BOZEMAN, Montana — The environment could not have been better but the Bobcats could never harness it. Instead, the Grizlies made sure recent history continued to repeat itself.
Perhaps the best shot making Saturday night came when Joey Thompson hit a full-court heave with his contest clock winding down to win $11,111.
While Thompson’s unbelievable full-court chuck caused the near sellout crowd of 6,570 at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse to lose their minds, the energy maintained for the duration of the second half.
Montana State announced its recently anointed Big Sky Conference champion women’s basketball team early in the action. The arena and campus was already abuzz after MSU scored a rivalry record 92 points in a 14—point win over the Lady Griz to kick off Cat-Griz Saturday.
With four minutes left in the first half of the men’s game, Montana State’s football team paraded the Great Divide Trophy around the Fieldhouse floor, rubbing in the four-game winning streak the Bobcats have built on the gridiron over the Grizzlies.
Thompson ignited the crowd again, even earning a high five from MSU head football coach Jeff Choate, a certified Griz killer thus far in his four-year stint in Bozeman
And an arena clad in blue & gold topped with throwback white Universal Athletic Service hats kept cheering through the announcement of Montana State’s Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2020, a group featuring former New England Patriots linebacker Dane Fletcher, the lone Bozeman native to ever play in the Super Bowl.
Every time Montana State mounted a run or tried to seize the momentum — like Amin Adamu’s tomahawk dunk with 14 minutes left to cut the Griz lead to 37-34 or Harald Frey’s nine-point outburst in the span of less than two minutes late in the game — the steely Griz looked just like the two-time defending Big Sky Conference champions they are.
When the final buzzer sounded on one of the most electric nights the Brick has seen in recent years, the result was remained the same as the rest of the decade.
UM senior and Billings native Kendal Manuel made clutch shots when called upon all night long. The Grizzlies made the stops they needed in key moment. And Montana earned a hard-fought 59-54 win in Bozeman on Saturday night.
“Communicating, getting in huddles, staying together, we knew it was going to be a hostile environment and we talked about in practice all week,” said Manuel after hitting 8-of-16 shots on the way to scoring a game-high 19 points. “We wanted to come in, have a game plan and stick to it even when shots aren’t falling.
The win is Montana’s 19th in the last 20 matchups against the Bobcats. UM head coach Travis DeCuire moved to 11-1 against Montana State. And the Griz maintained their hold on first place in the Big Sky Conference with two weekends left in the regular season.
“Defense wins games,” DeCuire said. “There will be nights when struggle a little bit offensively. Shooting 48 percent is good for us but to hold an opponent under 40 (MSU shot 35 percent), which was part of the game plan, you will be successful.
“The biggest thing for us is adversity and I thought we did a good job of handling it tonight. The seniors helped us finish the job. They bent a little bit but they didn’t break.
Montana State fell 87-77 at Portland State on Thursday to fall to 8-7 in league play and out of fourth place. But the biggest loss came when standout senior point guard Harald Frey stepped on the foot of an opponent, rolling his left ankle and not returning for the final 18 minutes of action.
His status remained unknown until the starting lineups were announced. He ended up playing 37 minutes but was far from full strength. He rolled his ankle on a late 3-point attempt when he landed on a Griz defender, yet still played all the offensive possessions the last three minutes of the game.
Frey scored a career-high 37 points in MSU’s 78-64 loss at Montana on February 1. Saturday, the Grizzlies swarmed Frey when MSU set high ball screens and knocked him off his spots, making his shots tough to come by. He led MSU with 18 points but he finished just 4-of-13 from the floor and 1-of-6 from deep.
“I think that’s the best defensive team in the league and I thought they were terrific tonight defensively,” Sprinkle said. “I thought we were just as bad offensively. But I think a lot of credit has to go our defense.
“They were there on every catch. They were rotating their five man out to Ladan in the corner and that guy was on point every point. They were sharper with than us defensively, I can tell you that. Their seniors made plays.”
Even though Frey fought to the end, he labored through the game and likely set himself back by tweaking his injury late. But the pain of losing to the Griz for the seventh time in his eighth and final matchup hurt him much more than any twisted ankle.
“If you can play, you can play. We got out played. Simple as that,” Frey said when asked about his health entering the game.
“Maybe I should have been more aggressive earlier on. But it wasn’t how the game panned out. It was too little too late.”
When Frey dished into the post, the Bobcats could not take advantage of their size advantage on the block. UM consistently trapped MSU sophomore center Jubrile Belo, forcing a pair of turnovers in the first two minutes even though the Bobcats stayed in the game.
The 6-foot-9 Belo finished with 11 points and five rebounds while getting UM forward Jared Samuelson and Mack Anderson, a pair of Montana natives, in foul trouble.
