Griz go cold in 68-63 loss to Lamar

Sunday, November 23

Missoula, Mont.

2:00 PM

Montana

4-3,0-0Big Sky

Lamar

3-1,0-0Southland

Lamar University

Montana

Photo by: Marley Barboeisel/University of Montana

11/23/2025 5:52:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's basketball team went cold from the field on Sunday afternoon in a 68-63 loss to Lamar in the opening game of the Blaine Taylor Classic. The Grizzlies were held to just 35 percent shooting and didn't have a made field goal in the final 4:33 in the loss.

Courtney Anderson Jr. scored a career high 15 points, going 4-of-5 from three-point range Money Williams scored 15 points with all of them coming in the second half.

"We're a little bit one-dimensional right now and I think that got exposed today," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "We have some tough guys that are physical, that can scrap, they built us leads, but then we went on long stretches without scoring. We weren't multi-dimensional from enough players today and that's on us. We have work to do."

The Grizzly defense held Lamar mostly in check with a 40 percent clip on the night, but the Cardinals were able to attempt 73 field goals compared to just 52 for Montana. Lamar outscored Montana 22-5 in second chance points.

The lead changed hands eight times with neither team leading for more than 19 minutes of game action. Lamar scored the first five points of the game and forced DeCuire to go to his bench early.

They responded for him with a 13-0 Griz run over an eight-minute stretch. The unit held Lamar without a point from 18:41 all the way inside the 10-minute mark of the opening half.

The Cardinals would battle back the rest of the way in a hard-fought opening period that saw just 44 combined points. Montana trailed 23-21. It was the fewest points in a half for the Grizzlies this season.

DeCuire went back to his bench unit in the second half and they delivered again to put Montana up 37-34. The lead would slip again with Lamar pulling in front 52-48 before Williams really started to get going. He helped lead a 9-0 run that was capped by a three from Anderson with 4:33 to play that made it 57-52 Grizzlies.

The reserves were good in both halves as Montana outscored Lamar 35-16 in bench points.

"They did it again in the second half to and they built a lead, but unfortunately we tried to leave them in and went down again," DeCuire said. "We couldn't score consistently enough with that group, but they scrapped. To me, those guys went in and played as hard as they could."

Lamar closed the game on a 7-0 run to take the win out of Montana's hands. Andrew Holifield led Lamar with 18 points and he also grabbed 8 rebounds. Braden East had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Cardinals.

"They are a well-coached team. They played for a championship last year and returned seven guys from that team," DeCuire said. "They are experienced and that's the thing that was hard for us. They were way better in the last four minutes of each half in the situations. We're up five with two minutes with momentum and we turned it over and didn't get rebounds. They were more relentless than we were."

Montana shot 65.6% from the free throw line on 32 attempts and outside of Anderson went just 2-of-17 from three-point range on a cold shooting night.

The loss snapped a 10-game home winning streak for Montana dating back to last season. They fall to 4-3 on the year. Montana will be back in action on Tuesday night against Oakland. Lamar and Oakland will play on Monday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

"We have to grow between the ears and a lot of that is experience. We have a lot of guys that haven't been in a close game down the stretch when it becomes a game of possessions," DeCuire said. "Sometimes you learn more from mistakes and we have to do a little better job of preparing."