Oke’s second straight double-double leads Montana to victory

Thursday, February 22

Missoula, Mont.

7 PM

Montana

18-9,9-5Big Sky

Sacramento State

6-22,2-13Big Sky

Sacramento St.

Montana

Photo by: Tommy Martino

Oke’s second straight double-double leads Montana to victory

2/22/2024 10:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Montana Sports Information

Montana came out of the gates slow on Thursday night against Sacramento State and took a bit to get going, but once they did the Grizzlies rolled to a 68-61 win over the Hornets behind a complete team effort.

There were five different Grizzlies in double figures for Montana, who led for the entire second half to complete the season sweep of the Hornets. The win improves Montana to 18-9 on the year and 9-5 in Big Sky play.

It's the first win this season for Montana when they have been held under 70 points scoring, but the low scoring game was expected against a Hornets team that plays at one of the slowest paces in the entire country. Sacramento State shocked Montana out of the gates, jumping out to an 11-2 early lead, but Montana climbed back in it and won comfortably in the end.

Laolu Oke had his second straight double-double in the win, scoring 10 points to go with 15 rebounds. It's his fifth double-double of the season, and his third game of 15 or more rebounds. He also provided several highlight reel plays, including a two-play sequence with a dunk on one end and a block on the other that electrified the Dahlberg Arena crowd.

𝗛𝗘'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗛!! 👽@LaoluOke with the huge slam on one end, and a MASSIVE rejection on the other! pic.twitter.com/dNnB9MFKJz
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 23, 2024

Sacramento State held Montana to just six made threes in the game, closing out aggressively to shooters. It allowed Oke and others to get free down low.

"He was very active in the ball screens. They were pressing up on the shooters so much and denying the ball so much that we had some penetration opportunities with the roller a lot," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "Some guys made some good passes, and when you're in the right places you find yourself with high percentage shots. He did a good job tonight."

Oke was one of five Grizzlies in double figures. Te'Jon Sawyer led Montana in scoring with 14 points off the bench on 6-of-9 shooting. Josh Vazquez and Brandon Whitney each scored a dozen, while Aanen Moody pitched in 10 points.

The pace of the game slowed down Montana's high scoring offense, but it didn't stop them from being efficient. The Grizzlies attempted just 47 shots, their second fewest on the year, but connected on 57.4 percent of them. It's the 13^th time they have shot better than 50 percent this year, and all 13 games have resulted in Grizzly wins. The slower speed of the game, combined with 13 offensive rebounds and 15 second chance points for Sacramento State, kept it closer than it felt. Montana led by double-digits for most of the second half until a 9-0 Hornets run cut the lead to 53-50. The Grizzlies responded with seven straight points of their own to put it out of reach.

"It's hard. The long possessions on their end offensively kind of lull you to sleep a little bit and it keeps games close," DeCuire said. "All their games have been close, and every time we've got to 10 they would make a three or get an offensive rebound, so they scrapped it out. They kept it competitive all night. We didn't shoot the ball in a couple areas as good as we typically would which kept us from putting more points on the board, but we take wins how we can get them this late in the year."

Oke started Montana's scoring with a two-handed slam and he sent the Grizzlies into the locker room with a three-point lead after another rim rocker. The Grizzlies scored just 32 points in the first half, but were able to slow the Hornets down offensively. After the hot start, Sacramento State would make just two of their next 13 shots. The defense allowed Montana to jump ahead.

"We were struggling to generate offense in the first half. We had some good looks we didn't take. I thought we had some shots we could have waited on, so it was more about getting stops," DeCuire said. "If we just minimized offensive rebounds for them and got in transition, we would start getting into a flow and I thought that helped us offensively."

Montana came out of the locker rooms hot and went on an 11-2 run to build the lead up to double figures at 43-33.

The Grizzlies did a lot of their damage in the paint, outscoring Sacramento State 36-26 inside the key. Sawyer played a huge role in that, going 3-for-4 in the second half for six points, all of which came down low against a big Sacramento State team.

The freshman Chase Henderson hangs and hits through contact 💪 pic.twitter.com/YOwUZaW90s
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 23, 2024

Sawyer has been incredibly efficient on offense all year, averaging over 20 points per 40 minutes, but his defense impressed DeCuire on Thursday night. It led to a +17 in the box score in 28 minutes, the second most he's played in a game this year.

"The thing that stands out is his offense, but we talk about walls at the rim and contesting shots, and he's actually been probably our most consistent guy at doing that without fouling," DeCuire said of Sawyer. "I thought he was phenomenal defensively, and typically when you play good D it pays off on the offensive side of the ball."

As Sacramento State made a final push, Josh Vazquez was there to deny them. The senior had all 12 of his points in the second half and he did it on perfect shooting. He knocked down a pair of threes, including one to make it 58-50 and end a four-plus minute drought for Montana without a field goal.

He's a 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑟 🎯@JoshVazquez3 extends the Griz lead! pic.twitter.com/GXAY4fqqac
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 23, 2024

The final exclamation point came with three minutes to play and was delivered courtesy of Laolu Oke. He slipped on a ball screen and got a pocket pass from Vazquez near the left block. One dribble, and then Oke rose through a pair of Hornets for an emphatic two-handed slam.

Then, just 15 seconds later, the 6-9 Akol Mawein attempted to do the same thing on the other end of the floor. Oke rose with him, outmuscling the Hornet and rejecting the dunk attempt at the rim.

The Grizzlies would get free throws on the other end to push the lead back into double figures, and they saw out the rest of the game comfortably.

Montana's defense held Sacramento State to just 36 percent shooting, the lowest total by a D-I opponent all year. The Hornets made just 29 percent of their threes.

The nine-point deficit is the second largest that Montana has overcome this season. They trailed by 12 points in a 73-70 win over Idaho on Feb. 1.

The Big Sky standings look much different after Thursday night saw first-place Eastern Washington fall to Northern Arizona. The Eagles still lead the league, but Northern Colorado is now just a game back and Montana and Weber State are two games back and tied for third. The Griz play the Eagles next weekend.

Before that game, however, Montana will look to get some revenge on Portland State. The Vikings beat Montana 72-46 in the Rose City earlier this year. They will come to Missoula on Saturday after falling to Montana State by five points on Thursday night.

"We just need to be the aggressor. We need to throw the first punch," DeCuire said of the matchup. "We need to be quicker to the ball and attack the paint. We did that early, we set the tone and they were doubling. We got some threes and then they stopped doubling and we had to tweak what we were doing offensively and just didn't adjust with the level of aggression that was necessary to keep scoring."

Saturday will be Senior Day for Montana. The Grizzlies will honor five players before the game, which will tip at 7:00 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.