Bears' offense overpowers Montana

Saturday, February 10

Greeley, Colo.

2 PM

Montana

16-9,7-5Big Sky

Northern Colorado

15-9,8-3Big Sky

Montana

Northern Colo.

Photo by: Tanner Ecker/University of Montana

2/10/2024 5:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The league's top offense got hot and Montana couldn't keep up on Saturday afternoon in Greeley, Colorado. The Grizzlies fell to second place Northern Colorado 87-71 to fall to 16-9 overall and 7-5 in Big Sky play.

It's just the second loss this season for Montana when scoring at least 70 points, and both of them have come against the fast-paced Bears offense. Northern Colorado gains some separation in the standings as they move to 8-3 with the win. The Grizzlies remain in third place with four of the final six games of the season at home.

Aanen Moody led Montana with 24 points and also grabbed eight rebounds. Freshman guard Chase Henderson was the only other Grizzly in double figures as he finished with a career high 10 points.

Montana began the game hot, making seven of the first 10 shots from the floor in a quick start. The Grizzlies would go ice cold from there, while the Bears maintained the high-powered offense. The Grizzlies shot just 2-for-16 to close out the half.

Big Sky MVP frontrunner Saint Thomas had 23 points and 12 rebounds for the Bears, but it was the play of Dejour Reaves that changed the momentum of the game. The guard had 25 points on 66.7 percent shooting.

Reaves went on a personal 10-0 run in the first half that put Northern Colorado up 28-17, and the Grizzlies never recovered from the scoring streak.

"We were executing the scout, we were getting stops. A few backdoors happened, but (Saint) Thomas wasn't getting where he wanted and we were executing offensively and getting good looks," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "Then Reaves came out and caught fire and I thought we went into shock after that and never really responded."

While Montana struggled to find good looks on the offensive end, the Bears caught fire on the other end of the floor. Northern Colorado went ahead 42-24 on their seventh three pointer of the game. They started 7-for-9 from the arc and made five straight to build the 18-point lead they would take into halftime.

The three-point line would prove to be the difference in the game. Northern Colorado went 9-for-15 (.600) from the arc while Montana made just 3-of-19 (.158) attempts. Montana had made at least seven threes in 10 straight games. The three makes matches a season low.

DeCuire said that they worked on kicking out from the post when Northern Colorado doubled, but they struggled to execute and the ball ended up getting stuck down low too often. It led to difficult looks from outside.

"The threes that we got weren't open," DeCuire said. "They were contested, they were off the dribble, and the couple that we did get that were stand-still wide open weren't Vazquez or Moody, so the percentages were pretty honest in terms of the types of shots we got."

Montana went back to its starting lineup to open the second half, but just couldn't get anything going as the Bears built up a 29-point lead with 12:33 to play in the game.

DeCuire looked to his bench for options, and found a lot of fight in Henderson and Jaxon Nap. Henderson played 18 minutes, which matched his season-high against D-I opposition, and scored a career high 10 points.

He was a plus-eight in the box score in his time, and pushed the pace to help Montana get some aggressive possessions on offense. Nap contributed five points in solid minutes, and they combined with Moody to lead a Grizzly comeback.

"In those situations, you cycle through bodies and whoever shows the most fight you stick with," DeCuire said. "We found five that showed the most fight. They got stops, pushed the ball, were aggressive on offense and got to the basket. We shot a lot of layups and cut into the lead pretty quickly.

Montana went on a 10-0 run in just two minutes of action to get the lead back within 20 points at the eight minute media timeout. They would score 12 of the next 17 points, eight of which came from Moody, to get the lead down to 13 at the under four media.

"We got to that nine-minute mark and knew we were within striking distance," DeCuire said. "We got to the four-minute mark and said, 'Hey, we're in the same situation they were in at our place, so if we can get a couple of stops.' And we didn't. They went one-on-one for a couple of pull-ups and kind of broke our back."

But the offense from Northern Colorado wouldn't be denied. They made tough buckets down the stretch and never let the Grizzlies within a dozen points as they closed out the season sweep.

Northern Colorado shot 61.5 percent from the floor and 60 percent from three. They outrebounded Montana 35-28 and held the Grizzly offense to just nine assists.

The Grizzlies split the two-game road trip for the third time in as many trips this season. It's a formula that has led to success for DeCuire's teams in the past, but after dropping home contests to Northern Colorado and Eastern Washington already the Grizzlies have some work to do down the home stretch.

They will play just a single game next week, hosting the Brawl of the Wild on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Montana took the first meeting over Montana State in Bozeman 87-77. They will play four of the final six games on Robin Selvig Court.

"You take splits. If you split every road trip you are fine as long as you hold the fort at home," DeCuire said. "We've given up two at home, so you've got to get back. That's where we're falling short right now, we need a sweep on the road. We have another opportunity coming up for that, but right now we need to settle in and get focused for our rival."