MISSOULA — The hosts shared the ball as well as they have all season. Now Montana gets to share the label the team so covets.
The Grizzlies are the kings of the Big Sky.
With the premier program in the league at Dahlberg Arena and a chance to make history, Montana made the statement of the season to secure the outright conference crown.
The Griz brought the crowd of 4,922 to its feet by scoring seven points by the time Weber State’s second offensive possession began then carried the momentum by dishing out a seemingly endless string of assists and choking the top 3-point shooting team in the Big Sky into suffocation on the way to a wire-to-wire 75-57 victory in Missoula on Thursday night.
The win moves the Grizzlies to 15-2 in league play, 22-7 overall. Montana claimed the sixth outright Big Sky title in school history, UM’s 10th banner overall.
Montana senior Fabijan Krslovic
“We have been working toward this for a long time,” UM’s only senior Fabijan Krslovic said. “We have pictured ourselves here but the ultimate goal is next week and we know we are in a great spot having the one-seed but there is a target on our backs down in Reno (at the Big Sky Tournament). We have four more games and we want to go win four more games.”
On the heels of a potential-filled but ultimately disappointing 16-16 campaign that saw UM fade after a 5-1 start in league play to finish with a loss in its first game of the Big Sky Tournament, the Griz fulfilled their potential in Travis DeCuire’s fourth year at the helm.
“I felt like this is what should’ve happened last year but we came off a rough year motivated so we wanted to come back and have Big Sky champs be our main goal,” UM All-Big Sky junior point guard Ahmaad Rorie said. “We want to win Reno, which is a bigger goal. We want to go to the NCAA Tournament. This is the first step to fulfilling our vision.”
With an influx of talent from both the transfer ranks — junior center Jamar Akoh, a former Cal State-Fullerton transfer , is in line for All-Big Sky honors after sitting out last year — and with confident, eager freshmen Timmy Falls and Karl Nicholas, Montana’s roster finally had DeCuire’s stamp. Using a blend of explosive athleticism and unwavering defensive effort, the Grizzlies have eviscerated opponents with their effort for most of the winter.
“This is what I came here for, this vision,” said Akoh after finishing with 12 points and six rebounds in 33 physical minutes. “We are not done yet, though. We still have some business to take care of.”
Now UM has its first outright conference title since 2013 and DeCuire can hang his second banner as a head coach, the third of his career counting his time as Montana’s point guard in the early 1990s.
Montana junior Jamar Akoh cuts down the net at Dahlberg Arena
“Like fine wine, nothing worth having happens overnight,” DeCuire said as associate head coach Chris Cobb strolled by yelling his proclamation of his mentor as the Big Sky Coach of the Year. “For us, it’s a slow process and that’s why we always talk about enjoying the process so the guys you have, you get the most out of.
“The first year, we road two horses (Martin Breunig, Jordan Gregory) to a share of the championship. Those two guys somewhat fit my personality so I played through them. Mario Dunn is a warrior and I knew that from recruiting him when he was in high school. We had some heart with that group. But now we have the speed, we have the athleticism and we also have that inside-out game. We have the balance, the versatility and the depth of a team that can win a championship and when the ball doesn’t go through the basket, we have the guys who can defend too.”
Weber State came to Missoula in contention for the league crown despite sporting the league’s youngest roster. Randy Rahe has led WSU to five Big Sky crowns in his 12 seasons at the helm for the Wildcats, among the 22 banners in program history for the most successful and storied team in the Big Sky.
Instead, Montana looked like the dominant program on Thursday, building the early lead and never looking back. The Griz dished out 22 assists on 31 made baskets, shot 53.4 percent from the floor and held one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country to two makes on 11 attempts from beyond the arc.
“We are not the most athletic team. That was my biggest fear coming in here tonight,” said Rahe, the four-time Big Sky Coach of the Year. “We don’t have a lot of guys who can just make plays off the bounce and they force you to. Their strength was our weakness.”
Weber falls to 12-5 in league play, 19-9 overall. The Wildcats are now in fourth with a matchup in Bozeman against Montana State on Saturday.
“No question they are the best team in the Big Sky,” Rahe said. “Idaho is good, man. Those two teams, two of the older teams, great experience, great athleticism. To win the league, you have to be old and stay healthy. Montana has done that.
“Travis has done one heck of a job with this team this year. He’s coached them really well. He’s playing a good system that fits his system well. They definitely deserve this. There’s no question about it.”
Montana true freshman Timmy Falls guards Weber State senior Dusty Baker
The Griz opened up their deliberate half-court offense early by finding their lone senior on the first two trips down the floor. UM’s first three points came on an old-fashioned 3-point play from Krlsovic and its next two came on a two-handed slam by the senior from Sydney, Australia.
