Cats beat Griz 82-71

Saturday, February 14

Missoula, Mont.

7:00 PM

Montana

Montana State

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke / University of Montana

2/14/2026 10:35:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's basketball team fell 82-71 to Montana State on Saturday night in Dahlberg Arena. The Grizzlies were led by the duo of Money Williams and Te'Jon Sawyer, which combined for 47 points.

Montana got off to a scorching start, making 7-of-10 three pointers in the first 10 minutes of the game to build a big early lead. The well ran dry as Montana finished the game with just one make from beyond the arc in their next 15 attempts as Montana State came back to take a one-point halftime lead and pull away in the final period.

The Bobcats shot over 50 percent from the field and went 10-of-22 (.455) from beyond the arc in the win.

"We just weren't good enough defensively," head coach Travis DeCuire said. "We built a lead off of stops. We had momentum and got in transition, and then from that point on they just shot the lights out. The reality is that you look at it and just too many role players had big games, season highs from two or three guys. We required too much help and they made us pay."

Montana used a 16-3 run early to take its largest lead of the game at. 19-10. They would lead again by 9 later in the first half, but Montana State closed 23-13 run to take the halftime lead at 38-37.

The Cats then opened the second half on a 7-0 run to take control of the game. Montana pulled within four points with 10 minutes to go after a quick 5-0 run and the only made 3-pointer of the second half, but MSU answered with six straight points in a 27-second span to go up by double figures.

Williams started to take control of the offensive reins for Montana, scoring 15 straight Grizzly points over a five-minute stretch. But the Montana State offense matched him and kept the Griz at an arm's length for most of the half.

"We weren't getting off the screens well enough," DeCuire said. "The guards were so far behind that guys were helping too long and guys were rolling behind for uncontested layups. If the backside guys rotated, they were shooting threes, and we never really recovered."

Montana cleaned up its turnovers from the season average, but Montana State made them pay for nearly every one while only committing five for the whole game themselves. The Bobcats outscored Montana 16-6 in points off turnovers.

They also held a narrow advantage in the paint. Sawyer scored 22 points, but the big man did a lot of his damage from three-point range with four made threes, the second most in a game for him in his career.

The Grizzlies settled for 26 threes on the night, nearly half of their total field goal attempts.

"Not enough paint. I thought this was a game we could have scored 40+ points in the paint if we kept attacking," DeCuire said. "We found some mismatches, but we settled for threes when we should have been attacking the paint. 26 threes and we only made eight, that's just too many when we could have attacked the paint."

Kenyon Aguino was in double figures with 10 points. Brooklyn Hicks led Montana with eight rebounds and also had the only bench points of the day for the Grizzlies with his first half three. Grant Kepley had a game-high seven assists.

Montana falls to 14-12 overall and 8-5 in league play with the loss. It drops them to sole possession of 3^rd place in the league standings with five games to go.

The Grizzlies will be back in action next week at Idaho State and Weber State. The Bengals are in last place and have lost nine straight games. The Wildcats are just a game behind Montana in the league standings at 7-6.

"We just have to keep trying to grow up. At some point in time we need freshmen to play like sophomores, sophomores to play like juniors, and juniors to play like seniors," DeCuire said. "We're not quite there yet, so we need to just keep grinding in practice and at some point in time we will find a way to be more consistent on both sides of the ball."