Griz drop Big Sky opener in Ogden

Thursday, December 28

Ogden, Utah

7 PM

Montana

7-5,0-1Big Sky

Weber State

8-4,1-0Big Sky

Montana

Weber St.

Photo by: Jackson Wagner

12/28/2023 10:08:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The hot-shooting Weber State Wildcats ran away from Montana in the Big Sky opener on Thursday night in Ogden. Weber State won 93-63 and proved worthy of the title of preseason favorite.

The Grizzlies couldn't match the output from beyond the arc from Weber State. The Wildcats shot 9-for-12 while Montana went cold with a 3-for-20 mark from three. It's the lowest percentage from deep all season for Montana.

The loss snaps a five-game winning streak for Montana. They entered Big Sky play red-hot, but were playing without freshman Money Williams who is out indefinitely with a foot injury. The offense felt the impact as the Grizzlies were held under 70 points for the fifth time this year and first since Nov. 29.

Montana had a short period to adjust to Williams' absence, as the team resumed full team practice following the holiday break on Tuesday.

"(We had) two days practice trying to find something that we could execute on both sides of the ball," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "I thought defensively we were good for a short stretch at the beginning, but our biggest issue was our offense really effected our defense. Guys weren't making shots, we weren't getting the shots that we had been getting the last five games, and so we went back to playing a little one-on-one and the ball wasn't moving.

"When your leader in assists and a leading scorer, the guy that can create for multiple people is out, you have to find new ways to generate offense and it was tough for us to do with just two practices."

The slower offensive night could be expected with the absence, but the high scoring output from the Wildcats came as a surprise. It was a season-high for Weber State against a D-1 team and the most points allowed by Montana since Nov. 28, 2018 when they allowed 98 to Creighton. The 57.8 percent shooting is the highest by a Griz opponent this season.

The Grizzly defense started strong, not allowing a single point to the Wildcats for nearly three minutes. They couldn't take advantage of the early WSU drought, as Montana had just two points through the first five minutes.

Montana fell behind 9-4 early, but scored five straight to tie the game up with 12 minutes to go in the half. The Grizzlies then got a steal and appeared to have a transition bucket, but a chasedown block from Dillon Jones followed by a three on the other end from the Wildcat star took the roof off the Dee Events Center.

It started a 9-2 run for the Wildcats, who quickly opened a double-digit lead. The big difference came from behind the three-point line, where Weber State shot 6-of-7 in the opening half compared to a 1-for-8 start from Montana.

"We just were too passive. They were shooting in our face," DeCuire said. "There were a few soft close-outs, and our frustration offensively led into how unaggressive we were defensively. In the second half we tried to pick it up and it became a free throw contest."

It led to a big halftime lead at 44-28. Montana had seven different scorers in the opening half, but no player with more than six points. The Grizzlies actually did a good job on Jones, who had just five points on 1-of-8 shooting, but the perfect shooting from deep allowed Weber State the most first-half points by a Griz opponent this year.

They extended it in the second half, building the lead to as many as 32 points before the final 30-point victory.

The Wildcats had five players in double figures and four players with 15+ plus points. They outscored Montana by 12 points on turnovers and 10 points in the paint.

Te'Jon Sawyer led Montana with 13 points, going 9-of-10 at the free throw line. Aanen Moody and Dischon Thomas joined him in double figures with 11 points each. Brandon Whitney scored eight and will head into Saturday's contest with 997 career points.

The Grizzlies will look to rebound against Idaho State, who opened Big Sky play with a loss to Montana State on Thursday. They will look for answers on both sides of the ball to make up for the absence of Williams.

"Toughen up. We have to play through adversity a lot better," DeCuire said. "We have to put some things together that make sense for us to be successful on both sides of the ball. The staff and I have some work to do to tighten things up, and then move forward and try to keep getting better through conference play."