Sunday, March 9
Boise, Idaho
8:00 PM
Montana
23-9,15-3Big Sky
74
vs
65
No. 7 Northern Arizona
18-15,8-10Big Sky
1
2
F
Northern Ariz.
31
34
65
Montana
30
44
74
Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Montana
Whitney leads Montana into Big Sky semis
3/10/2025 12:18:00 AM | Men's Basketball
When Brandon Whitney decided to return to Montana for his fifth season, it was for moments like Sunday night in Boise. The veteran guard scored a season high 24 points on 8-of-9 shooting to lead Montana past Northern Arizona 74-65 and into the semifinals.
Whitney scored 20 of his points in the second half, coming alive after the break to help the Griz overcome what was at one point a seven-point deficit.
Montana (23-9) used a 12-0 run over a six-minute stretch in the second half to take back the lead and hold it through the final buzzer. Whitney started and ended the second half surge, but it was Money Williams that flipped the game back in Montana's favor.
Williams scored six straight points on his own during the run to give Montana the lead. The sophomore, playing in his first conference tournament game, had 16 points, four rebounds, and three assists. He combined with Whitney to score 30 of Montana's 44 second-half points.
It's the sixth time that Whitney has led the team in scoring this season, and just the second time in the last 10 games as Montana's balance has been the key to its 23 wins this year.
"You never know and that's the thing I love about this team," DeCuire said. "Everybody is trying to stay ready and guys understand that when someone else is having a better night you cheer them on and help them be successful. Brandon Whitney stepping up for us offensively and then Money Williams had that hot streak that got us the lead. Team effort."
The duo led Montana's offense, but it was the Grizzly defense that led the way to victory. For the third time in the last four games, Montana held its opponent under 40 percent shooting. The Lumberjacks shot 38.7 percent from the floor and just 28.0 percent from three-point range.
The nation's third-leading scorer Trent McLaughlin finished with 34 points on the night, but the rest of the Northern Arizona roster was held under 10. Outside of McLaughlin, they shot just 3-of-16 (.188) from three-point range.
"Defense wins. If you can defend and hold your opponent under 40 percent you will be fine. We took away the threes from the other guys, the role players," DeCuire said. "McLaughlin is going to get up shots with the way that they play, the green light he has. We wanted to make it hard on him, but more importantly if the other three perimeter players don't make a lot of threes that they were going to have a hard time generating enough offense."
The Lumberjacks opened the scoring in the game but Montana quickly went on a 6-0 run. The Griz balance was on display from the very start as they had five different players combine for the first 11 points of the game.
McLaughlin didn't get a shot attempt off for the first five minutes of the game, but once he got going the Lumberjacks were able to go on a run. They scored 10 straight to move ahead 18-13 as the Grizzlies had a four-minute scoring drought.
The Grizzly offense was struggling to generate shots as they had four turnovers during the drought and just two field goal attempts.
The big men were able to help Montana get back into the game as both Joe Pridgen and Te'Jon Sawyer scored seven points in the first half. Sawyer gave Montana its first lead in nearly 10 minutes with a three-point play late in the half.
McLaughlin scored on the final possession of the first to give NAU a 31-30 advantage at the break.
Whitney went into the break with just three points, but quickly reached double figures by scoring the first eight points of the second half for Montana. He had a personal 8-0 run to give UM a 38-35 lead.
The teams traded runs as McLaughlin was able to put Northern Arizona back in front 45-42 going into the 12-minute media timeout. From there, a Sawyer layup cut the lead to one and Williams followed it up with six straight points to give Montana the lead.
After starting the game cold from beyond the arc, Montana switched up the game plan and used Williams and Whitney to attack the rim. Montana attempted only one three in the final 14 minutes of the game, and it was a big one.
Northern Arizona had cut the lead back down to five points before Austin Patterson scored his first points of the game on a swished three-ball. Patterson then had a steal on the other end that led to a lay-up. The personal 5-0 run from Patterson forced a Northern Arizona timeout with just over three minutes remaining.
They were his only five points of the game, but Patterson was huge in his 22 minutes of action.
"I think player of the game was Austin Patterson defensively making plays, creating loose balls for us to get into transition," DeCuire said.
The lead changed hands seven times in the game, and Montana trailed for over 12 minutes, but they maintained the lead for the final 11 minutes of the game. Whitney had another and-one finish with just under two minutes to play that gave Montana a 16-point lead at 70-54. A late Lumberjack run made the final score closer, but the Grizzlies completed the season sweep of NAU with a 74-65 win.
It was the fifth win for Montana this season when trailing at the half, and the second straight game where they overcame at least a seven-point deficit for a victory.
