Griz rout Hornets to complete perfect four-game homestand

Saturday, February 1

Missoula, Mont.

4:00 PM

Montana

15-8,8-2Big Sky

Sacramento State

6-16,2-7Big Sky

Sacramento St.

Montana

Photo by: Tommy Martino/University of Montana

Griz rout Hornets to complete perfect four-game homestand

2/1/2025 7:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

It would be hard to script a better home weekend for the Montana men's basketball team. After an impressive 92-78 win on Thursday, the Griz hosted the annual N7 game against Sacramento State in a potential trap game.

They came prepared, completely dominating the Hornets 87-59 to improve to 8-2 in Big Sky play. It's the best 10-game start in league play since 2018-19.

The Grizzlies had six players in double figures on Thursday, an impressive feat that Montana hadn't achieved in seven years. The balance was on display again in Saturday's win as 12 different Grizzlies entered the scoresheet, the most in a game since 2006.

The offense was balanced and the defense answered the call, holding Sacramento State under 60 points and limiting them to just 37.0 percent shooting for the game. The Hornets had just five total assists as a team, while Montana had 21.

"We challenged the guys defensively to impact the game a lot more, so to come out and hold a team under 40 percent is huge," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "That was the challenge for today, and then obviously 21 assists doesn't hurt."

It's the fourth time this season Montana has reached 20 assists and the most in a game since the Big Sky opener at Eastern Washington back on Jan. 2. Malkik Moore led Montana with six as nearly every player that saw the floor got in on the scoring action.

Kai Johnson led with 15 while Joe Pridgen added 11 on 5-of-7 shooting.

Austin Patterson, playing against his former team, propelled Montana to the early lead with 11 first-half points on 4-of-5 shooting with three made three pointers.

The 5^th year guard transferred to Montana from Sacramento State in the summer looking for a chance to win a Big Sky Championship. His minutes are down from his time with the Hornets, but he made the winning plays on Saturday to help the Grizzlies win for the 15^th time this year, already more than any of his seasons in Sacramento.

"He was locked in, and he has been. I talked to him yesterday a little bit about how I appreciate the type of teammate that he has been. He's been healthy for this program," DeCuire said. "He stays ready, and he is shooting the ball extremely well in conference and he gets great shots. The guys are going a great job of finding him."

defense ➡️ offense

block by @mxney___ leads to an open three on the other end 🙌#GrizHoops | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/nThrZVSdWt
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 1, 2025

The Grizzlies left no doubt on Saturday, jumping out to the lead on their first offensive possession and keeping it for the entire game. Patterson hit back-to-back threes as part of an 8-0 Grizzly run to push the lead to 25-11, and they didn't allow the Hornets back within 10 for the rest of the game.

Defensively, Montana held Sacramento State to just six made field goals on their first 25 attempts (.240), and even after a run of makes the Grizzlies outshot them 55.2-32.1 percent in the first half.

Sacramento State came into the game in last place in the Big Sky standings, but the Hornets do have two wins against Idaho State and Portland State, a pair of top-four teams in the league standings. After a lot of talk about third place Portland State in town on Thursday, it could have been easy for the Grizzlies to overlook their opponent.

On top of that, the rim on Montana's end of the floor was broken during the team's shootaround after a dunk from Joe Pridgen, and repairs were ongoing during warmups. Montana went upstairs to the West Auxiliary Gym for their pregame warmups.

Rims literally hate to see him coming.#GrizHoops | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/fX3M1e4LEW
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 1, 2025

Then there was also the extra attention that the N7 game brings to the table. Plenty of potential distractions for Montana, but their Big Sky title hunt wasn't bothered as they played a complete 40 minutes.

"It's always been my biggest fear. You have to win the ones that they say you're supposed to in the standings," DeCuire said. "We challenged them mentally yesterday, we spent some time on films, some walkthrough, and saved some energy. They seem pretty locked in right now and understand the mission in front of them."

Montana had a season high 40 bench points in the win as everyone that played contributed to the victory. The Grizzlies shot 56.1 percent from the floor and 46.2 percent from three-point range. They made the extra pass all night and led to a tie for the season high with 12 made threes.

Stick around to the end of this sequence by Jerm 🔥🔥🔥#GrizHoops | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/RknjH8HvnC
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 2, 2025

Montana has now made at least 10 three pointers in three of the last four games. They wrapped up the four-game homestand with more impressive shooting as they shot better than 50 percent for the sixth time in Big Sky play. Montana's two losses are the only games they've been under 40 percent from the floor.

"We're starting to see some examples of good-to-great. We're turning down OK or bad shots for great shots right now," DeCuire said. "I think that's what hurt is in the Northern Colorado game, the Idaho State game in the second half, is we weren't working to get the best shot, we just took what we could get. We're headed in the right direction, now we'll see if we can do it with some adversity."

One weakness for Montana this season has been the battle of the boards, but even that was heavily in favor of the Griz on Saturday. Montana had 36 rebounds compared to 26 for Sacramento State. It's the best rebounding margin of the season for Montana against a D1 opponent and their fourth-most total rebounds.

Moore also led Montana in that category, grabbing six rebounds to complete a stuffed stat sheet. Moore had nine points, six rebounds, and six assists in just 25 minutes of action.

There was some more history for the Grizzlies on Saturday as Brandon Whitney continues his climb toward the program assist record. Whitney passed Scott Zanon to move into solo third place with 414 career assists. He needs 22 more to break his head coach's program record.

AP stays hot and @bwhit_12 moves into sole possession of 3rd in program history with his 412th career assist!#GrizHoops | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/qPNQQ6TaRX
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) February 1, 2025

DeCuire is also closing in on some history of his own as this was the 216^th victory of his career. He's now five away from tying George Dahlberg for the all-time wins record at Montana.

There was plenty of celebration to be had on Saturday, but now Montana shifts its attention to the biggest game yet on their Big Sky schedule. Montana hits the road this week to play at Northern Colorado on Thursday.

The Bears lead the league after Saturday's games with an 8-1 record. They will play at Idaho State in the league's Monday game this week.

In the first meeting between the two, Northern Colorado jumped all over the Grizzlies and won 81-57 in Missoula. Since then, Montana is 5-1 in league play. They will need to be at their best on Thursday in a 1 vs. 2 showdown.

"We've got to be a way better defensive team than we were then, and we have been in recent games," DeCuire said. "And then our attention to detail. There are some things that we could have taken advantage of in the first game and we didn't and they did. They were locked in and knew what it was and I'm not sure we were prepared for that. Our mental toughness is going to be challenged, and it's up to us to grow up a little bit and show that we're ready."