“What they do is they pack the paint and if anybody drives, their big steps up so right away. I was able to hit Fab on the roll and he finished, another one for the dunk,” Rorie said. “When I saw they were playing like that, I knew it would be open every time I got in there if I came to a jump stop and hit people.”
Weber State entered the game shooting 40.4 percent from beyond the arc as a team for the season. The Wildcats make nearly 10 3s per game while shooting at a 44.3 percent clip as a team during Big Sky play. Instead, Montana simply did not let the Wildcats shoot from deep, constantly making senior shooting specialists Ryan Richardson and Dusty Baker put the ball on the floor.
“Don’t let them get (the 3s) off,” DeCuire said. “We wanted to minimize as many attempts as possible. They shoot it too well to even let them shoot them. The way we defend the ball screen, it gives up threes here and there. We needed to rotate. We spent two days making sure everyone knew where the rotations were coming from and who we were going to leave open and who we weren’t.”
WSU is also one of the few teams in the league that can counter Montana’s down low combo of Krslovic and Akoh. But the Grizzlies managed to get Weber 6-foot-9, 260-pound center Zach Braxton in foul trouble, limiting him to six first-half minutes and 16 minutes overall before he fouled out.
Big Sky Breakdown: Montana claims outright Big Sky championship
A nine-point in two minutes, four seconds late in the first half by sophomore Jerrick Harding — part of a 15-point first half for the second-leading scorer (22 points per game) in the Big Sky — helped the Wildcats cut the lead to 34-29 after UM’s lead swelled above double digits for the first time.
But the relentless effort of the Griz came through once again on the last play of the half when Montana tipped the ball four different times before sophomore Sayeed Pridgett’s tap-in finally proved good.
After halftime, Montana kept feeding Krslovic and Akoh, opening the second 20 on a 6-0 run to push the lead to double figures, where it would stay. Braxton picked up his third foul two minutes into the second half and headed to the bench, letting Montana tighten its stranglehold on the pace of the game.
Michael Oguine threw down a backside alley-oop with two hands to give him 11 points, making him the fourth Griz in double figures and pushing the Montana lead to its largest, 63-43, with 7:29 left.
Montana junior Michael Oguine
Richardson, one of the league’s top sharpshooters (48.2 percent from 3, 15.1 points per game in league play) hit Weber’s second and final 3-pointer with 2:14 left and put his pointer finger to his lips in a motion to shush the crowd. Rorie drilled a 3-pointer on a sweet dish from Oguine from the corner to extend the lead to 19 again, the dagger that let the Grizzlies know the banner would belong to them.
With 63 seconds left, DeCuire called a timeout and emptied his bench, letting his starters receive a standing ovation as their 13th home win came to a close.
“We had a big crowd so we wanted to keep the momentum and we were able to do that from the jump,” Rorie said. “Then we were up by 20 so to win like that feels good. We have loyal fans and they stuck around to see us cut down the nets, which feels great.”
Harding finished with 19 points but only scored four after halftime and committed half of Weber’s 10 turnovers. Former Utah transfer Brekkott Chapman carried the Wildcats early with eight points to help Weber manage Montana’s early momentum and finished as the only other WSU player in double figures with 14 points. He chipped in a team-high eight rebounds but Montana owned the glass as well, building a 42-25 lead on the boards.
Krslovic continued to surge during the final month of his career. UM’s lone senior finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, including four offensive boards. Oguine ripped down eight rebounds, including three of UM’s 11 offensive rebounds that led to 21 second-chance points. Rorie continued building his Big Sky MVP resume by matching his season high of seven assists to go with 20 points on just 11 shots.
“We were knocking 3s down, Jamar was a force inside, Fab was a force,” Rorie said. “Having all five guys on the court was big for us.
Montana will host Idaho State, a 101-78 winner over reeling Montana State on Thursday night in Bozeman. The result of the game for the Griz will be inconsequential; Montana has already sewn up the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big Sky Tournament in Reno, Nevada. But DeCuire does not anticipate any sort of different approach as the Griz try to send Krslovic off in style.
“No slippage,” DeCuire said. “It’s another opportunity to come out and get better, another opportunity to perform.
“I would like to go into Reno with some momentum. I’ve seen a lot of professional teams sit guys because they have things sewed up and then it’s hard to turn it back on. We are going to come out here and perform, play the best basketball we can play. We have a chance to be the first team in a long time to go undefeated at home for a complete season. That’s just another thing for Fab to walk away with.”
Photos by Jason Bacaj. All Rights Reserved.
