Griz sweep season set against Vandals

Monday, January 20

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

12-8,5-2Big Sky

Idaho

8-11,3-3Big Sky

Idaho

Montana

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Montana

1/20/2025 10:27:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

After a head-scratching loss at Idaho State, head coach Travis DeCuire sat his team down on Sunday for a chat. The Grizzlies still sat in second place in the Big Sky Conference, but had been outscored by 33 points in the final 20 minutes at Pocatello.

The conversations remain in that room, but after a solid practice Sunday evening and an energetic shootaround on Monday morning, the Grizzlies delivered a response with a 72-67 win over Idaho on Monday night.

"Every couple of years we have those moments where we're not playing well and we're not necessarily assuming responsibility for our part. We sat down, spent some time together before practice yesterday, and then we had a really good sweat," DeCuire said. "Typically when you have three games in five days you probably don't practice, but we got after it a little bit and really we just cleared our minds and got on the same page."

The winning contributions came from up and down the roster on Monday with several players excelling in their given roles in the win. Brandon Whitney led Montana with a season high 18 points, Money Williams set a career high with nine assists, and Joe Pridgen grabbed 10 boards for the fifth time this year.

Add on top of that 12 points on a perfect 4-for-4 night from three-point range for Jensen Bradtke and nine points from Austin Patterson, and the Grizzlies were in business. They had 17 assists, fifth-most in a game this year, and matched their season-high with 12 made threes.

"The big thing for us is what is the best shot? The shots that Austin got very easily could have been Malik. The shots that Jensen got easily could have been Te'Jon," DeCuire said. "But guys are OK with it, and as long as we are OK with it the ball moves. The defense will dictate what shot we are getting, we just have to play through it."

Montana (12-8, 5-2 Big Sky) led by as many as 16 points before a late Idaho run made things interesting. The Vandals (8-11, 3-3 Big Sky) went on an 11-0 run over a three-minute stretch to make it 64-61 inside the final 90 seconds.

Williams ended a Griz drought with a step-back in the paint, and Brandon Whitney delivered the final blow with an iso bucket to put Montana up six in the final minute.

It's his 142nd career game. He's not afraid of the moment.@bwhit_12 | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/ofgmjRLVqZ
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) January 21, 2025

Montana scored the first seven points of the game and had the lead into double figures early at 20-9. Bradtke and Patterson combined for every point in a 10-0 Griz run, and the two bench players had 13 of Montana's first 20 points.

The Vandals started to climb back into the game and cut the lead down to six before Whitney made two straight threes to extend the Griz lead back out to a dozen. The Grizzlies eventually took a six-point lead into the break and seemed in control, but the same thing happened two days ago in Pocatello before they were blitzed coming out of the locker rooms.

JB gets his own board, and then knocks down another from deep!

3⃣ for 3⃣ in the first half for the big man!@JensenBradtke | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/ClpOshdzxT
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) January 21, 2025

Then Whitney got the scoring started for Motnana in the second half, hitting back-to-back threes yet again. The fifth-year guard, playing in his 142^nd career game at Montana, had made just seven threes this season.

Whitney had made three-or-more shots from the arc in a game just once in his first 141 appearances. On Monday night, he went 4-of-7 from deep, matching his career high.

"One of the things we talked about was that we can bank on his defense, but we need his aggression offensively and we need him ready," DeCuire said. "He's too good of a shooter to not look to shoot the ball. He's always out of rhythm because he's worried about other people getting shots."

The lead ballooned all the way up to 16 points at the 8:00 minute mark after a free throw from Money Williams. It ended an 8-0 Grizzly run with five points coming from Moore on assists from Williams.

Moore had 10 points on the night, reaching double figures for the 11^th time in the last 13 games. Williams recorded his 9^th assist of the night on the Moore three-pointer, setting a new career high.

It's his 142nd career game. He's not afraid of the moment.@bwhit_12 | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/ofgmjRLVqZ
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) January 21, 2025

"He's a phenomenal basketball player. He's got a great IQ for the game," DeCuire said of Williams. "There were some adjustments he made offensively in the first half that got us some really good shots, some reads he made."

It all seemed to be rolling along smoothly for Montana, and then came a seven-minute stretch with just three points for the hosts. Idaho climbed back in with a 16-3 run to make it a one-possession game with 1:56 on the clock.

"We got stagnant. When you're talking shot selection, zone it is hard to be selective," DeCuire said. "You have to take the shots that are there. We turned down some shots trying to get a great one and it's hard to do that against zone. You have to stay aggressive, take what you get, and make them. I thought we got stagnant, held on to the ball, and turned down too many good shots."

They would get the shots that they needed to go down in the final 90 seconds, and had clutch free throw trips in 1-and-1 situations from Whitney and Moore to hang on for the five-point win.

Montana completed the season sweep of the regional rival. It's the 6^th straight win in the series for the Griz and 12^th win in the last 13 games. They got the win by holding them nearly eight points below their season scoring average.

"Defense is the biggest thing. We set the tone with that, and obviously they got going with some things that they found and it took us a while to take those away," DeCuire said. "We got stops when we needed to, and we rebounded the ball when we needed to, and that was the biggest thing was we finished possessions on the glass."

It's the first wire-to-wire win for Montana this season as they didn't trail at all. The score was only tied for 23 seconds with the Griz in control the whole way. They outshot Idaho 49.0-40.0 from the field and outscored the best three point shooting team from the arc by six points.

The Griz improved to 9-1 at home this season in the first of four straight games inside Dahlberg Arena. Montana has its biggest game of the season up next as they host Montana State on Saturday at 7:00 PM.

Montana State had a slow start to the conference season but have won two straight games and three of their last four to get back to sixth place in the league standings at 3-4. The Griz swept the regular season against the Cats last year, but fell in the Big Sky title game to their rivals. It will be the 309^th all-time meeting between the two foes.