MISSOULA — As Holland Woods shot his game-sealing free throws to thwart Montana’s long home winning streak, he muttered, “Hell yeah, the streak is over.”
“At that moment, I thought, ‘We will see you in March,” said Montana senior center Jamar Akoh after providing the context of Woods’ confident boast.
Welcome to the world of the defending Big Sky Conference champions.
Last season, Montana harbored lofty internal expectations. Externally, most expected Montana to be in contention with an Idaho squad led by the all-league combo of Victor Sanders and B.J. Blake, Jerrick Harding and Weber State along with eventual conference MVP Bogdan Bliznyuk and his Eastern Washington squad.
After posting a 16-2 mark in Big Sky play and surviving the league tournament despite three consecutive upset scares, Montana advanced to the Big Dance. Despite a 61-47 loss to eventual national runner-up Michigan in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Grizzlies entered this season with historic expectations, both in the locker room and the public sphere.
Montana senior forward Jamar Akoh celebrates the Big Sky championship in 2018/by Brooks Nuanez
“We definitely have a target on our backs,” Akoh said earlier this season. “Against Portland State, they definitely let us know it and you could tell they wanted to beat us. It was very personal to them.
“Last year, we didn’t’ have that. We were the underdogs and we had something to prove. Now everybody has something to prove against us.”
Those expectations have been tested quite literally since the first competitive outing of the season. In Montana’s secret scrimmage against a Pac 12 foe, Akoh tore a ligament in his shooting (right) wrist. That injury cost UM’s bruising big man to miss seven games during UM’s non-conference schedule, including a 61-42 decision at Arizona in which the Wildcats pounded Montana in the paint.
The non-conference featured highs — like snapping South Dakota State’s Division I-best home winning streak of 26 games to cap the gauntlet with a 7-4 record — and lows, like a 60-51 loss at UC Irvine in which the Grizzlies’ shooting woes were striking in a loss that negatively impacted UM’s potential seeding.
And during league play, almost every team has swung from the heels in an effort to derail UM’s repeat bid.
“We expect it and we welcome it,” UM senior guard Michael Oguine said last month. “Everyone is going to give us their best shot. After the Michigan game, we were bringing back almost the same team. Teams knew, teams were prepared and they wanted a piece of us.”
From the unlikely granting of a waiver to Oregon State transfer Kendal Manuel and his subsequent acclimation to UM’s rotation to Akoh’s injury-riddled senior campaign to the constant pressure and heightened attention shouldered by NBA hopeful Ahmaad Rorie to Oguine’s ailing body to the emergence of Sayeed Pridgett and Donaven Dorsey, the Grizzlies have been on a roller coaster ride all winter.
Yet here the champions are, staring their predicted destiny square in the face. UM managed to once again sweep rival Montana State, capping a 7-1 run by Montana’s seniors against Tyler Hall and the Bobcats with a thrilling 89-83 victory in front of the best Dahlberg Arena crowd in a decade.
Montana senior guard Michael Oguine (0) attacks the rim vs Northern Colorado defenders in 2018/by Brooks Nuanez
Less than 48 hours later, Montana lost a 74-72 heartbreaker to Northern Colorado, keeping the Big Sky title race alive as the Griz prepare for their final home stand of the season, a defeat Oguine said “made us realize we are not unbeatable.
“We can’t have any more slip ups like that,” he added.
UNC dismantled Weber State in Greeley on Thursday. Behind 34 points from Big Sky MVP front-runner Jordan Davis, the Bears raced to an 85-61 win to move to 13-4 in league play, just a game behind UM in the loss column.
The Griz and the Bears will be the top two seeds at the Big Sky Tournament in Boise in less than two weeks. But if Montana wants to hang a second straight regular-season title banner, the Griz will have to take care of business against a quartet of teams that includes a surging Southern Utah squad and a rematch with the Vikings in Portland.
“What I told these guys in the locker room is the future is in your hands now,” DeCuire said following his team’s 80-62 win at Idaho State, the ninth win in the string of 10 straight before Monday’s loss. “You have a two-game lead and you have four games at home. You hold down the fort and you hang a banner.”
Saturday’s game is much more intriguing than it was when analyzed as the rematch of UM’s 89-76 win in Cedar City in the second league game for each team back in December. Since then, Southern Utah — the Thunderbirds suffered a 92-62 home loss to Montana State in their BSC opener — have been one of the league’s most improved teams.
The two Montana schools are the only two teams to win in Cedar City this season, period. Following a third straight loss to open conference play (88-68 at Idaho State), SUU posted a 90-82 overtime win at Weber State. The T-Birds won four straight, including sweeping a three-game home stand behind the emergence of former Boise State transfer Cameron Oluyitan.