"They believe in one another. They have a ton of confidence," DeCuire said. "We've been down before and we've worked our way back and you could just hear them, 'Let's go, let's go, let's go.' They were motivating each other, and the most important thing was they wanted to defend."
Whitney and Williams were the only two Grizzlies in double figures, but there were plenty of strong performances from the rest of the roster. Joe Pridgen had nine points on 80 percent shooting to go with five rebounds. Te'Jon Sawyer had nine points and matched his season high with eight rebounds.
The duo were crucial in Montana winning the rebounding battle 37-31. Carson Towt, the nation's leading rebounder, had 13 of them but the rest of the NAU roster combined for just 18.
Montana shot just 10 three pointers, tied for the fewest in a game this season, instead opting to attack the rim in the second half. It led to a 54.5 field goal percentage, the 20th time this season that the Griz have shot better than 50 percent from the floor.
"They were switching so it made it hard for us to get some of the things off ball that we wanted, but we knew that because of it there would be a lot of mismatches," DeCuire said. "We took advantage of them, got in the paint, and made good decisions."
Malik Moore had an off shooting night, but was still a +15 in the box score in his 33 minutes of action.
The Big Sky bracket is set up to provide the top two seeds with an extra day of rest, so Montana will have Monday off before returning to the floor in Idaho Central Arena on Tuesday night for a semifinal matchup.
They will play the winner of No. 3 Portland State and No. 6 Idaho. The Grizzlies went 1-1 against the Vikings, losing an OT heartbreaker in the final road game of the season. They swept the season series against the Vandals with the last matchup coming on Jan. 20. Since that time, Montana is 12-1.
This is the 8th time in 10 tournament appearances under DeCuire that Montana has reached the semifinals of the Big Sky Tournament.
"This is the one thing I like about the format is that if you're one of the top two seeds you get a night off," DeCuire said. "We're not going to be up until 2:00 in the morning watching film and we've pretty much done the work on those two opponents, so now we get the chance to watch them in person, be fresh, and have our legs back."
Whitney scored 20 of his points in the second half, coming alive after the break to help the Griz overcome what was at one point a seven-point deficit.
Montana (23-9) used a 12-0 run over a six-minute stretch in the second half to take back the lead and hold it through the final buzzer. Whitney started and ended the second half surge, but it was Money Williams that flipped the game back in Montana's favor.
Williams scored six straight points on his own during the run to give Montana the lead. The sophomore, playing in his first conference tournament game, had 16 points, four rebounds, and three assists. He combined with Whitney to score 30 of Montana's 44 second-half points.
It's the sixth time that Whitney has led the team in scoring this season, and just the second time in the last 10 games as Montana's balance has been the key to its 23 wins this year.
"You never know and that's the thing I love about this team," DeCuire said. "Everybody is trying to stay ready and guys understand that when someone else is having a better night you cheer them on and help them be successful. Brandon Whitney stepping up for us offensively and then Money Williams had that hot streak that got us the lead. Team effort."
moving on 👏@bwhit_12 | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/nJggDdXuLx
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) March 10, 2025
The duo led Montana's offense, but it was the Grizzly defense that led the way to victory. For the third time in the last four games, Montana held its opponent under 40 percent shooting. The Lumberjacks shot 38.7 percent from the floor and just 28.0 percent from three-point range.
The nation's third-leading scorer Trent McLaughlin finished with 34 points on the night, but the rest of the Northern Arizona roster was held under 10. Outside of McLaughlin, they shot just 3-of-16 (.188) from three-point range.
"Defense wins. If you can defend and hold your opponent under 40 percent you will be fine. We took away the threes from the other guys, the role players," DeCuire said. "McLaughlin is going to get up shots with the way that they play, the green light he has. We wanted to make it hard on him, but more importantly if the other three perimeter players don't make a lot of threes that they were going to have a hard time generating enough offense."
The Lumberjacks opened the scoring in the game but Montana quickly went on a 6-0 run. The Griz balance was on display from the very start as they had five different players combine for the first 11 points of the game.
McLaughlin didn't get a shot attempt off for the first five minutes of the game, but once he got going the Lumberjacks were able to go on a run. They scored 10 straight to move ahead 18-13 as the Grizzlies had a four-minute scoring drought.
The Grizzly offense was struggling to generate shots as they had four turnovers during the drought and just two field goal attempts.
The big men were able to help Montana get back into the game as both Joe Pridgen and Te'Jon Sawyer scored seven points in the first half. Sawyer gave Montana its first lead in nearly 10 minutes with a three-point play late in the half.
