Tyler Hall continued to shine but the freshman’s stellar Big Sky Conference debut wasn’t enough for Montana State in Cedar City, Utah.
Hall, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Rock Island, Illinois, scored more points than any Bobcat true freshman before him but Southern Utah used an 18-2 run to close the first and open the second half to pull away for a 93-82 win to open Big Sky play for both teams. Hall hit 12-of-25 from the floor, 5-of-13 from beyond the 3-point arc and 7-of-8 from the free throw line during the 14th-best scoring performance in Montana State history.
“He’s a really good player,” MSU head coach Brian Fish said in a MSU press release, “but Tyler will be the first one to say he’s more upset about losing the game. He could care less if he only scored two points and we won, and I know he’ll be really upset that we lost even with him scoring a lot of points.”
The Cats led for much of the first half, including a 32-25 margin when Stephan Holm hit a three-pointer with 8:31 before the intermission. But the Thunderbirds closed the half on a 26-15 run to take a 51-47 lead into the locker room. SUU scored the final seven points of the first half then opened the second half on an 11-2 run to seize control.
“I’ve got the two seniors (Marcus Colbert, Danny Robison) sitting next to me with foul trouble” when Southern Utah’s run began, Fish said. “That got us out of rotation, and we needed some guys to step up. In the second half they had us in a pickle on the foul situation and they were driving and attacking us. At the end of the day we didn’t just lock in on what we wanted to get done (defensively).”
Southern Utah put five scorers in double figures, led by guard James McGee’s 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting, including 6-of-8 from beyond the arc. SUU shot 54.1 percent from the floor, including 63 percent in the first half. The Thunderbirds drilled 12-of-26 from beyond the 3-point arc. Trey Kennedy and Casey Oliverson scored 18 points each while Travon Langston scored 13 and Race Parsons chipped in 11. The Thunderbirds notched 21 assists on 33 made field goals and committed just eight turnovers.
Sophomore Zach Green converted 6-of-9 shots for 15 points and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds to notch his first career double-double. Despite battling first-half foul trouble, Colbert notched 15 points and eight assists, meaning Colbet, Green and Hall combined to score 66 of MSU’s 82 points. Junior Sarp Gobeloglu was the only non-starter for the Bobcats to play more than seven minutes; he played 15 before fouling out with more than 10 minutes left to play. Junior reserve Quinton Everett did not make the trip due to illness.
Montana State falls to 5-8 overall and 0-1 in Big Sky play, while Southern Utah is now 3-8 on the season, 1-0 in the league. The Cats play at Northern Arizona Saturday at noon, while SUU hosts Montana on Saturday.
Montana 90, Northern Arizona 84, 2 OT — In Flagstaff, the Grizzlies drilled a school-record 18 3-pointers en rout to a comeback double overtime win against the injury plagued Lumberjacks.
The win gives Montana its first road victory of the season and gives UM a 1-0 start to Big Sky Conference play.
“There were a couple moments of adversity that we could have just folded up the tent and said, ‘ah it’s a road loss’”, Montana head coach Travis DeCuire said in a UM press release. “We made plays when we needed to make plays just to keep ourselves in it. We gave up a big three when we thought we had the game won and we easily could have packed it up.
“I’ve been a part of teams that came out in overtime and didn’t show up, and that wasn’t this team.”
Griz junior Brandon Gfeller nailed 8-of-14 3-pointers to lead the barrage. He hit six straight shots from beyond the arc to turn a five-point deficit into an eight point lead with six minutes to play in regulation. Michael Oguine drilled four triples, Walter Wright hit three and Jack Lopez hit a pair as UM broke a school record set in 2002 against Portland State.
Wright notched 19 points and 10 assists in 47 minutes for the junior college transfer’s first double-double as a Griz. Oguine finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds. Martin Breunig scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. His bucket with four seconds to play in the first overtime sent the game to a second extra period.
“For us, we’re saying we took their best shot. To do that and win on the road, at elevation, in double overtime and have guys play – you know, you had two guys play over 40 minutes – is huge,” DeCuire said.
“Now, we’ve got to recover, and we’ve got to handle this success. The game that we’re going to play on Saturday is going to be a lot different – different style of play and what not. So for us, it’s growing up. It’s growing pains, and I think you’re going to start seeing the results with guys like Mike and Walter starting to figure out that if we play a certain way, the way we’re asking them to play, that their numbers actually get better rather than get worse.”
Montana plays at Southern Utah at 7 p.m. on Saturday night.
Northern Colorado 96, Eastern Washington 90 — Northern Colorado shot a season-best 61.5 percent from the field and 69.2 percent from 3-point range in a win over reigning Big Sky champs Eastern Washington on Thursday night in Greeley.
The win was Northern Colorado’s first over Eastern Washington since 2012. Jordan Wilson led UNC with a career-high 26 points on 10-of-11 shooting. Wilson also dished out seven assists as UNC moved to 4-9 overall, 1-0 in league play.
Venky Jois led the Eagles with 25 points on 11-of-15 from the field. EWU (6-7) will travel to face North Dakota on Saturday while UNC hosts Idaho.
Idaho 74, North Dakota 71 — Perrion Callandret had a block with two seconds to play sealed the win, as Idaho took down North Dakota 74-71 in Grand Forks. Callandret finished with 21 points on the night, his third 20-point game of the season.
UND junior Quinton Hooker equaled his career-high with 28 points with 26 coming in the second half in the Fighting Hawks loss.
All 12 Big Sky Conference teams hit the court again on Saturday.
