Moody's 35 not enough as Griz fall to Eagles

Thursday, February 29

Cheney, Wash.

7 PM (MT)

Montana

19-10,10-6Big Sky

Eastern Washington

19-10,13-3Big Sky

Montana

Eastern Wash.

Photo by: Jackson Wagner

2/29/2024 10:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Eastern Washington used a big second half to pull away from Montana for an 89-79 victory in Cheney on Thursday night. The size of the Eagles caused problems for Montana all night, as a 40-12 advantage in points in the paint provided the edge.

Montana got a 35-point night from Aanen Moody, who made a career high eight threes and came up just a point short of his career high.

The Eagles sealed the Big Sky title with the win as they improved to 13-3 in conference play. Montana falls to 19-10 overall and 10-6 in Big Sky play. They are still in a three-way tie for second place with Weber State and Northern Colorado. The Wildcats beat the Bears 85-81 in overtime on Thursday night.

Montana had a halftime lead and tied the game up at 60-all late in the second half, but the Eagles rallied late with a zone defense that stifled the Grizzly offense. The Grizzlies went 8-of-16 from the arc in the second half, but made just 3-of-13 from two-point range.

Te'Jon Sawyer was the only other Grizzly in double figures, scoring 10 off the bench. Dischon Thomas had nine, Josh Vazquez had eight, and Blake Jones matched his career high with seven points off the bench.

Laolu Oke had nine rebounds and Brandon Whitney had six assists.

Eastern Washington opened the game hot, making their first three attempts from beyond the arc to take a 17-8 lead. Moody ended the run with a three from well beyond the arc. He answered a 9-0 EWU run with eight straight points of his own to cut the lead to 17-16.

Moody kept Montana close over the next few minutes as he started the game with five straight made field goals for 13 of Montana's first 22 points.

It's the Aanen Moody show right now. 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including some circus shots that have dropped. pic.twitter.com/g9gUaZY8XW
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) March 1, 2024

Sawyer knocked down a corner three to give Montana a 31-28 lead with six minutes left in the first half. It was one of two made threes for Sawyer, who didn't have a single game with multiple made threes as a Grizzly but has now done it twice in a row.

The Griz gained some separation late in the half. Jones converted a three-point play down low that capped an 8-0 Griz run that put them ahead 41-35 in the final minute. The Eagles scored on their final possession, but Montana still took a 41-38 lead into the break. They had been 15-1 on the year when leading at the half.

"The ball was moving and we were attacking. We had them spread out and we were spacing the floor, but we were really just trading baskets," DeCuire said of the first half. "They made a run and got us down and we got back int the biggest thing is we were able to space them out. We had some possessions like that in the second half, but they were few and far between because we didn't have a traditional lineup in very long."

A defensive adjustment at halftime for Eastern Washington tilted the game in favor of the hosts. They went to a zone that caused problems for Montana, as the Grizzlies made just two field goals in the opening nine minutes of the second half.

"They made a run early in the first half against our small lineup. When we went big, we got ourselves back in the game," DeCuire said. "Their adjustment in the second half was to go zone and we just couldn't really generate enough offense against the zone with the big lineup."

The Eagles were red-hot on the other end, going on a 10-0 run to open up a double-digit lead at 56-46. When it looked like the game might get away from Montana, they found an answer. They scored five straight at the free throw line and then Thomas ended the shooting slump with a step-back three that cut the lead to 56-54.

Moody hit a three on the next possession, and Thomas connected from deep again to tie the game up at 60-all.

𝐆𝐀𝐌𝐄. 𝐎𝐍.

Another @dischonthomas triple and we're tied at 60 in Cheney. pic.twitter.com/q9RpaHCxv1
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) March 1, 2024

But from there, it was all Eagles. They had a 5-0 run to retake the lead for good. Eastern Washington had a streak of 12 made shots on 15 field goal attempts, and they were also able to get offensive rebounds and points out of two of the misses. The stretch resulted in a 77-66 lead.

Moody scored 11 of the final 13 points of the game for Montana, but they fell behind by double digits and lost by an eventual score of 89-79. It's just the third loss this season for Montana when scoring at least 70 points.

"He was aggressive and the hoop got big for him," DeCuire said of Moody. "He kept us in the game and he was the reason why we were up. It was there for the taking. We just had a bad stretch where we weren't scoring enough and when we did get stops we gave up some offensive rebounds."

Moody becomes the first Grizzly to make eight threes in a game since Bobby Moorehead also went 8-for-11 on Feb. 25, 2016 against Idaho State. He's also the first Grizzly with multiple 30-point games in the same season since Sayeed Pridgett had three in 2019-20.

Giordan Williams also made his 100^th career appearance in the game.

The Grizzlies will have a chance to rebound from the win on the road at Idaho on Saturday afternoon. The game will tip at 3:00 p.m. (MT) as Montana goes for the season sweep of its rival.

"Flush it. We've got two more games to win," DeCuire said of his message to his team. "If we win those two, we're back on a winning streak going into the conference tournament and whatever happens, happens from there."