But Montana State did not capitalize on its size advantage on the block nearly as much as necessary. And that allowed the Griz to increase the pressure on the perimeter against Frey, Adamu and the rest of the Bobcats. MSU finished 3-of-20 from beyond the arc while the Griz shot just 4-of-13 from deep.
“We took some questionable shots instead of driving into the paint but that’s who they are, that’s why they are good at driving in the paint. We succumbed to their gam plan defensively.
“He (Belo) has dealt with that double team trap and I thought he did a better job after early. He hit the backside a couple of times. But they made it tough on his, really tough on him.”
Montana senior Sayeed Pridgett shredded Montana State in the first matchup this season first with his passing, then with his isolation scoring. Pridgett drew early double teams and dished out five assists, four that led to 3-pointers, hitting two triples of his own as UM hit 10 first-half 3-pointers in the first win.
Saturday, Sprinkle decided to guard Pridgett one-on-one with occasional help off the bounce. Pridgett hit four of his six shots before halftime against the resistance of freshman Borja Fernandez. He scored seven more in the second half but shot 3-of-7 from the floor. He missed all three free throws in the first half and three of his four free throw attempts in the second half.
He missed the front end of one-and-one free throw twice in the last 2:15. Yet he finished with 15 points and moved to 7-1 in his career against the Bobcats. More importantly, his team stayed atop the standings as Montana chases a third straight regular-season Big Sky title.
“It’s a bittersweet situation because there is not many places you can play at like it is here, have an environment like this even at our house,” Pridgett said when asked about playing his last Cat-Griz game. “Playing your last rivalry game like this, this is tough.”
Manuel carried the night all night. He scored eight points in four minutes, including drilling consecutive 3-poitners to helped UM pus the lead to 23-16. Manuel’s last jump shot of the first half gave the hosts a 28-18 cushion and gave him 12 points.
In the second half, the Billings Skyview product scored at the rim, hit his third 3-pointer, hit a pull-up jumper, each score pushing UM’s lead to eight points.
“They made some tough shots but Kendal, he made plays consistently all night,” said Sprinkle, an in-state product who grew up in Helena before starring with the Cats 1996-2000. “As soon as you would forget about him, bang, he’d hit another one.”
Samuelson, a fifth-year senior who prepped at Billings West, scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 22 minutes despite tweaking his already surgically repaired left knee early in the game and batting foul trouble all night. He hit a layup with three minutes left to keep Montana’s lead in double digits, 53-43, but missed a layup 81 seconds later.
After that crucial miss late in the shot clock with 1:35 left and the Griz clinging to a 53-49 lead, freshman Derrick Carter-Hollinger snared the offensive rebound and hit a 12-foot jump shot to push the lead to six with 95 seconds left.
“We get that rebound, we get a stop and then if we score, it’s a one-possession game,” Sprinkle said. “You never know what happens. I was proud of that, proud of our guys for fighting back because it’s not an easy team to fight back against.”
Frey rolled his ankle on MSU’s next possession, Manuel hit another clutch shot on UM’s next trip down and Josh Vazquez hit a pair of free throws with 27 seconds left to complete Montana’s scoring.
With the consuming narrative surrounding the rivalry in the rearview, now the Bobcats and Griz can both focus solely on solidifying the best seeding possible in next month’s conference tournament.
For Montana State, the Bobcats won two in a row last weekend only to lose two in a row. MSU entered the weekend alone in fourth place. Following the Griz loss, Montana State is tied for fifth with Portland State. The Vikings swept the Bobcats this season.
MSU has games remaining at Sac State Thursday and at Northern Arizona Saturday. MSU’s final home stand features a Thursday home game against Southern Utah on March 5 and Frey’s senior night on March 7 against Northern Colorado.
“It’s huge and it’s still seeding,” Sprinkle said. “I don’t know what happened in the league today. I put my phone down around noon and didn’t answer anybody. This stretch run is huge. We have to keep getting better. We have to get better tomorrow. The championship game is three weeks from tonight. We have to get one percent better every day.”
Eastern Washington kept pace with Montana by posting an 11th league win in 14 Big Sky games by beating NAU 80-70. That result dropped the Lumberjacks to 9-8 in league play and alone in fourth. Weber State beat Southern Utah 82-71 to leave both teams at 7-9 in league play, a game behind MSU and PSU for the fifth and final bye slot.
Montana has to play the same four opponents but in reverse order than MSU the last two weeks in the season. If the Griz can hang another regular-season banner, it will be the fourth in sixth seasons under DeCuire.
“This was a special night, being a Montana kid, this is what you live for,” Manuel said. “And this rivalry, this is what it is all about. This is something I will never forget and I’m so grateful to be at Montana.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
