Offense shines in big win over Northern Arizona

Thursday, February 8

Flagstaff, Ariz.

7 PM

Montana

16-8,7-4Big Sky

Northern Arizona

10-14,3-7Big Sky

Montana

Northern Ariz.

Photo by: Richie Young/Northern Arizona

2/8/2024 9:50:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The snow in Flagstaff slowed down traffic and forced a delay in the start time between Montana and Northern Arizona, but while the snow piled up outside Montana piled up the points inside. The Grizzlies dominated the Lumberjacks for the second time this season and completed the sweep of NAU with a 94-66 win on Thursday night.

The Grizzlies made some history in the first meeting between the schools, winning by 43 points for the largest Big Sky win since 1997. This time around they had another rare offensive performance, putting up a near-season high with 94 points on 59 percent shooting.

The win also guarantees a winning record for Montana this season as they are eight games above .500 with seven games remaining on the schedule. It's the 16^th straight season that Montana will finish .500 or better.

Montana takes the season series over NAU by a total of 71 points, but more importantly they stay within a game of Northern Colorado for second place in the league standings. The Griz improved to 16-8 and 7-4 in Big Sky play, and will be playing Northern Colorado for sole possession of second on Saturday.

"I think it says a lot about our maturity in terms of bouncing back on the road. We let some things get away from so I think one thing this group has done a good job of is bouncing back," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "Now we've got an opportunity in front of us to go see if we can get a big win on the road and maybe start a streak."

Triple from @JoshVazquez3 and the Griz have 9⃣0⃣ on the board! 😳 pic.twitter.com/2HekZtOEFv
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 9, 2024

The ball was shared at a tremendous rate for Montana as they finished with 24 team assists, the most by a Montana team DeCuire's 10 seasons at the helm. They had five players score in double figures as the Griz played a complete team game.

Aanen Moody led the way with 20 points, Te'Jon Sawyer had 15 off the bench, and Josh Vazquez scored 14 on 80 percent shooting from three-point range. Dischon Thomas had 13 points, 11 of which came in the first half.

The key to it all was Brandon Whitney, who pushed the pace all night long and finished with a near double-double. Whitney had 10 points and nine assists in 29 minutes. The Grizzlies made 14 threes in the first meeting, and Northern Arizona made it a point to keep Montana off the arc on Thursday night.

"We played a lot smaller tonight, and when we spread them out Whitney could get into the paint and make plays," DeCuire said. "The ball screens were a problem for them just because their posts aren't as mobile, so we felt if we attacked that then at some point in time they would give up threes. They were pretty stubborn about not giving up threes tonight."

They got the Grizzlies off the line, but Montana dominated inside the paint as a result. The Grizzlies had a season high 52 points in the paint as they got to the rim at will against the Lumberjacks.

Montana also had a 31-15 advantage in bench points, a 36-24 edge in rebounding, and forced NAU into 11 turnovers while committing just six themselves.

There were nine different scorers for Montana, and eight of them had at least six points in the contest. Chase Henderson played 10-plus minutes for just the fifth time this season, Giordan Williams had his best scoring game since early January, and Jaxon Nap knocked down a pair of threes in his 19 minutes of action.

It was all part of the plan for DeCuire, who had been playing a much tighter rotation in recent weeks.

"I knew if we played fast we would score a lot of points in this game. Transition defense is not necessarily their strength and in order to get Whitney to push the ball we wanted to push it, we needed to give him rest," DeCuire said. "We knew going into it that we were going to have to go a little deeper than normal."

The start time was delayed and the referees arrived as the teams were taking the court to begin the game, but despite all the pregame uncertainty there was a good rhythm to the early stretches of the game.

Northern Arizona built an early 11-10 lead during a back and forth first five minutes, but Montana opened the game up with a big run from that point. Thomas had a couple of buckets, Te'Jon Sawyer had an and-one finish, and Josh Vazquez knocked down a corner triple to cap off a 13-0 Grizzly run.

Three shot... BANG! 🔥@JoshVazquez3 hits the triple and it's a 13-0 Griz run! pic.twitter.com/qwgT0isAvm
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 9, 2024

Thomas had 22 points in the opening half of the first meeting between these two schools. He didn't have quite the same level of productivity, but he did have an impressive 11-point half to lead the Grizzlies.

