Money's 31-point half lifts Griz to win in title game rematch

Saturday, January 3

Missoula, Mont.

4:00 PM

Montana

8-7,2-0Big Sky

Northern Colorado

10-5,0-2Big Sky

Northern Colo.

Montana

Photo by: Tommy Martino/University of Montana

Money's 31-point half lifts Griz to win in title game rematch

1/3/2026 8:58:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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By: Montana Sports Information

The matchup promised to be a good one. Montana and Northern Colorado split the regular season series last year. Both teams went 15-3 to share the Big Sky title. They met again in the Big Sky Championship game, playing a thrilling game that Montana won 91-83.

The Bears have been just as good this season with a blistering offense leading them to a 10-3 non-conference record. For Montana, there have been some growing pains as they adjust to a new lineup and rotation after losing nine players from last year's team.

If this weekend is any indication, head coach Travis DeCuire and his staff have found the answers they were looking for in the non-conference. Montana (8-7, 2-0 Big Sky) scored 27 seconds into the game and led the rest of the way in an 88-79 win over the Bears.

"We had a rough couple practices when we got back from Christmas, but good practices," DeCuire said. "We worked hard to try to clean some stuff up. I think the guys felt the sense of urgency going into the new year and this is the best defense we've played all year."

The defense was outstanding, holding a Northern Colorado team (10-5, 0-2 Big Sky) that came in to the game shooting better than 50 percent from the floor on the season to just 26-of-71 (.366) shooting on Saturday. But the story of the night was the play of Money Williams.

The junior guard entered the locker room at halftime with zero points. When the final buzzer sounded, Williams had a final stat line of 31 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. His 31-point second half is the highest scoring half for Montana since Anthony Johnson put up 34 in the second half of the championship game win over Weber State in 2010.

shake n bake 🤝@mxney___ | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/dqtzIIPahY
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) January 4, 2026

The star guard didn't know his point total until late in the game. He went 17-of-17 from the free throw line in the second half and 7-of-10 from the floor in his unbelievable performance.

"I usually black out," Williams said of his offensive mindset. "I usually don't know until somebody tells me or I look up and see the board. I saw that I had 25 with like four minutes left and knew I could get 30."

He iced the game away down the stretch with his free throw shooting ability, coming just three free throws shy of a Montana program record. It's the most free throws without a miss by a Grizzly since at least 2000, and the 2^nd most in the NCAA this season.

The matchup on Saturday was not only a showdown between the two teams that played for a ticket to March Madness last year, but it was also a matchup of two of the best players in the country. Williams and UNC's Quinn Denker were the only players in the country coming into the game averaging at least 17.5 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.0 rebounds.

The top two players in the Big Sky MVP race faced off, which provided some extra motivation for Williams. Despite that, the star guard said that it was the play of his teammates that motivated him to the big second half.

"It was extra motivation, but seeing my other guys get buckets made me want to do it with them," Williams said. "Shoutout to Grant for stepping up, shoutout to (Tyler Isaak) for knocking two big threes down. Te'Jon rebounding, Tyler Thompson being aggressive on the boards, and guys just being ready when their name is called."

The game started with a big run from Montana thanks to the shooting of Tyler Isaak. The guard had missed seven straight threes over the previous three games, but he knocked down right away to give Montana 6-0 lead. Te'Jon Sawyer helped grow that lead to 13-6 with seven straight Grizzly points of his own.

Montana built the lead up to double digits within nine minutes of the opening tip after a three pointer from Tyler Thompson and a pair of free throws from Grant Kepley. The Griz held an 18-8 lead at that point, holding the potent UNC offense in check.

"I think we set the tone early that we weren't going to let them get the ball in the paint, post up, and score," DeCuire said. "Then we wanted to minimize open threes for their key shooters. The first five or six possessions weren't the shots they were looking for and then Tyler Isaak got it going early to build us a lead until we settled down offensively."

Montana used a 10-0 run to open up a 28-11 lead with just under seven minutes to play. In the first half of the biggest game they had played all season, the Grizzlies had already opened up their largest lead against a D-I opponent all year.

The Bears would get hot down the stretch and cut the lead to 34-25 going into the halftime break. Montana has been a second half team all season, and that trend continued on Saturday.

The Grizzlies scored 34 points in the first half. They increased on that total by 20 in the second half, using a high powered offense to pull away from the Bears. It was the play of Williams that pushed the Grizzlies across the finish line.

He scored his first points of the day 30 seconds into the second half, knocking down two free throws. After Northern Colorado go within four points, Montana went on an 8-0 run to jump back ahead 44-32.

The Bears would claw back into it again and cut the lead to four with 8:40 left on the clock. Once again, Montana had the answer. This time, it was all Williams. He went on a personal 7-0 run to give the Grizzlies a 63-52 lead. The run came during a stretch where Williams had 12 straight Grizzly points.

"Once he figured out what they were doing, he took advantage of it. Once they went to the switch, I figured we would keep the ball in his hands or Grant's. We would play the last 10 minutes playing 1-on-1. When Money gets in rhythm, he is hard to turn off. He caught rhythm early in the second half and we rode it."

Montana led by double figures for most of the home stretch and had a 14 points lead with under a minute to play. The Bears were able to get some late shots to fall to cut the final deficit to nine points.

After a difficult non-conference season, Montana answered the call in the first week of conference play with a perfect weekend at home.

"We talked about winner's energy. It was on the board Thursday and again today," DeCuire said. "I think the way the guys were hyped up before the game, the energy on the bench, the celebrating of other people's positive plays. When you are committed to the success of others, you are going to have success."

Montana had five players score in double figures for the second straight game. Te'Jon Sawyer had 15 points and 7 rebounds, shooting 75 percent from the floor. Grant Kepley scored 14 points off the bench in another big performance.

gotta find ball 3⃣👇 pic.twitter.com/W9NSvsVK9T
— Montana Griz Basketball (@MontanaGrizBB) January 3, 2026

Tyler Thompson had 11 points and a career high 9 rebounds, narrowly missing out on his first career double-double. Isaak also reached double figures with 11 points.

In the second half, only the five double figure scorers plus Kenyon Aguino received minutes as DeCuire found a rotation that worked and stuck with it.

"There's enough talent that you can dig as deep as you need to in order to find guys that can help you win a game on any given night," DeCuire said. "For us, in these types of situations you kind of go off the feel. Tyler Isaak was playing really well. Grant has been an incredible boost for us, so the minutes that he got took from some other guys that had been playing.

"But that's not permanent. Guys like Brooklyn Hicks have impacted winning to this point and will continue to do that," DeCuire continued. "That's why it's great to have a selfless basketball team. Guys are willing to give up minutes and shots to help us get a win. I felt we had a group that was executing offensively and defensively and rolled with it and they led us to a win."

Williams has now scored 30 points in four games this season. It's the most in a single season since the turn of the century. It's the 6^th 30-point game of his career, passing Anthony Johnson for the most this century.

The Grizzlies start Big Sky play 2-0 for the second straight season and the 7^th time in 12 years under Coach DeCuire. More importantly, they protect the home floor as they now get set to play in four straight road games.

"If you want to be in the game towards the end of this thing in the last couple of weeks, you have to win games at home and you have to get wins against teams that are supposed to finish in the top half. We did that," DeCuire said. "You hope that the conference kind of helps you and they take care of each other."

Montana will have another big-time matchup coming on Thursday when they head to Moscow to face Idaho. The Vandals won their only game of the week on Saturday night over Eastern Washington to improve to 9-5 on the year. They return several key contributors from last year's semifinal team and were picked 4^th in the preseason polls.