Montana back home against Salish Kootenai

MONTANA (5-5) vs. SALISH KOOTENAI
Wednesday, Dec. 10 / 7:00 PM / Watch / Live Stats / Tickets

PREVIEW
The Montana men's basketball team will return home to Dahlberg Arena on Wednesday night when they host the Salish Kootenai Bison at 7:00 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

It's the first ever meeting between the two schools. Salish Kootenai, located in Pablo, Mont., will make the 63-mile drive down past the Mission Mountains to Missoula for the non-conference matchup.

The Bison play in the American Indian Higher Education Consortium along with previous Grizzly opponent Northwest Indian College. The Griz won 106-41 over the Eagles in the season opener.

It's been a rollercoaster ride since then for head coach Travis DeCuire's team. Montana picked up a signature non-conference win on Nov. 11, knocking off UNLV on the road in a 102-93 shootout.

The Grizzlies then won at home and went on the road to nearly upset Texas A&M, pulling within one possession multiple times in the final minute. But following that loss, the Grizzlies dropped three straight, all at home.

Last Saturday, they got some of their mojo back, going on the road for a 79-75 come-from-behind win at North Dakota.

The major storyline in that game, as it has been for much of the season, was the play of Preseason Big Sky MVP Money Williams. The junior torched the Fighting Hawks for 30 points on nearly 80 percent shooting.

He had a huge second half, as he has done so often this year, scoring 20 points after the halftime break to help Montana overcome a double-digit deficit.

Williams averages 14.0 points in the second half of games this season. Montana as a team has been much improved over the final 20 minutes as opposed to the opening 20, averaging nearly 11 points more in the second half.

The show may have been stolen by Williams, but redshirt-freshman Tyler Thompson also played a huge role in Montana's win on Saturday. The sharpshooting guard has been on fire over the last two weeks and continued it in North Dakota.

Thompson scored 17 points in the Grizzly win, going 4-of-5 from three-point range. He is now 11-of-17 (.647) from beyond the arc over Montana's last three games.

Montana will look to keep the momentum going with two straight games against non-D-I opponents. If they are able to win both, they will clinch a winning non-conference record for the sixth straight season.

The Grizzlies close out the non-conference portion of the schedule with a road game at #11 Louisville on Dec. 20.

30-POINT PERFORMANCES
Money Williams scored 30 points in a game for the third time this season at North Dakota on Dec. 6. The junior guard scored 31 points in a win over Cal Poly and 30 points in a win at UNLV.

He's tied for the most 30-point games in the NCAA this season. It's also tied for the most 30-point games in a single season by a Montana player since at least 2004.

Anthony Johnson (2009-10), Sayeed Pridgett (2019-20), and Aanen Moody (2023-24) are the only other Grizzlies with three 30-point games in the same season.

Williams has five 30-point games in his career, which is tied with Anthony Johnson for the most by a Grizzly this century.

CLOSING OUT THE NON-CONFERENCE
Montana has just three games remaining in the non-conference portion of the season. They open Big Sky Conference play on Jan. 1 at home against Northern Arizona. There are two home games (both against non-D-I opponents) and a top 15 road test at Louisville still remaining.

If Montana is able to win at least two games, they will clinch a .500 or better non-conference record for the sixth straight season. It would be the 8^th time in 12 years under DeCuire that Montana is .500-or-better entering Big Sky play.

DECEMBER RECORD
Montana has been very good at home in the month of December under head coach Travis DeCuire. The Grizzlies are 29-5 (.853) at home in December and have won 21 of the last 23 games inside Dahlberg Arena during the month.

SCOUTING SALISH KOOTENAI

The Bison play in the American Indian Higher Education Consortium division with the College of the Muscogee Nation, Navajo Technical University, and Northwest Indian College.
Salish Kootenai went 23-5 last season. They finished 3^rd in the AIHEC.
The Bison won the Tribal Sports Network Championship in 2025.
Cayvence LaRance and Donovan Headswift will both be returning to their hometown of Missoula for the game. Six of the 10 players on the Bison roster are from Montana.
The Bison have five freshmen, four sophomores, and one junior on their roster.

SERIES HISTORY VS. THE BISON
This is the first ever meeting between Montana and Salish Kootenai.

SNAPPING THE HOME LOSING STREAK
Montana will aim to snap a three-game losing streak inside Dahlberg Arena on Wednesday night. It's the longest home losing streak for the program since 2004. The Grizzlies fell to Lamar and Oakland in the Blaine Taylor Classic and then lost to North Dakota State in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge.

GRIZ NOTES

Montana overcame a halftime deficit for the first time this season on Saturday at North Dakota. The halftime leader had gone on to win the game in the first nine games this season.
The game at North Dakota on Saturday featured 12 lead changes and 8 ties. Both figures are season highs for Montana.
Montana overcame a 10-point deficit at North Dakota on Saturday. It's the largest come-from-behind win this season for the Griz, and the largest since coming back from 14 points down against Eastern Washington last March.
Money Williams leads Montana in scoring at 20.4 points per game. The next five players on Montana averaged between 8.5 and 9.5 points per game.
Montana has a better field goal percentage than its opponent in eight of 10 games this season.
Montana is 5-1 when scoring 10+ straight at some point in the game.
Montana is 3-0 when finishing with more rebounds than its opponent.
The previous seven games that Montana has played in have all been decided by single digits.
Montana has been .500 or better through 10 games every season since 2020-21.
The Grizzlies have allowed 80+ points in six of the ten games this season.
Montana has lost three straight home games for the first time ever under DeCuire and the first time overall since 2004.
Money Williams scored 30 points for the 3^rd time this season in the road win at North Dakota. He's tied for the NCAA lead in 30-point games this season with Dior Johnson (Tarleton State) and John Blackwell (Wisconsin).
Williams matched his career high with 5 made threes at North Dakota.
Williams has scored at least 15 points in nine straight games. He has scored 30-plus on three occasions and has reached the 20-point mark five times.
Tyler Thompson is 11-of-17 (.647) from three-point range over the last three games. He's averaging 14.7 points per game over the stretch.
- Thompson recorded a season high four steals in the win at North Dakota. He also matched his career high with two blocks.
Montana went 42-3 at home in non-conference games from 2017-18 to 2024-25. They are 3-3 at home this year in non-conference play.
Montana made 16 three pointers against Texas A&M, shooting 51.6 percent from the arc. It's just the second time ever under Coach DeCuire that Montana has made 16 or more threes on better than 50 percent shooting.
Montana started 2-0 for the first time since 2018. It was just the third time under Coach DeCuire that the Grizzlies have opened a season with consecutive wins. The previous two times that Montana started 2-0, they would go on to win Big Sky Championships.
The Griz held Ottawa to just 39 points. It's the first time Montana has held a team under 40 points since 2021 when they defeated Dickinson State 74-27.

BIG SKY-SUMMIT CHALLENGE
The Grizzlies are 4-2 all-time in the Big Sky-Summit Challenge. Montana is 2-1 in road games in the challenge after beating North Dakota in Grand Forks on Dec. 6.

Montana clinched the winning points for the Big Sky Conference on Saturday with a road win at North Dakota. The league would go on to win 25-19. It's the first time in the three-year history of the challenge that the Big Sky has won.

Montana defeated South Dakota State 71-67 in Missoula last year and lost at St. Thomas 88-81.

In the first year of the challenge, Montana won at North Dakota State 96-86 and then came home to beat South Dakota 82-63. Montana has won 3.5 total points for the Big Sky, but the Summit has emerged victorious in the first two editions of the challenge.

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Players Mentioned

Tyler Thompson

Money Williams

University of Montana Athletics