The Bobcats experienced their holiday hangover a few days late.
The Montana State men’s basketball team looked sluggish during the first half Saturday against Delaware State. After what some described as a colorful halftime lecture by head coach Brian Fish, the Bobcats came out and hit 11 second-half 3-pointers to cruise to a 91-66 victory two days after Thanksgiving.
On Monday at Brick Breedin Fieldhouse with Arizona Christian, an NAIA school from Phoenix in Bozeman, the Bobcats again endured a sluggish start. The Bobcats shot just 36 percent in the first half and held a 37-36 lead over the noticeably overmatched Firestorm.
At halftime, the Bobcats adjusted, took the lead then extended it to double figures before pushing the pace and running the visitors out of gas. Montana State outscored Arizona Christian 56-37 after halftime thanks to 48.5 percent shooting and a balanced scoring attack that saw five players reach double figures scoring in a 93-73 win in front of 2,341 on Monday night.
MSU guard DeVonte Klines (10)
“We didn’t play well in the first half and I would credit them for playing really well and getting us disrupted,” Montana State third-year head coach Brian Fish said. “I made a mistake there and allowed Arizona Christian to become too comfortable with what we were doing so we switched it up defensively (to a zone). I didn’t think we had great energy and we have to get away from only having energy on shot making.”
The victory is Montana State’s ninth straight home win dating back to last season. MSU is 5-0 at home this season and 5-2 overall. The Bobcats needed an adjustment in energy and effort to earn their second non-Division I win.
“We were really low energy, came out with no energy, everyone was just quiet, it was silent, not what we were used to being like,” said MSU sophomore Sam Neumann after posting his first career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
“We weren’t talking on defense, no one was communicating, no one was where they needed to be. That’s two in a row. We definitely have to make a change going forward.”
Montana State freshman point guard Harald Frey, who Fish said is battling influenza, sparked a 7-1 lead to start the action by hitting a 3-pointer in the corner a game after hitting 5-of-9 from deep. But the Firestorm rallied back as MSU star sophomore Tyler Hall struggled for most of the first 20 minutes. Hall’s lone field goal of the first half, a sweet step back 3-pointer, put MSU up 32-25 with three minutes, 39 seconds let but the Bobcats’ lacking transition defense and Arizona Christian’s ability to penetrate gave Montana State a one-point advantage at halftime.
“I thought more than anything, as a team we were selfish on early drives, going up and thinking we were scorers when that was a good basketball team,” Fish said. “I think we dribbled ourselves into trouble and Tyler was one of the guys who did that.”
MSU guard Tyler Hall (3)
Hall, the leading scorer in the Big Sky Conference at more than 25 points per game, struggled shooting the ball for the second night in a row. After scoring a season-low nine points against Delaware State, Hall managed just six points in the first half. But he sparked himself with a reverse layup followed by one of his three 3-pointers (in nine attempts) on consecutive possessions bot push MSU’s lead to 60-49 with 9:43 left. Hall’s third triple pushed the lead to 67-53, his 3-point play following two rejection pushed the lead to 20 late and his three free throws in four attempts following a technical foul iced the win.
Hall finished with 22 points on 6-of-17 shooting. He chipped in six rebounds and five assists. He has scored at least 20 points in five of MSU’s seven outings this season, including at least 28 three times with a high of 32.
“We are still adjusting to the dependency of Tyler and when he doesn’t make shots early on, we kind of wait for him,” Fish said. “We started to come out of that a little bit. Tyler hits three or four of the shots he usually makes in the first half and we have a different look. But I don’t think that helps us. I actually think what we’ve been going through is beneficial and helps us develop as a team.”
Hall is shooting almost 47 percent from the field and almost44 percent from deep this season. Last season, Hall earned Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year honors by averaging 20.5 points per game and shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc during league play. So rare are Hall’s shooting slumps over the last two years, it’s only nature the rest of the Bobcats are adjusting when they occur.
“It’s like a baseball guy: all of a sudden, he starts cheating it a little bit, not holding his follow through,” Fish said. “You know it’s going to be a little bit bad when he’s not making free throws because you are talking about a 90 percent free throw shooter.
MSU forward Zach Green (0)
“You are out there in front of thousands of people at a basketball game and when you make a mistake, the human nature is to say, ‘Oh, that’s not my fault.’ Advancement in a player is owning a mistake, accepting it and trying to get the ball again and be aggressive. I thought last year when Tyler made a mistake, he would go hide and put it all on Marcus (Colbert). He’ll make a mistake now, look at it, my bad, punch his fist in his hand, come back and go get the ball again. That’s advancement.”
The second half began with senior Quinton Everett swooping into the passing lanes and notching back-to-back steals. He turned the first into a fast break but stepped out of bounds on the second. The first conversion gave MSU a lead it would not relinquish. Everett scored eight of his 11 points after halftime.
Neumann provided scoring inside and out, hitting both his 3-pointers and 6-of-8 overall in scoring in double figures for the second straight game. His 10 rebounds led MSU as the Bobcats built a 49-37 advantage on the glass. Junior Zach Green continued to thrive, notching 16 points and eight rebounds despite twisting his ankle in the first half. Green sank 9-of-10 free throws to get into double figures for the fifth time this season.
“Credit them for coming out hard,” Green said. “They really came out and went at the basket. Credit them and their coaching staff. We weren’t really worried they were going to come out and hit a bunch of shots. We have a game plan. If we just stick to our game plan, we are pretty confident in it.”
Junior Joe Mvuezolo continued to make strides as a solid scoring option off the bench. The 6-foot-7 swingman from Miami Dade College hit all three of his 3-point attempts and scored 15 points in 22 minutes
Chris Sterling, Arizona Christian’s leading scorer entering the game, scored 14 points but missed four of his five point attempts. Al Brown scored 14 points and hit four triples while Shy McClelland scored 12 points for the Firestorm.
MSU guard Harald Frey (5)
Montana State plays at the University of Utah on Thursday. The Utes, under the direction of former Montana head coach Larry Krystkowiak, have won 74 games over the last three seasons, winning two NCAA Tournament games in 2014-15 and one last season. Fish said he considers Krystkowiak “one of the best coaches in the Pac 12”, an opinion formed during four seasons on Dana Altman’s staff at Oregon battling against him. In Fish’s first two seasons, MSU played powerhouses like UCLA, Kentucky and Syracuse, all during or at the end of long road trips. Fish said he wants his team to come in confident after experiencing success at home.
“Starting now, we have to get mentally ready,” Neumann said. “That’s one of our biggest games of the year. We need to go there and show what we can do as a team. We feel we are a really good team and this is the perfect opportunity to go prove that.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
