The Montana men’s basketball team held a lead for much of Saturday night’s contest against a tough Troy Trojans team, but a late run from the visitors was enough to force a three-way tie in the second Zootown Classic.
Montana (2-3, 0-0 BSC) led early thanks to a strong defensive effort and maintained an advantage for the final 13 minutes of the opening half. They had it up to eight points, their largest lead of the game, just outside of the final media timeout of the half. Despite some chances to extend the lead, Montana couldn’t shake the Trojans. When the visitors got hot on the offensive end down the stretch, the Grizzly lead couldn’t last. The Trojans won 73-62.
“I felt like there were moments we beat ourselves. They made the plays down the stretch, the last eight minutes they took the game, but we had an opportunity to build a bigger lead at the end of the first half and then get off to a good start in the second half,” Head Coach Travis DeCuire said.
The Grizzlies gave up the lead with 13 minutes remaining in the game and couldn’t get it back. The Grizzlies went cold from the field, making just one of their final 10 shots in the game. Meanwhile, a fast and athletic Troy team found a rhythm. They would score 47 points on 50 percent shooting in the second half, going to the free throw line 19 times and making all but one of them.
The turnover battle was in favor of Troy, who entered this weekend one of the best teams in the country in forcing turnovers. They were top 40 in turnover margin and also top 50 after scoring nearly 90 points per contest in their opening three games, which included a win over the ACC’s Florida State.
An offense that found its way to the rim often on the weekend started well for Montana. Mack Anderson, back in the lineup after resting on Friday, scored the first four points for Montana. He had a couple of big dunks, as did Dischon Thomas, in the first half. Thomas had a couple of baskets to go along with a Josh Vazquez lay-in early for a 6-0 Montana run.
They would do that again later in the half, holding Troy scoreless for over three minutes while getting a knock-down three from Aanen Moody and some free throws from Vazquez and Bannan. It led to a 26-18 lead, Montana’s biggest of the night, with 4:42 remaining in the first half. Lonnell Martin Jr. would answer some Trojan baskets with his first three of the night to get the lead back to eight, but it would be chipped down to six by the intermission.
Martin Jr. would put in a great shift in his 30 minutes, scoring nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from deep while also contributing seven rebounds.
In the second half, Troy started a run that swung the momentum. Kieffer Punter scored five straight points and Darius Miles added a couple three in of his own for an 8-0 run. Mack Anderson would interject with a slam, but back-to-back jumpers by the Trojans turned a five-point Montana lead into a six-point advantage for the visitors.
Once again, Aanen Moody was able to knock down a tough three to get Montana back tied up at 52-all with just over 10 minutes remaining. The next Troy run would be the back breaker for the Grizzlies. They scored eight straight and 14 of 17 points to grow the lead into double digits.
There was one last chance for Montana. Martin Jr. hit a three to cut the defecit to six and Montana had two looks from beyond the arc on the following possession, but a Moody shot went in-and-out. It was too late for Montana at that point.
Moody led Montana with 16 points, setting a new career-high with eight free throws made. Dischon Thomas joined him in double-figures with 12, but the duo both shot under 33 percent for the game. Josh Bannan had another complete performance with eight points, eight rebounds and six assists, but also committed an uncharacteristic seven turnovers.
The Grizzlies finished in a three-way tie for first-place in the Zootown Classic with St. Thomas and Troy. Three games in as many nights, closing with the strongest opponent they saw all weekend, was a good test for DeCuire and his team. Montana’s two leading scorers were both transfers who are new to the program, an encouraging sign that Moody and Thomas are making a difference but also a reminder of how little court-time this team still has together. They will get a chance for more on Tuesday, as the Griz welcome MSU-Northern to Dahlberg Arena.
“The team is growing. It’s early. These guys haven’t played a lot of basketball together and they’ve been playing against each other every day in practice,” DeCuire said. “The chemistry is going to get stronger and we will grow. All of my teams are like this, January we will look a lot different. Play good teams, win as many as you can, grow from it and hopefully you’re a tougher basketball team in January than you were in November.”
