Griz torch Lumberjacks for 26-point win

Monday, January 19

Flagstaff, Ariz.

6:00 PM

Montana

10-9,4-2Big Sky

Northern Arizona

6-14,0-7Big Sky

Montana

Northern Ariz.

Photo by: Mallory Derrick, NAU Athletics

1/19/2026 8:47:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana returned to the win column in a big way on Monday night with a dominant 98-72 road victory over Northern Arizona. The Griz were red-hot in the first half and rode the big offensive performance to an easy win in Flagstaff.

The Grizzlies (10-9, 4-2 Big Sky) made their final eight shots of the opening period and took a 50-36 lead into the break and never looked back. It was one of the best offensive performances of the year with 20 assists and 13 made threes on 59.1 percent shooting.

Montana shot 67.9 percent from the field as a team, the best percentage against a Division-I opponent this century. They went 17-of-23 from the floor in the second half, shooting 73.9 percent after the break to run away from the Lumberjacks.

Te'Jon Sawyer dominated early and set a new career high with 27 points on an impressive shooting night. The big man went 11-of-13 shooting and added six rebounds to lead the Grizzlies.

"Give him the ball, he will score. He shoots the ball at a very high percentage," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "The posts just haven't been getting enough touches. I think Kenyon had four assists in the first half and hadn't taken a shot. It all comes together. The ball has to go inside, you have to play power ball, and you have to balance it out."

Money Williams delivered one of his most efficient performances of the season with 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He also added 6 assists and 4 rebounds while turning the ball over just a single time. Williams needs just four more points for 1,000 in his career.

It's the first time that a pair of Grizzlies have reached the 25-point mark in the same game since Martin Breunig and Walter Wright did it in 2016 against Eastern Washington.

"When (Williams) spreads the ball around, we're a better basketball team," DeCuire said. "He's going to make shots, he's going to get hot and find a rhythm. But when his intent is to spray the ball around, the other guys settle in and get great shots and we produce more offense."

The seven turnovers from Montana are a new season low. The Grizzlies have struggled giving the ball away all season, ranking 344^th in turnover margin this year out of 361 possible teams.

They cleaned things up in a big way on Monday night in Flagstaff.

"A lot of our turnovers are from not necessarily having the right intent," DeCuire said. "I think when you are doing the right things offensively you are going to turn it over less. Our intent was in the right place."

The duo of Williams and Sawyer started Montana strong out of the gates. Williams had a couple of early threes and Sawyer had seven points and four rebounds in the first eight minutes.

One of Sawyer's baskets was an emphatic one-handed slam on a drive down the lane. The hot start from the two Griz veterans helped Montana out to a 13-12 early lead at the under 12-minute media timeout.

Sawyer continued to dominate with a perfect start that lasted nearly 15 minutes. Sawyer connected on his first seven field goal attempts and had 16 points in his first 12 minutes of action.

He did a bit of everything, getting to the free throw line and knocking down a three while also controlling the paint.

The Grizzlies took a 17-16 lead on a layup from Sawyer. The big man got things started for Montana, but his teammates got hot down the stretch.

SEND IT DOWN WITH AUTHORITY 🗣️@tejxn__ gets us started off strong 💪 pic.twitter.com/jK1yBk01BO
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) January 20, 2026

Montana made four straight shots, three of them from Sawyer, to extend the lead to 27-24. They closed the half on an unbelievable shooting stretch, connecting on the final eight field goal attempts of the half.

They made five straight three pointers during that run, started off by Grant Kepley, who started his first game as a Grizzly on Monday. Tyler Thompson followed it up with two shots from the arc and Brooklyn Hicks added back-to-back treys of his own to extend the Grizzly lead to 48-33.

Northern Arizona connected on a buzzer-beating three to cut the halftime deficit to 50-36. The Grizzlies shot 63.3 percent from the field and 60 percent from three-point range in the first half, making nine shots from the arc.

The ball control was much improved from Montana with 13 assists in the opening 20 minutes and just three turnovers.

Montana left no doubt in the second half, scoring the first nine points and holding Northern Arizona scoreless for three minutes out of the break to go ahead 59-36. The hosts wouldn't pull within 15 points of Montana the rest of the way behind another scorching performance on the offensive end.

The Grizzlies made their first four shots of the second half, extending the consecutive makes streak to 12 field goals. They didn't miss a shot eight minutes of game time.

It wasn't the last impressive shooting streak of the night for Montana. Williams made a layup with 8:15 to play in the game to put Montana up 79-60. The Grizzlies didn't miss the rest of the way.

Montana made its final 10 field goal attempts of the game to finish off the historic shooting performance.

DeCuire made a change to the starting lineup for just the second time this season, inserting Kepley into the opening lineup. The sophomore guard had five points, four rebounds, and four assists while being the primary ball handler.

"Grant naturally pushes the ball, distributes the ball well, and allows others to run free," DeCuire said. "Money was way more effective running free. It puts pressure on people if they want to deny the ball to Money then you have another guard that can penetrate and draw help in other places."

Tyler Thompson reached double figures with 11 points, going 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. Tyler Isaak came off the bench for the first time this season and had a great game in that role, scoring 10 points on 80 percent shooting.

The Grizzlies outrebounded the Lumberjacks 30-18 and outscored them 42-32 in the paint.

It's a fantastic response for the Grizzlies following consecutive road losses on the previous two Saturdays.

"We had a good 24 hours together. The trip up, the time in the hotel, a great film session last night and some individual film sessions," DeCuire said. "I think we have their attention but we will know more as we move from game-to-game, but their hearts and their brains are in the right place so I felt that they would be ready to go and compete today."

Montana hasn't played at home since a win over Northern Colorado on January 3. They have played four straight road games, going 2-2 away from Dahlberg Arena to start 4-2 in Big Sky Conference play.

It may not be the exact start that DeCuire and his staff wanted, but it matches where they were at last season through six games. If you would have told DeCuire that is team would be 4-2 coming back to Missoula next weekend at the start of the conference season?

"I would have (taken that)," DeCuire said. "You don't know where the wins or losses come from but given the fact that we were going to be on the road the majority of the time and that we were opening up with probably three of the top five teams, if you come out of that at 4-2 you're probably in a pretty good spot."

Montana will host Weber State on Thursday, Jan. 22 and then host the annual N7 game against Idaho State on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.