Bears beat Grizzlies

Saturday, January 11

Missoula, Mont.

4:00 PM

Montana

10-7,3-1Big Sky

Northern Colorado

12-5,4-0Big Sky

Northern Colo.

Montana

Photo by: Tommy Martino/University of Montana

1/11/2025 7:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's basketball team fell at home Saturday afternoon 81-57 to the Northern Colorado Bears. In a battle between the final two remaining unbeaten teams in the Big Sky Conference it was the visitors that stayed perfect, handing Montana its first home loss of the season.

The Griz fell behind 8-2 early on a big UNC run and never recovered. Montana still sit in second place in the Big Sky Conference through two weeks of action despite the loss.

"I told the guys before the game that the better defensive team is going to win the game, both teams are good offensively, and they defended a lot better than we did tonight," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "Hats off to their staff, they did a phenomenal job. We all have to be better."

Northern Colorado shot 56.7 percent from the floor in the game. They entered the night with one of the top offenses in the country, and produced against the Montana defense with four players in double figures.

The biggest advantage came down low where the Bears won the physical game. They led 44-27 in rebounding and outscored Montana 52-26 in the paint.

"At the end of the day, we've got to guard around the rim. That is what set the tone," DeCuire said. "They hit a couple threes, but I don't feel that beat us, it was just paint points."

Money Williams led Montana with 15 points, 12 of which came in the second half of the game. Williams shot just 4-of-13 (.308) from the floor. He was the only Grizzly in double figures.

Te'Jon Sawyer had nine points and a team-high six rebounds.

In the first half alone, Northern Colorado had four scoring runs of at least seven straight points. They stole the ball away and scored on the fastbreak at the buzzer to go into the locker rooms ahead 43-26.

Montana couldn't get anything going offensively, shooting just 10-of-30 (.333) from the floor and 2-of-13 (.154) from three-point range in the first half.

"They've done this over the years, and it's they are going to pick the guys that don't shoot very good percentages from three and not guard them. When they do that, there is nowhere for guys to penetrate," DeCuire said. "We took some questionable shots early because that's what they gave us instead of working a little harder late clock to get things that might have opened them up a little bit. We made some adjustments in the second half, but the hole was too deep."

The Grizzlies weren't able to stage a comeback attempt in the second half, trailing by as many as 32 before finishing the game with some momentum to cut the final deficit to 81-57.

Montana hits the road next week for a Thursday game at Weber State and a Saturday contest at Idaho State. Montana will go into the trip at 3-1 in Big Sky play and second in the league standings, but will look for a rebound performance after the worst home loss of the DeCuire era.

"The message is to me," DeCuire said on his takeaways from the game. "We have to have more energy, we have to be more physical, we have to be tougher, we have to be sharp. We weren't that, and I'll take responsibility for that."