The Montana Grizzlies extended their winning streak to five games on Saturday night against Weber State, sweeping their first Big Sky road trip since 2019 to move into a tie for third place with the Wildcats.
The Griz won 74-69, leaving Ogden with a win for the first time in four years. It’s been a resurgent Montana team since the start of February, a month that the Grizzlies have yet to lose in. It’s also a turnaround from the first time these teams met, a heartbreaking loss in a game that Montana led for most of the way and looked to have clinched before bad luck at the end.
Since winning at Portland State, the luck has changed for the Grizzlies. They now have won five consecutive games, and once again were able to close out a tight game in a hostile environment. After a 3-6 start that saw them sit in seventh place, the Griz are now 8-6 in league play and one of 28 teams in the country that have won at least five straight games.
They may not have been here if not for a team meeting following a disappointing loss to Sacramento State. The loss in the first matchup with Weber State was certainly one that rattled the confidence a bit, as it kicked off a stretch in which Montana lost four out of five. It ended in Sacramento, and Montana haven’t looked back since.
“There was a thin line from confidence and breaking down a few weeks back just because of the way we were losing,” head coach Travis DeCuire said. “There were games we knew we earned in the first 30 minutes. How to stick together and hang together to finalize games, and you can’t do it if you don’t trust one another and more importantly if you don’t believe in one another.
“Sometimes you have to fight before you hug, which is what we did. Now we’re a unit,” DeCuire continued. “Once we became a unit, we play better basketball and we execute better, but more importantly we fight better.”
It was also a special night for senior guard Aanen Moody, who scored the 1,000th point of his career early in the game that helped set the tone early. It was part of a 12-point first half for Moody. He finished with 23 points, the third time in four games he’s scored more than 20 points.
The Grizzlies game out red-hot, and finished the night matching their season high with 14 three-pointers. They did it on the second-best percentage of the year, making 14-of-25 (56 percent) from the arc and getting them from all over.
Moody had five made threes. Dischon Thomas went 4-of-5 from three, improving his numbers on the weekend to 8-of-11 from the arc. He finished with 14 points. Lonnell Martin Jr. and Brandon Whitney each made multiple threes as well. It all helped Montana lead for more than 32 minutes in the game, increasing the deficit to as many as 16 points in the second half.
Jones would hit a three on the next possession and then counter another Moody three with an and-one finish to cut it to just 70-67 Montana. The Wildcats got the ball back with a chance to tie the game. Junior Ballard drove the lane and went up for a layup, but Josh Vazquez timed a jump perfectly to reject the shot at the last second.
The ball went out of play with under a minute to play, and Montana was able to force Weber State into a difficult shot after the inbound. Moody and Vazquez would then close the game out by making the final four free throw attempts, finishing off a perfect game from the line on six attempts for the Griz.
“That was an emotional rollercoaster,” DeCuire said. “We knew that you can build leads on this team but when you’ve got a guy like Dillon Jones they’re going to make runs. You have to survive the runs.”
The winning streak will now be put to the test on the road against another rival. This time, it’s second-place Montana State who will aim to stop the Grizzly winning streak. The Bobcats lost in Ogden on Thursday night, but bounced back on Saturday with a win against Idaho State in Pocatello.
Montana State won the first meeting this season, making three free throws late in the game to end Montana’s long home winning streak in the rivalry.
