If the first meeting between Montana and Sacramento State signaled a low-point in the season for the Grizzlies, then Saturday night’s 74-72 win over the Hornets put an exclamation point on the statement that Montana is back and ready to compete for a Big Sky title.
The Grizzlies overcame a late deficit and withstood a red-hot Sacramento State team to hold on for the win. It is the sixth win in the last seven games for Montana since the road loss in Sacramento on Jan. 26. It is also the fourth straight home win in what may have been the season-finale inside of Dahlberg Arena.
All six wins in the recent run have been by single-digits, and three of them have been by three points or less. That is a massive achievement for a team that started 0-4 in such situations and at one points seemed destined to come up just short in close games. The attitude and confidence with the Grizzly team have completely changed in the last month.
“I think a lot of it is we have come out on top in some of these situations where different guys make shots,” head coach Travis DeCuire said. “Different guys get the ball, different guys rebound, different guys play defense down the stretch, so I think they all believe in one another right now.”
The win came by way of the usual suspects during Montana’s hot stretch. Aanen Moody erupted again for 23 points, the fifth time in the last six games he has hit the 20-point mark. Josh Vazquez had a season-high 18 points off the bench as that duo combined for seven of Montana’s eight three-pointers in the game.
The Grizzlies also got double-digit scoring games out of Josh Bannan and Brandon Whitney with 13 points each.
After the first game between the two was a low-scoring slugfest, both teams impressed on the offensive end for much of the night on Saturday. The bigger Hornets tried to dominate the paint, and they were able to shoot a season-high 55.6 percent against Montana. It was the best a Big Sky opponent had shot against Montana, but that didn’t tell the whole defensive story.
In fact, the Griz may have won the game on that end. They also forced the Hornets into 15 turnovers, which led to a 23-6 Grizzly advantage in points off turnovers. Montana committed just seven, and only gave up six points off them. The 23 points off turnovers were a season high for Montana.
“We got up into them and pressured them a little bit and forced them to drive. They got a couple of guys that are shooting 29-30 percent on drives so we didn’t think they’d make a high-percentage of those,” DeCuire said of the defensive game plan. “We kind of pushed them into that and I thought our guys did a good job getting to the drop-offs on the post.”
Sacramento State made 60 percent of their shots from the floor in the first half, including a 6-for-10 performance from three-point range. They were able to effectively the shots they wanted in the first period, but Montana adjusted later on in the half and carried it into the second.
“We fell asleep early. They play inside-out basketball so it’s hard to help on the post and keep an eye on your guy,” DeCuire said. “They took advantage of that a little bit. Then we were helping so much on the ball screens that the bigs were getting loose. It wasn’t that they were scoring so much as the ball was coming back out for threes.”
The percentages dipped in the second half. The Hornets would also only make three triples in the final period as Montana made some good adjustments in the locker room.
The lead was never more than four points in the second half for either side as Montana played in yet another close game. It’s something Griz fans have gotten used to in the previous month as the previous four home games have been decided by a total of eight points.
Montana took its first four-point lead just inside the 10-minute mark on a layup from Laolu Oke. He would make a tip-in basket on the next Grizzly possession as well to answer a Hornet three. The stretch was the highlight of yet another good appearance for Oke.
He played a season-high 22 minutes and matched his season-high with five points. He also grabbed three rebounds and had two steals on the defensive end. Against the big roster of Sacramento State, DeCuire knew he needed a good night out of No. 21.
“(Oke) is a guy that provides us with extra shots. Typically, he comes up with a lot of rebounds and deflects balls,” DeCuire said. “He’s a good screener off the ball, things like that. We get a little more activity with him on the floor. I said it to the staff before the game that I felt like (Oke) needed to play 20 minutes for us to win tonight.”
There is perhaps no team in America more equipped to handle late-game free throw situations than Montana, who sent Vazquez to the line for a pair. It upped his streak to 19 consecutive makes from the line, many of which came in similar pressure-packed spots.
Montana elected to foul on the next possession to not allow a potential game-tying three-pointer to be attempted. Sacramento State hit one of two, then Moody hit two from the line to seal the win.
The Grizzlies have now guaranteed themselves the No. 4 seed at the conference tournament in Boise. They still have to hit the road to play Idaho on Monday, and then potentially return home for a make-up game against Portland State that would be played Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m.
It will depend on how the conference standings shake out on Monday night, as the Vikings could have the potential to go up or down in the standings and change the matchups in Boise depending on results.
For Montana, whether they have a make-up game or not, the focus is on keeping this hot streak rolling as the head to the postseason.
“The biggest thing for us with these two games is to try to play your best basketball and have some momentum going in,” DeCuire said. “If we can just play really good basketball Monday on the road we can kind of start a little streak here.”
