Griz enter final stretch seeking Big Sky title

MONTANA (20-8, 13-2 Big Sky) at SACRAMENTO STATE (7-21, 3-12 Big Sky)
Thursday, Feb. 27 / 8:00 PM (MT) / Watch / Live Stats

MONTANA at PORTLAND STATE (16-12, 8-7 Big Sky)
Saturday, March 1 / 3:00 PM (MT) / Watch / Live Stats

The Montana men's basketball team will have everything to play for in the final week of the regular season as they close things out with three games in five days. The Griz hit the road for the final trip of the year with games at Sacramento State and Portland State, before returning home next Monday for the finale at home against Eastern Washington.

The Griz control their own destiny in the Big Sky Championship race with just three games remaining, holding a half-game lead on Northern Colorado. If Montana is able to win out, they will be the Big Sky Champions for the first time since 2019.

Montana could clinch at least a share of the title with two wins in the final three games.

There is also plenty of history on the line for the team. Head coach Travis DeCuire has tied George "Jiggs" Dahlberg for the most wins in program history, and will have his first chance to take the outright, all-time lead on Thursday inside The Nest.

While DeCuire looks to claim one record, he is on the cusp of losing another. Brandon Whitney is up to 428 career assists and now trails DeCuire for the Montana record by just seven.

Whitney, who has played the 2^nd most minutes of any player in the history of the Big Sky Conference, averages 2.8 per game this season, meaning he could snatch the record from his head coach over the next three games.

The focus for the Grizzlies won't be on records as they enter the home stretch, but rather on winning the next game in front of them. Montana has won nine straight games, the fourth-longest active streak in the NCAA, to put themselves in position for a title.

If they are able to win on Thursday, it would be the best start in league play since 2018 and be just the 12^th time in program history that they have won 10 games in a row.

Montana picked up a memorable win last Saturday, going to rival Montana State and leading wire-to-wire in an 89-85 victory. The Bobcats made several runs to cut into what often was a double-digit Grizzly lead, but Montana rebuffed all attempts at a comeback.

It kept Montana in the driver's seat in the conference as Northern Colorado swept through their weekend of games. The Bears have three losses, and will be playing just two games this week. They start on Saturday at Northern Arizona and then head to Ogden, Utah to play Weber State.

The tiebreaker, if necessary, will be performance against the next best teams in the league standings, starting with record against the third place team. But Montana has the opportunity to forget the tiebreakers and win it outright if they can keep the winning ways going.

They swept the home stand against Sacramento State and Portland State back on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1. They dominated the Hornets, winning by 28 points, and controlled the game against third-place Portland State, leading by as many as 18 in a 92-78 victory.

Montana will hope to recreate those results on the road, where both opponents have played much better this season. The Vikings are the only team in the Big Sky that is undefeated at home during league play this season, which includes an impressive win over Northern Colorado.

The Grizzlies then return home for "Dahlberg After Dark." They are hosting Eastern Washington in the regular season finale in a nationally televised game on ESPN 2. The game will tip off at 9:00 p.m. local time.

CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE
Montana is in the driver's seat in the Big Sky Conference entering the final weekend of play. The Grizzlies, at 13-2, are a half-game ahead of Northern Colorado in the standings. If they were to win the final three games, they would clinch the outright Big Sky title for the first time since 2019.

The Grizzlies can clinch at least a share of the title with two wins on the road this weekend. They need two wins in the final three game to reach 15-3, which would guarantee at least a share of the trophy. The tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed would be determined by the next highest finisher. There are still six teams that could place third in a packed Big Sky.

Montana is looking for its 13^th regular season title, which is the second-most in the Big Sky Conference behind only Weber State. It would be the 7^th regular season title since 2000, which would pass Weber State for the most during the quarter-century.

The Grizzlies have already locked up a top-two seed, guaranteeing that they will play on Sunday at the Big Sky Tournament.

DeCUIRE TIES DAHLBERG'S RECORD
Head coach Travis DeCuire won his 221^st career game at Montana on Saturday in Bozeman against the rival Bobcats. The win brings DeCuire level with George "Jiggs" Dahlberg for the program record.

In 11 seasons, DeCuire's teams have averaged over 20 wins per year, and reached the milestone again with Saturday's win. DeCuire will have a chance to break the record on Thursday at Sacramento State.