McLaughlin scored on the final possession of the first to give NAU a 31-30 advantage at the break.
Money is getting rolling 💰
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) March 10, 2025
It's an 8-0 Griz run 🔥@mxney___ pic.twitter.com/OR3mHJyW4B
Whitney went into the break with just three points, but quickly reached double figures by scoring the first eight points of the second half for Montana. He had a personal 8-0 run to give UM a 38-35 lead.
The teams traded runs as McLaughlin was able to put Northern Arizona back in front 45-42 going into the 12-minute media timeout. From there, a Sawyer layup cut the lead to one and Williams followed it up with six straight points to give Montana the lead.
After starting the game cold from beyond the arc, Montana switched up the game plan and used Williams and Whitney to attack the rim. Montana attempted only one three in the final 14 minutes of the game, and it was a big one.
Northern Arizona had cut the lead back down to five points before Austin Patterson scored his first points of the game on a swished three-ball. Patterson then had a steal on the other end that led to a lay-up. The personal 5-0 run from Patterson forced a Northern Arizona timeout with just over three minutes remaining.
The shot that got it started!@ajpatt3 | #GrizHoops | #GoGriz https://t.co/TVdnPvfCDh pic.twitter.com/uHIUNe0D6N
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) March 10, 2025
They were his only five points of the game, but Patterson was huge in his 22 minutes of action.
"I think player of the game was Austin Patterson defensively making plays, creating loose balls for us to get into transition," DeCuire said.
The lead changed hands seven times in the game, and Montana trailed for over 12 minutes, but they maintained the lead for the final 11 minutes of the game. Whitney had another and-one finish with just under two minutes to play that gave Montana a 16-point lead at 70-54. A late Lumberjack run made the final score closer, but the Grizzlies completed the season sweep of NAU with a 74-65 win.
The CEO of Grizzly basketball with a new season high of 21 in the biggest game of the year ‼️@bwhit_12 | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/nT0bFTGQLA
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) March 10, 2025
It was the fifth win for Montana this season when trailing at the half, and the second straight game where they overcame at least a seven-point deficit for a victory.
"They believe in one another. They have a ton of confidence," DeCuire said. "We've been down before and we've worked our way back and you could just hear them, 'Let's go, let's go, let's go.' They were motivating each other, and the most important thing was they wanted to defend."
Whitney and Williams were the only two Grizzlies in double figures, but there were plenty of strong performances from the rest of the roster. Joe Pridgen had nine points on 80 percent shooting to go with five rebounds. Te'Jon Sawyer had nine points and matched his season high with eight rebounds.
The duo were crucial in Montana winning the rebounding battle 37-31. Carson Towt, the nation's leading rebounder, had 13 of them but the rest of the NAU roster combined for just 18.
Montana shot just 10 three pointers, tied for the fewest in a game this season, instead opting to attack the rim in the second half. It led to a 54.5 field goal percentage, the 20th time this season that the Griz have shot better than 50 percent from the floor.
"They were switching so it made it hard for us to get some of the things off ball that we wanted, but we knew that because of it there would be a lot of mismatches," DeCuire said. "We took advantage of them, got in the paint, and made good decisions."
Malik Moore had an off shooting night, but was still a +15 in the box score in his 33 minutes of action.
The Big Sky bracket is set up to provide the top two seeds with an extra day of rest, so Montana will have Monday off before returning to the floor in Idaho Central Arena on Tuesday night for a semifinal matchup.
They will play the winner of No. 3 Portland State and No. 6 Idaho. The Grizzlies went 1-1 against the Vikings, losing an OT heartbreaker in the final road game of the season. They swept the season series against the Vandals with the last matchup coming on Jan. 20. Since that time, Montana is 12-1.
This is the 8th time in 10 tournament appearances under DeCuire that Montana has reached the semifinals of the Big Sky Tournament.
"This is the one thing I like about the format is that if you're one of the top two seeds you get a night off," DeCuire said. "We're not going to be up until 2:00 in the morning watching film and we've pretty much done the work on those two opponents, so now we get the chance to watch them in person, be fresh, and have our legs back."
Team Stats
NAU
Mont
FG%
.387
.545
3FG%
.280
.300
FT%
.556
.676
RB
31
37
TO
10
14
STL
6
5
Game Leaders
Scoring
Pts
24
FGM
8
3FGM
1
FTM
7
Pts
16
FGM
5
3FGM
0
FTM
6
Pts
9
FGM
4
3FGM
0
FTM
1
Pts
9
FGM
3
3FGM
0
FTM
3
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballF
/ Men's BasketballG
/ Men's BasketballG
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