On Wednesday, at the end of what appeared to be a relaxed and jovial practice, Montana guards Ahmaad Rorie and Walter Wright guided the scout team through a short 5-on-5 drill. On Thursday, Rorie and Wright sat at the end of the bench in the scout team’s game day uniform: white polo shirts and khakis.
What head coach Travis DeCuire said was a coach’s decision made sometime between Saturday’s loss at Sacramento State and 6 p.m. Thursday kept Montana’s two leading scorers out of a 72-60 loss to Eastern Washington at Dahlberg Arena.
Montana’s third straight loss was a sluggish affair as the Griz (5-4 Big Sky, 10-12 overall) labored for baskets throughout the night.
“You go 4 for 13 from three and 66 percent from the free-throw line, it doesn’t matter who you put in the game if guys can’t make an open shot and make a free throw,” said DeCuire, who spent much of the game incensed with the 3-man referee unit. “You’re going to have a hard time to score.”
Montana senior Walter Wright, left, and sophomore Ahmaad Rorie — the Grizzlies’ two leading scorers — did not play due to disciplinary reasons Thursday
Given the chance during a postgame interview to explain why he held the two guards out, DeCuire declined to elaborate. He was also non-committal on when Rorie and Wright will return to the lineup Saturday against Idaho, but did say that his decision to keep them out of the game was meant to send a larger message.
“Every message, whether it’s a decision that I make, whether it’s a quote in the newspaper, is always a learning experience for the entire program,” he said.
Devoid of the 55 minutes the two contribute, Montana’s normal 10-man rotation took another hit early in the second half when junior forward Fabijan Krslovic was whistled for his fourth foul. It kept the Grizzlies’ defensive anchor off the floor until 8:10 was left on the clock, by which time the Eagles went up 55-44.
Eastern (6-2, 14-7) turned to junior point forward Bogdan Bliznyuk as soon as DeCuire sat Krslovic, who, according to his coach, was primed to spend the second half shadowing Bliznyuk just as he did during the Grizzlies’ 65-59 win in Cheney earlier this month. Bliznyuk often operated from the top of the key and he scored seven points and assisted on another basket in Krslovic’s absence.
“He knew he wanted to bring something special to this game and he did,” EWU head coach Jim Hayford said of Bliznyuk, who finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds. “He showed why he is one of the premier players in the league.”
Montana senior Mario Dunn
Without Rorie in the starting lineup, senior Mario Dunn was inserted as a starter. And in another lineup shuffle, freshman Sayeed Pridgett made a return to the starting unit. Combined with sophomore Michael Oguine, the trio of guards aggressively attacked Eastern from the beginning.
Pridgett was assertive driving to the paint with every chance he was given. He first scored on a reverse layup on a backdoor cut. He grabbed rebounds and raced up court putting pressure on the Eastern defense as he put up six shots in the first seven minutes.
The trio was also active defensively. Pridgett rotated throughout the EWU lineup, occasionally being assigned the task of keeping the ball from Eastern’s Jake Wiley, a long and athletic forward averaging nearly 25 points during conference play. On one sequence Pridgett chased Wiley from one block to the other and then back to the original, drawing praise from an appreciative Montana bench and the 3,637 who showed up to Dahlberg.
Montana’s defense locked down the post entry, but without Krslovic it was overwhelmed on the glass and by Bliznyuk, who was good on 5 of his 7 second-half attempts.
“Not having Fab in the game killed us on the glass and that’s where they get those second-chance points,” DeCuire said. “But it would have been nice to score a few more points.”
“(We’re) disappointed, but hungry,” Montana’s coach added. “Like I say, we’re confident. We played a very strong schedule so it’s not like we look down the road and feel there is no one we can’t beat. We just need to play better and we need to play both sides of the ball on the same night.”
NOTES: Eastern out-rebounded Montana 20-9 in the second half. … The Eagles also turned eight Griz turnovers into 15 points. … Oguine led Montana with 14, Pridget added 11. … Wiley was held to just 10 points on five shots. … Montana finished the game at 43 percent. Eastern hit on exactly 50 percent.
