MISSOULA — Before Saturday’s showdown in Moscow against the Idaho Vandals, Travis DeCuire kept the message simple. Montana’s fourth-year head coach wrote two words on the white board.
Play hard.
Although his Grizzlies ripped off 13 straight wins in large part because of the best blend of effort and fortitude in the Big Sky Conference, Montana fell flat in Cheney two nights before the anticipated showdown at Cowan Specturm. Montana looked tired and uninspired in a 74-65 loss to Eastern Washington, UM’s first loss of 2018.
Despite a second straight loss — the Vandals outlasted the Grizzlies in a passionate battle that ended in a 79-77 UI win when the officials counted Nate Sherwood’s tip-in at the overtime buzzer — DeCuire is not worried about his team.
Rather, the Grizzlies are taking a big picture approach. Instead of comparing a 13-game streak followed by a two-game skid, Montana is instead focusing on what is in front of them. UM is alone in first place in the league standings with three home games remaining. The Griz are 11-0 at home entering Saturday’s matchup with rival Montana State.
“We are on our way home and we need three wins to hang a banner,” DeCuire said before Tuesday’s practice at Dahlberg Arena. “Would we want it any other way? No.”
Montana made just six of its 22 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc in the loss in Cheney. Following the game, DeCuire said he thought his team had been “playing with fire” in terms of winning games despite not putting forth an elite level of effort for a team that already plays harder than any team in the conference.
Montana senior Fabijan Krlsovic and the Grizzlies will try to snap a sudden two-game losing streak
“We knew it was going to be the hardest road trip we had all year,” Fabijan Krslovic , UM’s lone senior, said. “Both those teams, they execute really well. It was disappointing to lose on Thursday especially because we were disappointed in how we played. They outplayed us, they out-hustled us, they wanted the game more and that’s the biggest reason why we lost.”
Tuesday, DeCuire expressed satisfaction with the way his team performed in Moscow against the preseason league favorites even with the second straight defeat. The head coach said the team lamented lost possessions, missed shots and missed free throws but also felt good about UM’s resilience, fight and ability to string together stops down the stretch.
Although Montana lost and did not lead for most of the second half or in overtime, the Griz went down to the wire with one of college basketball’s most veteran teams. The Vandals — sporting a rotation that includes six seniors and a junior — drilled 12 of their 19 3-point attempts, watched star Vic Sanders only miss one shot and score 21 points on seven attempts despite fouling out and got BJ Blake’s best effort in a 27-point, 11-rebound double-double. Yet the game was decided in the last second of a 45-minute slugfest.
“We played to win, we fought to win,” DeCuire said. ”They shot the lights out. They threw us their best punch in my opinion. When someone goes out and gives you the performance they gave us and it was in overtime on the road, you walk away feeling like, ‘if it was a neutral site or at home, we win that thing.’”
Montana had won 16 of 17 entering the road trip through the Palouse. The lone loss came at the hands of Washington, a three-point defeat in Seattle to end a challenging but impressive non-conference stretch. After having its game at UCLA cancelled in December and coming out flat before a furious rally in a 71-68 loss at Georgia State, DeCuire started consistently talking about “competing with desperation.”
UM saw that desperation during two impressive home wins over UC Riverside and UC Irvine to secure the Grizzlies’ first winning non-conference record since 2011-2012. Montana continued to dominate its competition, never trailing for a single second during a conference opening road trip that produced lopsided wins at Northern Arizona and Southern Utah.
Montana head coach Travis DeCuire coaching guard Ahmaad Rorie (14)/by UM Athletics
Then the season turned even though the winning streak continued. The Griz beat Northern Colorado in Missoula 89-80 despite the Bears winning the second half. UM posted its first win at Sac State in the DeCuire era despite trailing at halftime. The Grizzlies needed 39 points from Michael Oguine to win 92-89 at Portland State. Montana looked vulnerable in the first half in Bozeman before smothering the rival Bobcats on the way to a 15-point win.
A similar formula became a trend. Endure sloppy first half offensive execution before coming out of the halftime locker room with adjustments that sparked suffocating runs and helped Montana cruise to wins over Southern Utah, NAU and Portland State in Missoula. During their most recent road sweep at Northern Colorado and North Dakota, the Griz needed standout performances from role players Bobby Moorehead and Krslovic to win at UNC and a strong final four minutes to outlast a deliberate UND team in Grand Forks.
In Montana’s last home game, Sac State led for the final 15:54 of regulation and most of overtime before key defensive plays by Krslovic and junior point guard Ahmaad Rorie helped the Griz escape with a 71-69 win. Then came the sweep last weekend.
“The middle of December, we weren’t sure as good we could or couldn’t be,” DeCuire said. “The amount of desperation we played with to find out what we were capable of was at a very high level. That’s very difficult to sustain. You are going to need some adversity to get it back.
“You see that in every sport. A heavyweight fighter wins 30 in a row and all of a sudden, somebody knocks him out. How does he respond? Does he come back and get knocked out again or does he come out and win again? That’s how you find true champions.”
Montana forward Jamar Akoh (15)by Brooks Nuanez
Now Montana gets a chance to affirm itself as a true champion for the second time under DeCuire by winning what would be UM’s 10th regular-season Big Sky crown. The Griz host MSU on Saturday before hosting Weber State and Idaho State to complete the regular season. UM has already secured a top four seed and the accompanying first-round bye in the Big Sky Tournament in Reno the second week of March.
“Before practice Tuesday, Travis said, ‘We have three games left at home, we are in control of our destiny and if I told you that two months ago, would you have taken it?’ Everyone said yes,” Krslovic said. “It’s a great spot to be in. This is a spot we haven’t been in for a very long time. We just have to perform for three more games.”
The hype of the streak built the external pressure but DeCuire never acknowledged it. Montana has 13 Big Sky wins with its final three games left at Dahlberg, a stretch DeCuire is looking forward to.
“We never lost focus,” DeCuire said. “That’s why when everyone was asking me about the streak, this record, that record, I downplayed it the whole time. That’s not what we were talking about. That’s what our fans, our community, our media were talking about. That’s what this is for. We are here to entertain all the people who are enjoying that run.
“But for us, we couldn’t lose sight of what that focus was or we would be needing to refocus right now. We know what we have left in front of us.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