After the long Montana run, the hosts responded with one of their own. Northern Arizona scored seven straight points to force a Grizzly timeout with the score at 23-18.

The Grizzlies were able to push the lead back out to double figures with another 8-0 run. Jaxon Nap knocked down a three off the bench, the Grizzlies got a stop, and Moody hit a deep three to extend the lead to 35-22.

DeCuire went deep into his bench in the opening half, playing nine different players in the opening half. Chase Henderson, who hadn't played since Portland State and had appeared in just three Big Sky contests, got extended minutes in the opening half.

He had the assist to Moody on the transition three and found him again for a corner triple that made it 40-25. Henderson also added a bucket as all nine Grizzly players that got a minute in the opening half scored.

Giordan Williams had four points, and Te'Jon Sawyer capped the impressive half with his second and-one finish to make it 50-32 at halftime.

AND ONE 🗣️@tejxn__ with the last second bucket and we've got a new season high with 50 first half points! pic.twitter.com/4Hn4AQyEi7
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 9, 2024

Montana shot 61 percent from the floor and 71 percent from three in a first half that saw them also outrebound Northern Arizona 20-11. The Grizzlies had seven different players with a rebound, and also had eight players with an assist as they had a dozen as a team.

It's the most points that Montana has scored in the first half of a D-I game this season, upping the 47 points that they scored in the last meeting between the Grizzlies and Lumberjacks.

The Grizzlies had 12 assists in the first half, and would match that in the second for the highest total under a DeCuire-coached team vs. D-I opposition.

"When we have 50 points at halftime and 12 assists, I just told our guys if we keep up the pace and share the ball we're going to continue to score," DeCuire said. "Scoring always feels better when guys make the right plays and the right passes for one another. Your team always feels better and more cohesive when the ball is being shared."

The Grizzlies didn't allow Northern Arizona back within 14 points the rest of the way as they had another strong half to close it out.

The offense grabs the headlines, but Montana's defense was strong against the Lumberjacks for the second time this season. They held them to 45.3 percent shooting and just four made three pointers. Trent McLaughlin entered the game as the Big Sky's third-leading scorer at 16.3 points per game.

Josh Vazquez drew the primary duty of slowing him down, and did his job very well. McLaughlin had 12 points on just 4-of-11 shooting. He had only three points in the first meeting with Montana, making his combined total over the two games fewer than his season average.

"There are three guys that need to score big points for them to put a lot on the board. McLaughlin has had a lot of big games and one of the things that we've addressed is you know he's going to run off screens, you know he's going to shoot behind ball screens, and Vazquez did an incredible job of just picking out the plays," DeCuire said. "He knew what plays were coming and beat him to a lot of spots."

Montana didn't have a single player on the floor for more than 30 minutes as they were able to go deep into the bench down the stretch. It helped at the elevation of Flagstaff, which often trips up visiting teams, and will also be huge going into Saturday's matchup with Northern Colorado.

"I thought the young guys had good reps and rotations in the first half. Nap and Henderson both were very good in their first rotation, so we though we might as well get them some more minutes," DeCuire said. "I think by keeping some guys fresh it will also help us going into Saturday."

𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑛 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 🌪️@tejxn__ is up to 13 points and the Griz are rolling in Flagstaff. pic.twitter.com/sqiUDzXHN2
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 9, 2024

The Grizzlies and the Bears played an overtime thriller earlier this year in Missoula. Montana led by 10 points in the final 10 minutes, but let the lead slip away and eventually lost 98-92 in overtime. MVP frontrunner Saint Thomas had 37 points and 14 rebounds in the win.

Montana enters the game 7-4 in Big Sky play, while Northern Colorado goes into the contest at 7-3 after a win over Montana State on Thursday night. The team that leaves Bank of Colorado Arena with the win will also take over sole possession of second place in the league standings with six games to play.

"It's a huge opportunity. Like we continue to say, you can't let opportunities slip by. It's a little bit of revenge because we let one get away that we shouldn't have," DeCuire said. "Any time you lose a game at home and you have a chance to avenge that on the road, you want to even the score."