.

He played limited minutes last year, and had a season-high of just six points. It's another case of a player working on his game during the offseason. Oke is a captain on this Grizzly squad and has started every game. His expanded playmaking ability has allowed Montana to use him in ways they couldn't last season.

"We've been able to play through him and he's a guy that is getting touches in areas that he's not necessarily looking to score every time but it's part of our offense," DeCuire said. "He led us in assists the other night. His development with the ball in his hands has been incredible because it allows our guys to move and score off of him and DT, and I think it plays into your offensive chemistry."

Montana had an early lead in a competitive first half. The Grizzly offense was executing well on their end, but Montana had a hard time stopping Aggies star Elijah Pepper. He entered the game 30^th in the country in scoring averaging 22.5 per contest.

He had 14 of UC Davis' first 16 points and tied the game up at 16-all with 11:31 to play. The Grizzlies brought in Josh Vazquez, who had missed the first two games of the season with an injury, to try to limit Pepper.

The move worked. Vazquez had an excellent season debut with 13 points on a perfect shooting night. But it was his play defensively on Pepper that may have made a bigger impact on the game.

He held the scorer in check, and Montana went red-hot on the other end to put the game nearly out of reach in the first half. The Grizzlies made nine consecutive shots as part of a 15-2 run that put the hosts ahead 34-20.

Thomas had seven points during the run and Oke had four, including a massive slam in transition after he jumped a pass for a steal on the other end. Thomas was aggressive in searching for his shot and connected on several step-back jumpers out of a post-up in the first half.

"I saw they had a smaller guy defender on me so just taking advantage of the mismatches on the floor," Thomas said. "I just wanted to establish myself early in the game."

Whitney feeds it in to Dischon Thomas and he wins the battle in the paint, making it 21-18😤 pic.twitter.com/vQnXxgIu4W
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) November 13, 2023

Montana had 16 points off turnovers in the first half and led 42-32 at the break. It seemed a comfortable lead, but the Aggies had trailed by 17 at the half of their previous game and came back to win that on a buzzer beater.

"They're dangerous and we told the guys they were down at home against Pepperdine and found themselves back in it and won at the buzzer," DeCuire said. "They are explosive offensively with two guys averaging over 20 a game. They are dangerous in transition so we emphasized getting back. Our help defense was elite tonight led by Laolu Oke."

Early in the second half things got a bitter tighter than Montana may have liked. Pepper hit a lay-up at the 15:50 mark to cut Montana's lead down to just one points after an 11-2 start to the half for UC Davis.

Thomas hit a three for the next points of the game, knocking it down from the corner on a great assist from freshman Chase Henderson and ending a scoreless drought of over three minutes for the Grizzlies. It also started a 13-2 overall run for Montana that put the momentum fully back in favor of the hosts.

Another one from @JoshVazquez3 making it 63-54 for the Grizzlies. #BANDTOGETHER x #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/WZOCo9micB
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) November 13, 2023

Vazquez hit another three at the shot clock buzzer during the run that received huge applause from the crowd, and once again stepped up to slow Pepper down. There was a question mark entering the game on whether Vazquez could go.

He ended up being a game-high plus-19 in his 24 minutes on the floor.

"Now you see… why it was so important for us to get him back on the floor," DeCuire said of Vazquez. "Not only that, but Pepper got going really early and I thought him on Pepper slowed him down for most of the time he had him because he could execute the scout in terms of knowing when he was going to come off the screen, knowing what cuts he was going to make, and then staying down on the shot fakes."

The Aggies would get back within six points but never closer, as Montana held a double-digit lead for much of the final 10 minutes. Oke put the exclamation point on the game with some help from freshman Money Williams.

Williams found him cutting to the hoop for an alley-oop layup to make it 67-56. On the next Grizzly possession, the duo linked up again for a huge alley-oop slam that put Montana up 13.

Money, money, moneyyyyy to @LaoluOke for the alley-oop 🤑#BANDTOGETHER x #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/aarOu8kbc5
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) November 13, 2023

The Grizzlies were competitive on Friday night in Eugene against a good Oregon team, but made too many mistakes to pull off the upset. DeCuire in particular liked his team's response in transition defense. The Grizzlies allowed just three fast break points to an Aggie team that loves to push the tempo.

"You learn from your mistakes and we learned from a loss. We were not very good in transition on Friday night. I showed a lot of clips of that Saturday, and I also showed some offensive clips today of where we were good and if we could do those things consistently we would produce offense today."

The Grizzlies turned the ball over just 10 times against a team that entered the game tied for fourth in the entire country in the category. The Aggies forced 24 per game over their first two contests. Instead, Montana used their strength against them, forcing UC Davis into 19 turnovers for 24 points.

Aanen Moody had 13 points for Montana on 5-of-11 shooting and Brandon Whitney joined a crew of other Grizzlies in double-figures with 11. It's the first time since Feb. 3, 2022 that Montana has had five players score 10-plus in the same game.

They now get some rest at home before returning to action on Thursday night against North Dakota State. The Bison will play against UC Davis on Tuesday afternoon in the second game of the Basketball Travelers Mike Montgomery Classic.

"We can't just bask in the success, we have to go find something in the film to get better at. I think our execution could still be cleaned up and I think our ball handling down the stretch could be a little cleaner," DeCuire said of building off this win. "North Dakota State is a different type of offense to guard. They are dangerous on the offensive glass. We will be well-rested going into that game and we look forward to it."