THE WINNING STREAK REACHES 9 GAMES

This is the longest winning streak for Montana since 2018-19 when they won 10 straight games. The program record is 14 straight wins, last done in 2013. The Grizzlies would need to win out in the regular season and then win the Big Sky Tournament to break the program record for consecutive wins.
It's tied for the 4^th longest active streak in the country entering Thursday's games.
Six of the wins have come at home with three on the road.
The Grizzlies are averaging 81.3 points per game during the streak and winning by an average margin of 9.9 points.
Montana has shot 56.0 percent from the floor and 46.5 percent from three point range during the streak.
The top six scorers for Montana all average over 10 points per game during the streak. Kai Johnson has led Montana during the stretch with 14.4 points on 58.8 percent shooting.
They average 15.0 assists per game, which is 4.8 more than their opponents.
Three players (Moore, Patterson, Williams) have attempted at least 20 three pointers during the stretch and all three are shooting better than 42 percent from the arc.
Malik Moore leads Montana in minutes during the winning streak, playing 30.5 per game. He is also shooting 23-of-43 (.535) from three during the nine games.
Montana have scored at least 80 points as a team in six of the nine games.
If Montana wins on Thursday, it will be the 12^th time in program history that the Grizzlies have won at least 10 games in a row.

20 WIN SEASONS
Montana reached 20 wins on the season with a rivalry win on the road against Montana State on Feb. 22. It's the sixth time under DeCuire that the Grizzlies have won at least 20 games in a season, and the second straight time they've done it.

It's the 10^th time since 2010 that they've reached the total, and the 26^th time in program history that Montana has won 20 games.

JOHNSON'S BRAWL DOMINANCE
In his first season as a Grizzly, Kai Johnson fully embraced the rivalry with two dominant performances against Montana State in a pair of Grizzly wins. Johnson returned to the starting lineup for the first time in Big Sky play in the first meeting, and has stuck ever since.

Johnson averaged 24.0 points per game in the Brawl this year, shooting 63.3 percent from the floor and 40.0 percent from three point range. He also went 8-of-11 (.727) from the free throw line.

The transfer guard embraced the energy of the rivalry game and stepped up to the big moment, grabbing eight rebounds and five steals across the two games.

SWEEPING THE BRAWL
Montana swept the regular season against Montana State for the second straight year and seventh time in 10 attempts under Coach DeCuire. Montana is 16-5 against Montana State since DeCuire took over in 2014.

The teams didn't play each other in the 2021 season, but in seven of the other 10 years that DeCuire has been in charge Montana has won in both Missoula and Bozeman.

WHITNEY WATCH
Graduate guard Brandon Whitney is currently 3rd in program history in career assists and 10th in scoring. Whitney has 428 career assists. He passed Scott Zanon for 3rd in the win over Sacramento State (2/1).

He now trails Shane Christensen by 3 for second, and needs 7 more to tie Coach DeCuire for the program's all-time record.

Whitney has 1,533 points in his career. He passed Wayne Tinkle for 10th on Feb. 13 against Idaho State.

Whitney has also played more minutes than any other player in program history, and needs to play in 5 more games to tie Josh Vazquez for the most appearances in program history. The Grizzlies have four regular season games left.

Whitney's 150th career game came at Montana State this year, and he also moved into second in Big Sky history with over 4,500 minutes played. He is also currently tied as the NCAA leader for most career starts at the same school with 144 starts in a Grizzly uniform.

SUCCCESS WITH THE NEW STARTERS
Since Montana made a change to its starting lineup on Jan. 25 vs. Montana State, the Grizzlies have been undefeated. Kai Johnson and Money Williams have both excelled in their new roles as the Grizzlies have rolled to eight straight wins.

Johnson has averaged 16.0 points per game on 59.5 percent shooting and 41.2 percent from the arc. He has also averaged 3.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.6 steals per game since re-entering the starting lineup.

Money Williams has made a strong case for the Top Reserve award in the Big Sky Conference since moving to the sixth-man role. Williams averages 11.6 points per game and has shot 14-of-30 (.467) from three-point range off the bench. He also leads Montana in rebounding in the last eight games with 5.3 per game.

Montana is outscoring opponents by over 10 points per game since making the move, scoring 82.5 and holding opponents to 72.0 per game. The Grizzlies also make more threes, have more rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and have recorded fewer turnovers than their opponent since changing the first five.

COLLEGEINSIDER.COM MID-MAJOR TOP 25
For the first time since 2019, Montana has entered the Mid-Major Top 25 poll. In the latest version released on Monday, Feb. 24, Montana entered the rankings at 23^rd. It's the first time Montana has been in the poll since being ranked 19^th in the final poll of the 2018-19 season.

