Moody and Money lead Montana to big win

Saturday, December 9

Missoula, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

5-4,0-0Big Sky

Montana Tech

0-1

Montana Tech

Montana

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Montana

12/9/2023 4:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Moody and Money show led Montana to its third straight win and improved to 5-1 at home with an 88-67 victory over Montana Tech on Saturday afternoon. The Griz got revenge after a 2019 loss to the Orediggers behind a combined 45 points from the guards.

The teams traded baskets early, but Montana opened the game up with a 15-1 run midway through the first and held a double-digit lead for the entire second half, going up by as many as 33 points in the easy win.

The Orediggers are the No. 6 team in the NAIA rankings and are the two-time defending Frontier Conference champions, but they couldn't keep up with the size and athleticism of Montana. The Griz held the Orediggers to 34 percent shooting from the field and just 18 percent from behind the arc.

Gallery: (12-9-2023) MBB: vs. Montana Tech (12.9.23)

It's the third straight win for Montana to move to 5-4 on the season. The Grizzlies are undefeated with the current starting five, who played well together again on Saturday. The key to the winning streak has been hot starts, according to head coach Travis DeCuire.

"The way we start games off offensively. Our execution and the shots we're getting," DeCuire said. "It gives us a level of aggression on the offensive side of the ball which tends to feed into our defense. The biggest thing for us, which shows tonight with their field goal percentage at 35, is we're defending. We're defending, getting off into transition, and getting easy buckets."

The duo of Money Williams and Aanen Moody lit up the Oredigger defense. Money scored a career-high 25 points, the most by a freshman since Brandon Whitney had 28 in Jan. 2021, and did it on 50 percent shooting. Moody scored 20 points, going 4-for-9 from three-point range.

They each had unbelievable hot streaks during the game. Money opened the second half with Montana's first 14 points, taking a 12-point Griz advantage at the break and building it up to 22 on his own.

The kid is unreal. @mxney___ spins and scores to start the second half! 🌀#BANDTOGETHER x #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/byf7FzpNFm
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) December 9, 2023

As the defense locked in on him, he passed the scoring reins to Moody. He had nine straight Grizzly points after that as the duo combined for 23 of the first 25 points in the second half. They were driving the lane, hitting from behind the arc, burying turn-around jumpers, and doing what ever they wanted on the offensive end of the floor.

"(Money) and Moody are similar in regards to when they see that ball go in the basket one time they kind of get hot," DeCuire said. "Money is a guy that can play in space and with the ball in his hands you don't necessarily have to run plays for him to get going. It's a lot easier, especially in transition. I'm happy about the six assists as much as I am the scoring."

Defense to offense. @AJMoody9 with the transition triple 3⃣#BANDTOGETHER x #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/OEgfJ7OIdj
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) December 9, 2023

Money led the team with six assists and is now averaging 3.3 per game. The Grizzlies as a team had 22 assists. It's the second-most on the season for Montana, trailing only Tuesday night's win against MSU-Northern.

"We're turning down OK shots for great shots. Money hit a couple threes in a row and then turned one down for Moody. Then Moody gets going and takes off from there. The way we share the ball is always going to determine our outcome as far as how you play through adversity and how you play when the guys that usually make shots aren't. I think right now the ball is being shared at a very high rate."

Montana hadn't seen a lead change hands in nearly a full month after playing in four straight wire-to-wire decisions. The trend didn't continue on Saturday, as Montana Tech were able to grab a couple of early leads thanks to stout defense and eight early offensive rebounds.

They went up 16-11 on a dunk from Asa Williams, who started the game with nine of the first 16 for Tech. The Grizzlies went to the bench early, and the defense of Branon Whitney changed the game.

"Brandon Whitney off the bench came in defensively and changed the pace a little bit," DeCuire said. "It's a weapon for us, he comes in and slows down a guy that got going a little bit, got the ball off the boards and pushed it in the break."

Whitney finished the night with five points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in an all-around performance.

Montana battled back to take an 18-16 lead on a Moody three and wouldn't trail the rest of the night. After a 20-20 tie, Montana scored 15 of the next 16 points to take control. It started with a driving slam dunk from Laolu Oke, who had another great performance.

Oke finished with 11 points and nine rebounds on 62.5 percent shooting. He grabbed eight of his rebounds on the offensive end, and continues to be one of the best players in the country in that department with 3.9 per game.

He also distributed the ball well with four assists and was the first player since Josh Vazquez in January to record five steals in a game.

The Grizzlies were able to get 14 players in during the second half and had 11 different scorers on the night. Giordan Williams matched his season high with eight points and added six rebounds. Jaxon Nap scored six points on a pair of threes.

Montana improved its already impressive assist/turnover ratio with a 2:1 performance, dishing out 22 assists to go with just 11 turnovers. They scored 22 points off Tech giveaways, and had 26 more bench points as that unit continues to impress.

The Grizzlies end a three-game stand at home and now prepare to hit the road for the next month. They will start with two familiar opponents in San Jose State and UC Davis to end the initial non-conference stretch. They open Big Sky play on Dec. 28 at Weber State, heading from Ogden to Pocatello for a matchup with Idaho State on the Dec. 30.

Montana won't be back home until Jan. 6 against South Dakota as part of the Big Sky-Summit Challenge. But it starts with San Jose State and UC Davis, a pair of opponents that Montana beat at home earlier this season.

"Two teams that we've beat here at home and now we're going to their territory," DeCuire said. "We're going to find out a lot about ourselves. We're a little different now than when we played Davis, but not that far removed from San Jose State. They're going to be hungry. They've lost a few in a row and are going to want to bounce back, and it's going to be important for us to focus. We can't just go into these games thinking we're going to win because we beat them already once."