No matter the sport or the season, it always feels good to be home. As the Montana State Bobcats return to Bozeman for their final home stand of the men’s basketball season, the sentiment has never felt so true.
MSU endured the grueling Big Sky Conference road swing to Flagstaff, Arizona through Cedar City, Utah, a challenging trip regardless of health and wellness. The travel trials were accentuated by the fact that influenza continues to ravage Montana State’s roster.
Junior reserve Joe Mvuezolo Jr., a key 6-foot-6 swingman who provides shooting and perimeter defense, did not make the trip. Junior Zach Green, one of the Bobcats’ most versatile players, saw just eight minutes in MSU’s 83-78 win over Southern Utah in Cedar City.
Desite the illness — third-year head coach Brian Fish estimates the flu has now passed through every member of his roster and most of his coaching staff — the Bobcats were able to rally for the win at SUU after stumbling at Northern Arizona. The Bobcats played what Fish called “our worst 12 minutes of basketball this season” in the 69-63 loss at Walkup Skydome in Flagstaff, partially because of depth issues and partially because of an inability to keep NAU off the boards.
MSU head coaching Brian Fish talking with forward Sam Neumann
“(Being sick) is not something you talk about as a team, it’s just something you hope they overcome as a team and I thought we did that,” Fish said. “I thought we had as bad a half as we’ve had all year in the first half against NAU. I thought we played better in the second half, went in to Southern Utah and took care of business. We played with a short hand but we found a way, kept fighting.”
The Bobcats enter Thursday night’s matchup against Portland State — the first of three straight games at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse – in the hunt for a top five seed and the coinciding first-round bye at next month’s Big Sky tournament. With the PSU game plus home games against Sacramento State on Saturday and Montana on February 25 and a regular-season ending bus trip to Idaho State and Weber State remaining, MSU sits at 7-6 in league play, 12-14 overall.
“I think you think about those things when you get older but with this team, we try to stay in the moment,” Fish said. “I’m not sure they’d understand that unless I tweeted them or took a picture on Instagram (laughs). This team doesn’t talk about that sort of stuff.”
MSU forward Zach Green
Sac State is half a game behind the Bobcats at 6-6 while PSU is 5-7 in conference action. The Grizzlies are a game ahead of the ‘Cats at 8-5. In other words, the race for a first-round bye is sure to come down the stretch. And every game will be important for both the Bobcats and their given opponent, beginning with the high octane Vikings on Thursday night.
“This one is huge,” Fish said. “This is strange set of teams. You have one team who is sixth, seventh in the nation in steals (Portland State) and then you have another team that is going to physically try to beat you up (Sac State). You have two contrasting teams that take two different types of game plans to play against. A lot of times when you play a two-game series, the teams mirror each other. These don’t.”
Thursday’s contest matches two of the highest scoring teams in the Big Sky. The Vikings are one of the top scoring outfits in the country, averaging 86.1 points per game. Montana State averages a shade short of 80 points per game thanks to the best perimeter attack in the conference – MSU hits 10 3-pointers per game.
PSU pushes the pace thanks in part to one of the league’s top transition attacks sparked by a defense that averages 10.3 steals per game. The Vikings employ the most balanced scoring attack in the Big Sky.
PSU forward De’Sean Parsons
Stretch power forward De’Sean Parsons, a 6-foot-7 jumping jack who plays with one of the highest motors in the league, leads the charge at 14.6 points per game. Super sub Deontae North, a junior college transfer who moved into a starting roll two weeks ago, is next at 14.0 points per game. Senior point guard Calaen Robinson (13.3), junior forward Traylin Farris (11.1) and junior sharpshooter Bryce Canda (10.3) all average in double figures. Senior guard Zach Gengler is shooting 44.6 percent from beyond the arc and chipping in 9.0 points per game.
“We have a lot of guys who can play basketball who are unselfish so we like to see the next man make a shot,” said North, a front-runner for the Big Sky’s top reserve award. “We always want to make the extra pass and the right play.”
Because of Parsons’ versatility — head coach Tyler Geving moved the lanky former perimeter player to the post the second half of last season — on both ends, the Vikings play with as small and athletic a lineup as anyone in the league. Montana State plays the 6-foot-4 Green at the 4 and 6-7 sophomore Sam Neumann at center in its starting lineup.
“I think it’s definitely going to be a good game like the first one because of how we match up,” North said. “We want to run every chance we get and that’s a big emphasis for our keys on offense. We like playing teams that are really similar.
“We are looking at these as must-wins right now for us so we definitely want to bring it.
PSU guard Bryce Canda/by Troy Wayrynan
Portland State possesses a few of the league’s marquee wins this season, blasting North Dakota 99-62 to open the league slate and hanging 88 points on Montana in a nine-point victory later that month. PSU also played in a pair of the tightest games in the Big Sky this winter, taking Eastern Washington to triple overtime before falling 130-124 and taking Weber State to overtime before losing 96-93 last Saturday.
“We know we have the talent and the ability to play with anyone,” North said. “Even though we lost to both (Eastern Washington and Weber State), we feel we have the ability to easily win them. The conference tournament will give us a clean slate and we think we can go out there and win it.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved.
