Eleven day ago, Brian Fish summed up his team’s performance at South Dakota by simply stating that USD physically whipped Fish’s Bobcats.
On Saturday in a rematch with the Coyotes, a short-handed Montana State team ratcheted up its intensity in the paint and on the glass to hang tough for the first half but a 20-0 run in the second half flipped the MSU advantage on its head. Montana State went more than eight and a half minutes without a field goal and six minutes without a point as South Dakota earned the season sweep with an 80-68 win in front of 2,128 fans in Bozeman on Sunday afternoon.
Montana State head coach Brian Fish’s Bobcats lost their fifth straight Sunday/by Brooks Nuanez
“We got into what has been our Achilles heel all year: We are in good shape, they offensive rebound the ball on a missed free throw, hit a 3-pointer out of it, we in turn take too quick of shots, got us going sideways and we give up layups,” Fish said.
“They were shooting layups all second half. They shot 71 percent in the second half. That 71 percent is dictated on the last 10 minutes of the game. We had the whole game in our hands. We were more physical for 30 minutes. But adversity is going to hit us. In adversity, you have to have somebody step up and fight it a little bit. Instead of fighting it, we let them hit home run shots.”
The loss is the fifth straight for the Bobcats after a 5-2 start. Montana State is 5-7 with a Wednesday matchup against Central Michigan remaining to wrap up its non-conference. The win moves South Dakota to 9-5, the school’s best start of the Division I era (since 2008.”
“When adversity hits, you have huddle up and have somebody say we are going to stop this,” Fish said. “We keep looking for somebody to do it and in turn we have to have somebody step up an do it.”
Montana State sophomore Tyler Hall scored 32 points on 15 shots, hitting 10 field goals, four 3-pointers and eight free throws en route to his third 30-point game this season. But it was all for not as the rest of the Bobcats made just 13-of-41 shots.
Montana State sophomore Tyler Hall scored 32 points, including this baseline dunk, in a loss to South Dakota/ by Brooks Nuanez
Hall hit a jump shot with 13:41 left in the game to push Montana State’s lead to 54-44. Hall took his last breather with 12:58 left on the clock but clunky play on both sides helped him check back in with 11:30 left and promptly hit two free throws to keep MSU up 56-49. MSU junior Zach Green hit one of two free throws with 11:04 left to keep MSU up eight, 57-49. MSU would not score again until freshman Harald Frey’s layup with 4:57 left. At that point, MSU’s 10-point lead was all of a sudden a 69-57 deficit.
“They kept fighting throughout the game,” Hall said. “There was runs but they kept fighting and you have to credit them.”
By that time, South Dakota had scored 20 straight points, mostly by pushing the ball in transition. If the Coyotes didn’t get a layup, they would kick the ball to Matt Mooney, an Air Force transfer who nearly matched Hall shot for shot.
Mooney scored 10 points during the 20-0 spurt and scored 18 of his 28 points in the second half to lead USD. The sweet-shooting sophomore hit 8-of-12 from the field, half of his eight 3-point attempts and all eight of his free throws. Freshman Tristan Simpson hit all three of his 3-point tries and 5-of-6 field goals overall in scoring 14 points off the bench while also taking the bulk of the minutes guarding Hall. Trey Burch-Manning chipped in 13 points and six rebounds while Trey Dickerson scored 10 points and dished out three assists for the Coyotes.
“They are a good team, well coached and they won a big 10-minute game once they got going,” Fish said. “But we have a lot of things we need to look at and get corrected.”
Montana State drew five offensive fouls, held South Dakota to 40 percent shooting and earned a 21-16 rebounding advantage before halftime. Offensively, the Bobcats went to in a variety of ways as Hall hit three 3-pointers, two pull-up jumpers and a tomahawk dunk to stake MSU to a 36-32 lead at intermission.
Montana State redshirt freshman Mandrell Worthy played a career-high 13 minutes Sunday/ by Brooks Nuanez
But the Bobcats, a team that has employed just 11 scholarship players so far this season, were even more short-handed on Sunday. Senior Sarp Gobeloblu is suspended indefinitely “for conduct not rising to standards set for Bobcat basketball players,” according to an MSU press release. MSU also played without junior forward Joe Mvuezolo Jr., the team’s leading bench scorer, due to an undefined but potentially serious medical condition.
“Joe is a medical condition, very little I can say about that but the one thing I can say is it’s as tough a thing as I’ve faced in 27 years,” Fish said. “Sarp has some things he has some things he has to handle to get back on the team. That’s in his ballpark to do it.”
In their places, sophomore guard Devonte Klines played 21 minutes. He scored four points on just 2-of-7 shooting while chipping in four of MSU’s 12 assists and notching four of the Bobcats’ five steals. Mandrell Worthy played 13 minutes, just two minutes less than he played all season before Sunday, and finished with one rebound as his only statistic. Junior center Benson Osayande scored four points, grabbed four rebounds and committed four fouls in 14 minutes. Freshman Devin Kirby blocked two shots — the 6-foot-11 center entered the game with three career blocks — and scored a bucket in eight minutes.
“We have been practicing all week and we had a game plan we had to execute and we didn’t,” Hall said. “I would take those guys we’ve got now any time.”
Quinton Everett scored four points Sunday/by Brooks Nuanez
With Montana State shorthanded, a few of the usual contributing Bobcats failed to contribute. Dickerson’s layup with 2:53 left gave USD a 74-61 lead, the visitors’ biggest. Green, MSU’s second-leading scorer (13.3 ppg), hit his lone field goal, a pump fake corner 3-pointer. The junior finished with as many points (four) as he had fouls. Montana State senior Quinton Everett’s struggles continued. He missed all four of his first half shots and finished just 1-of-8 for four points in 19 minutes.
“Zach is a big key to us,” Fish said. “We have to get him back to producing like he can and does. Nobody wants that more than him. I’m sure he will.
“Other guys have to step up. Those two seniors (Gobeloblu and Everett) have done it at times but we need other guys. It’s not all on them. We have to continue to grow this team and pull it together.”
Montana State wraps up its non-conference schedule Wednesday against Central Michigan in Bozeman.
“It sucks to lose, everybody hates losing so I’m not going to say we are alright with it but we are going to have to move on to the next game,” Hall said. “We play in another two days so starting tomorrow, it’s all Central Michigan.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