MONTANA NOTES

The Grizzlies have won 44 games over the previous two seasons, tied for the 34^th most in the NCAA in the last two years.
When leading at halftime, Montana is 16-1 this season. The only loss came at Idaho State in Pocatello on Jan. 18.
Money Williams leads Montana in scoring on the road this season, averaging 15.2 points per game. His shooting splits are 41.0/40.3/79.6 on the road.
The same player hasn't led Montana in scoring in consecutive games since games on Jan. 16-18 when Malik Moore led them in both games of the Weber State-Idaho State road trip.
No Grizzly has grabbed 10 rebounds in a game since Joe Pridgen on Jan. 20 against Idaho. They have gone eight straight games without a double-digit rebounding performance.
The Griz picked up Big Sky win No. 13 last Saturday, their most in a season since 2019-20. They went 14-6 that season to finish 3^rd in the league. They have won 15 or more league games twice under DeCuire, going 16-2 in 2017-18 and 16-4 in 2018-19 to win regular season titles.
Montana is 12-2 in games decided by single digits. They are 6-1 when the final margin is 1-4 points and 6-1 when the final margin is between 5-9 points.
The three-point line has been key to Montana's success this season. They are 16-1 when shooting a better percentage from the arc than their opponent, and have a 12-2 record when they make more threes than their opponent.
The Grizzlies have shot better than their opponent from the field in 20 of the 28 games this season. Montana is 17-3 when shooting a better percentage.
- UM is 14-3 when shooting at least 50 percent from the field. They are 16-2 when holding opponents under 50 percent shooting.
The Grizzlies are 9-0 this year when committing fewer than 10 turnovers in a game. They have been under 10 turnovers in five of the last seven games.

SCOUTING SACRAMENTO STATE (7-21, 3-12 BIG SKY)

The Hornets have lost eight of their last nine games, but picked up a road win last weekend at Weber State. They followed that up with a 17-point loss at Idaho State to close out the weekend.
Sacramento State ranks 340th in the latest NCAA Net Rankings. They have been 5-9 at home this season, although they have lost the last three contests inside The Nest.
The Hornets average 67.1 points per game, which ranks 326^th nationally. They have a solid defense, ranking 130^th by allowing just 70.3 points per game.
They are inside the top 100 nationally in three pointers, making 8.5 per game on 33.8 percentn shooting.
Interim head coach Michael Czepil is in his first season at Sacramento State.
Jacob Holt ranks 6^th in the Big Sky in scoring at 16.2 points per game. He is also 4th in rebounding at 7.0 per game.
Holt has six double-doubles this season, which ranks 3^rd in the Big Sky and 97^th nationally.
Montana is 51-12 all-time against Sacramento State, including a 21-9 record in Sacramento. The Grizzlies have won seven of the previous 10 games against the Hornets.

SCOUTING PORTLAND STATE (16-12, 8-7 BIG SKY)

The Vikings lost both games on the road trip to Idaho State and Weber State last week. They fell 82-74 at Idaho State, then 60-58 at Weber State.
Prior to that trip, the Vikings swept a home stand against Northern Arizona and Northern Colorado, winning both games by double figures. They dominated then-first place Northern Colorado, leading wire-to-wire.
Portland State have been nearly impossible to beat at home this season. They are undefeated in league play inside Viking Pavilion, going 6-0, and are 10-1 overall this year at home. The only loss was a one-point game against Denver back on Dec. 7.
The Vikings are third in the league standings entering the final stretch. They rank inside the top 100 nationally in scoring margin at +6.4, and are inside the top 125 both offensively and defensively.
Head coach Jase Coburn is in his fourth season at Portland State and has a 59-63 career record.
Qiant Myers ranks 17^th in the country and leads the Big Sky with 6.1 assists per game. Myers had 28 points and four assists against Montana in the first meeting.
Jaylin Henderson is the Vikings' leading scorer at 13.7 points per game. Similar to Montana, they are very balanced with four players averaging more than 10.5 points per game.
Tre-Vaughn Minott ranks 2^nd in the Big Sky and 34^th nationally with 1.81 blocks per game.
The Vikings will play Montana State on Thursday night.
Montana is 46-28 all-time against Portland State, but are just 17-19 in games played in Portland. In the last meeting in Portland, the Vikings stormed past Montana to a 72-46 win.

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Players Mentioned

Kai Johnson

Malik Moore

Joe Pridgen

Josh Vazquez

Brandon Whitney

Money Williams

University of Montana Athletics