Griz rally late, fall to North Dakota State

Thursday, November 16

Missoula, Mont.

8 PM

Montana

2-2,0-0Big Sky

North Dakota State

3-2,0-0Summit League

North Dakota St.

Montana

Photo by: Tanner Ecker/University of Montana

11/17/2023 12:24:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's basketball team put forth an impressive rally late in the game against North Dakota State on Thursday evening, but couldn't get the final touch on a comeback attempt. The Grizzlies were within a possession in the final 30 seconds of the game but late free throws made it a 78-69 final score.

The game was the final matchup of the Basketball Travelers Mike Montgomery Classic, and the Hall of Fame coach was in attendance to receive a framed Montana uniform with his 677 career wins as the number on the back. Montana, UC Davis, and North Dakota State all finished 1-1 in the event.

After a hot start, Montana fell behind and trailed for more than 30 minutes. They were down seven at the half and fell behind by as many as 17 points with six minutes to play, but a fantastic finish to the game had them within three in the closing moments.

Unfortunately, the energy that led them to the comeback was missing for much of the rest of the game as the Grizzlies shot just 43 percent from the floor and made only 3-of-13 three-point attempts in the loss.

They won in several statistical categories, outrebounding the Bison 37-35 while scoring more in the paint (30-22), off the bench (25-9), and on second-chance points (11-3). It wasn't enough to overcome a hot-shooting night from deep for NDSU. The Bison shot 9-of-23 from three-point range, and 5-of-12 in the second half. The loss drops Montana to 2-2 overall this season.

"Our discipline has got to get better and our grit has got to get better. It takes losses to watch on film and learn from those," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "The Oregon game is easy to watch on film, that's Oregon. Now to see a like opponent outphysical us, outhustle us, get loose balls, offensive rebounds, things like that."

Montana were led for the third time this season by Aanen Moody, who scored 18 points and also grabbed five rebounds. Similar to the loss at Oregon, Moody led the Grizzlies out to a hot start but had the opposing defense really focus on locking him up as the game wore on. He scored just six points with only one made field goal in the second half.

The Grizzlies went ahead 8-2 in the opening three minutes of the game with Moody knocking down a couple of tough shots during that stretch. Montana had been forcing the Bison into tough shots, as a major battle early was fought down low between Laolu Oke and NDSU's 6-10 forward Andrew Morgan.

Now you see him, 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵.

Nice move by @AJMoody9 to give us the early lead. (ignore the scoreboard)#BANDTOGETHER x #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/JY5Drx7LzG
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) November 17, 2023

Oke was winning the battle early, forcing Morgan into several turnovers in the opening minutes of the game. It would end up being an impressive night for the forward, who has started the season very well in an expanded role as a starter this year.

The big man finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, including six boards on the offensive end, to record his first double-double at Montana.

"You know he's going to play hard and he matched the energy when we needed that done. We just never had five guys playing with the same energy on the defensive side of the ball. We wanted to beat them on the offensive end with the ball not going in. You just can't give up 53 percent in the first half, and I just felt our energy was a little low."

Oke's energy was matched by the team early as NDSU had just three shot attempts in the opening three minutes. Montana turned them over twice and had a block in the hot start.

But then the Bison got out in transition on back-to-back possession, knocking down threes to pull the game back level at 8-all. They extended the run all the way out to 13-2 as Montana went over four minutes with just a single bucket.

"We started off executing defensively very well," DeCuire said. "We held them to one shot, got in transition, and got good looks. Then we had a couple of poor transition possessions to give them threes which tied it at 8.

"From that point until probably 15 minutes in the second half, I thought we were non-existent with our energy, our execution, our pace," DeCuire continued. "We had some possessions to start the second half where we got really good ball movement and then we went away from it. I just think it was hard to get really good looks tonight."

Moody gave Montana a one-point lead and freshman Chase Henderson extended it to four points with his first-career three pointer at the 10-minute mark that it 19-15. Moody would give the Grizzlies their last lead of the day with 8:05 to play in the half.

The Bison closed the half on a 15-8 run to take a 40-33 advantage into the locker rooms.

Montana, and DeCuire, honored Montgomery at halftime of the game with the jersey presentation. DeCuire spoke highly of the coach that is one of the founding members of the legendary Grizzly Coaching Tree, and Montgomery thanked the fans and remarked on his years at Montana and the start to his head coaching career.

Mike Montgomery speaks to the crowd during halftime inside Dahlberg Arena on November 16, 2023 in Missoula Montana.

Out of the break, Montana cut the lead down to three points but then gave up an 8-0 run during a four-minute scoring drought that brought the deficit back into double-figures. It would remain there for most of the half, ballooning up to 17 points with just 6:05 remaining in the game.

Give him that much space, and @LaoluOke will make you pay!#BANDTOGETHER x #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/PrEIAqYR4L
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) November 17, 2023

The Grizzlies gave it a run late, starting with the first three of Giordan Williams' Grizzly career at the 4:43 mark. Brandon Whitney added an and-one and Williams scored again to get it back into single digits at 66-57.

The Bison answered, but then Money Williams scored and Josh Vazquez forced a turnover, taking it the other way for a hoop-plus-harm that cut the Bison lead down to 68-62. Williams hit a floating jumper on the next possession to make it 68-64 inside the final minute.

Oke added a bucket, and after some NDSU free throws Money Williams was fouled on a three-point attempt and nailed all three shots from the line to make it 72-69 with 24 seconds to play. The Bison would end the game 6-for-6 at the free throw line and Montana failed to score on its final three possessions as the comeback ran out of steam.

Williams really picked up the scoring in the closing stretches of the game. He had 11 second-half points on 66 percent shooting, and finished the game with 15. He is averaging 12.5 points in 18.5 minutes through four games of his young career.

"He got us going late," DeCuire said. "I was hoping I could get that going in the first half, it took a while for him to get going. We were scoring off our defense and I thought he did a good job of taking advantage of the penetration opportunities and looking to score as opposed to coming to stops and passing it out. He did a good job, he's going to score a lot of points in his career here, and hopefully a ton of them as a freshman."

Montana took care of the ball, turning it over just seven times while totaling 15 assists. Brandon Whitney led with five, while Henderson added three to go along with his three points in a season-high 12 minutes.

Giordan Williams had his best game as a Grizzly with five points, three rebounds and an assist.

Montana now have over a week of rest before hitting the road to take on No. 6 Houston the day after Thanksgiving. The Grizzlies won't return home until Dec. 2 against San Jose State as they have a trip to undefeated Nevada on Nov. 29.