Griz pick up 50-point win over Northwest Indian

Sunday, November 10

Missoula, Mont.

8:00 PM

Montana

2-1,0-0Big Sky

Northwest Indian College

0-2

Northwest Indian

Montana

Photo by: Taylor Decker/University of Montana

11/10/2024 10:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's basketball team rolled to a 50-point victory over Northwest Indian College on Sunday night to improve to 2-1 on the season. Montana allowed just 44 points, the fewest by a Griz opponent since 2021, and had nine different scorers in a balanced night offensively.

The biggest advantage of the night came in the rebounding department where Montana held a 50-26 edge in total rebounds. It's just the second time under DeCuire that Montana have reached the half-century mark in rebounding, and first since 2021.

The Grizzlies had five players finish with at least seven total rebounds, led by redshirt-freshman Zach Davidson's career high 10. They had the opportunity for plenty of defensive rebounds thanks to good defense all night.

The Eagles shot just 33.3 percent from the floor and just 3-of-20 from three-point range.

The offense was also unselfish all night as the team finished with 21 team assists. Money Williams led with seven while Kai Johnson and Brandon Whitney added four each.

It's obviously a different level of opponent from Friday night, but head coach Travis DeCuire saw improvement in several of the areas that his team struggled in against Oregon.

"We needed to be more disciplined defensively and offensively," DeCuire said. "I really wanted to push on shot selection, assists, and then defensive field percentage. For us to come out tonight and hold them under 40 percent and get 21 assists, I'll take it."

Kai Johnson led all scorers with 22 points, shaking off a tough game on Friday by reaching 20 points for the second time this year. He made 9-of-11 shots and three of his four attempts from beyond the arc in an impressive scoring display.

Johnson also disrupted the game at the other end of the floor, blocking two shots and adding a pair of steals.

Te'Jon Sawyer scored a career-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting. The big man matched his career high with two three-point makes. He scored a dozen of his points after the break, and he also added seven rebounds on the night.

Brandon Whitney was the only other Grizzly to reach double figures, scoring 10 points and dishing out his four assists. The fifth-year guard helped Montana keep up the pace all night, pushing the ball successfully in transition and doing his best to get everyone on the floor involved.

"I thought Whitney set the tone, the way he pushed the ball," DeCuire said. "His willingness to make sure the ball got to the places it needed to get made our transition offense work the way it's supposed to. I thought he set the tone in terms of sharing the ball and probably sacrificed some offense for himself to do that, and I think it goes a long way."

Montana opened the game red hot, making 10 of their first 12 field goals on the night to build the lead to nearly 20 in the first nine minutes. They led 31-12 after a lay-up from Te'Jon Sawyer.

They had a 13-0 scoring run during that opening stretch as the defense locked down the Eagles for a three-minute stretch. The Griz caused problems on that end of the floor, forcing 17 total turnovers.

It allowed them to get out in transition, scoring 14 points on the fastbreak and 22 points off turnovers.

Even in transition, Montana was always looking for the extra pass. Despite the amount of turnover from last season and the number of new faces on the roster, the chemistry seemed to be clicking on Sunday.

"It was great. It was the same last Monday," DeCuire said. "I just think sometimes the level of defense you're playing against can make it very difficult and turn it into a grind. I thought we were maybe one pass, two passes away from really good offense, so we stressed that tonight."

The Griz had three more scoring runs of at least six straight points in the first half alone and built a 56-23 halftime lead. They slowed things down in the second half and got some players down the bench minutes as they coasted to a 94-44 victory.

As a team, Montana shot over 50 percent from the floor and had a big improvement from beyond the arc. After going 7-for 41 (.171) from three-point range in the first two games combined, Montana shot 9-for-25 (.360) against Northwest Indian.

Money Williams had nine points and seven assists, and struggled a bit from the floor again. DeCuire still liked what he saw from the sophomore standout in terms of getting his teammates involved while he works his way back into game form.

"I think Money is trying to get his offense going and he turned down some high percentage shots to get other guys going," DeCuire said. "When you have guys that have the ball in their hands as often as they do turning down shots, I think it's good for the health of the team."

The Grizzlies are right where you would expect through three games, winning handily against lower-level opponents while losing a road game against a Big 10 opponent that was one of the last 32 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament last year.

But there are a lot of improvements that the Griz will need to make as they continue to gel as a unit and get into playing condition.

"We're not where we want to be. We've had a lot of guys in and out," DeCuire said. "We've had multiple guys miss a lot of practices. I think we're looking at three guys in the rotation that have missed 10 or more practices. For chemistry, for flow, that's playing a bit into where we're a little behind where we want to be right now."

Montana won't have much time to rest and recover following Sunday night's victory. The Griz play at Tennessee on Wednesday night at 5:00 p.m. (MT) in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

The Volunteers were ranked No. 12 in the first poll of the season, but will likely move up after big wins against Gardner Webb and Louisville to start the year. They won by 22 points on the road against the Cardinals.

"It will probably be the best defensive team we will play all year is what it looks like on paper," DeCuire said. "There are some similarities (with Oregon) in the way they play off the ball and fight through screens, the way they screen for shooters, things like that. It's going to be a tough game, a tough matchup, and we will just try to play our best basketball."