Montana guard Ahmaad Rorie celebrates during the 2018 Big Sky Conference Championship game /by Brooks Nuanez
A three-game losing streak dropped Southern Utah to 4-6 in league. The Thunderbirds have won five of seven since, including completing the season sweep of Weber before sweeping Eastern Washington and Idaho to move to 10-2 at home this winter. SUU is 9-8 in league play, the most conference wins for the Thunderbirds since SUU joined the league in 2012. Southern Utah is in a three-way tie with Eastern Washington and Portland State for fifth place, a game behind Montana State in the loss column.
“A quick look at the standings show that they have improved a lot,” Oguine, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, said earlier this week. “When we played them earlier this year, I thought they were better, improved from last year. And it’s showing at this point. We aren’t going to take them lightly.”
The game is intriguing as well because it marks senior night for one of the most accomplished groups in Montana history. Oguine, Rorie, Akoh and Big Sky Defensive MVP front-runner Bobby Moorehead will all play their second-to-last home games on Saturday night. Montana wraps its home schedule Monday against Northern Arizona before finishing the season at Portland State and Sacramento State.
“It’s pretty crazy to think about,” Oguine said. “Time really flies. That’s said a lot but it really does feel that way. It feels like just yesterday, I was playing my first game. It’s been a good run. Hopefully, we end it on a strong note.”
Oguine and Moorehead were two of DeCuire’s first high school recruits, the former a state champion from a private school in Los Angeles and the latter an explosive scorer and intriguing wing prospect from DeCuire’s favorite recruiting hotbed in Tacoma, Washington. Oguine came to Montana as an unbelievably athletic spark plug. He’ll leave the school as one of its most accomplished players, a slashing guard who will finish in the Top 10 in UM history in career points while also claiming the league’s Defensive Player of the Year a year ago. Moorehead came to Montana as a shooter — he drilled eight 3-pointers in a win at Idaho State as a true freshman — before transforming into the most savvy, high IQ defenders in the conference.
Montana senior forward Bobby Moorehead (24)/by Brooks Nuanez
DeCuire’s second full recruiting class included Rorie, a hard-nosed floor general with seemingly endless endurance. The Oregon transfer originally committed to Cal before DeCuire took the head coaching job at his alma mater. But the Tacoma native never forgot DeCuire. After falling out of favor in Eugene, he landed in Missoula.
After sitting out a year, Rorie joined the mix. The addition disrupted the Griz. Despite having Rorie, Oguine and all-league combo guard Walter Wright in the mix, UM stumbled to a 16-16 finish that included a one-and-done at the Big Sky Tournament.
Wright graduated, Akoh became eligible after transferring from Cal State-Fullerton and the Grizzlies possessed the same starting lineup for 33 consecutive games. That helped Montana advance to the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time.
“We were blessed last year,” Oguine said. “We had a lot of health, same starting lineup. This year, we haven’t been as fortunate.”
Unfortunate or not, Montana has continued to fight its way toward a repeat. Through the first 11 games of the Big Sky slate, Akoh was the front-runner for MVP, a scoring and rebounding monster that nobody had an answer for. His true dominance was on display when he scored 12 straight points against a Weber State front line led by 6-foot-9 senior center Zach Braxton considered the top in the league in a 75-68 UM victory. Akoh finished the game with 25 points and 10 rebounds, his third straight double-double.
But Akoh took a hard fall less than two weeks later in UM’s 100-59 win over Idaho and did not play in the second half of that game. He has not returned since, suffering a knee injury that required surgery. He was averaging more than 16 points and leading the league in rebounding before the injury.
Montana senior guards Michael Oguine (left) and Ahmaad Rorie (right)/ by Brooks Nuanez
Montana’s only loss since came Monday against the second-best team in the conference. The Griz have completely erased the notion they cannot shoot. UM hit 15 3-pointers in 30 attempts against Montana State. Dorsey, a former Washington transfer who missed the last two seasons because of the NCAA transfer rule then a health scare centered on a tumor in his hip, hit 10-of-14 3-pointers over the last two games.
And Pridgett, one of the league’s most unorthodox players, has emerged as the Big Sky’s toughest one-on-one matchup.
Yet it’s been UM’s seniors — from Rorie’s steadiness and peerless endurance to Oguine’s continual knack for making big plays in big moments to Moorehead’s stellar and unselfish defensive effort — that have carried them to this moment of potential triumph.
“This is hard for me but exciting,” DeCuire said. “You always look forward to enjoying special moments with seniors. But at the same time, you don’t look forward to seeing them move on.”
Last season, Rorie earned first-team All-Big Sky. Oguine was the league’s top defender and a second-team all-league selection. Akoh earned third-team accolades in his first year as a Griz. But the linchpin was Fabijan Krslovic, the lone senior on the roster and a central leader that all four accomplished juniors looked to.
This season, the Griz have had a harder time finding a defined leader or a go-to player. When Montana is at its best, the Griz move the ball crisply and flummox opponents with their defensive pressure. But this particularly Griz squad had been prone to giving up leads, only to finish games more often than not. UM is 20-7 overall, a couple wins off of the pace likely needed to get higher than last season’s 14-seed.
Montana head coach Travis DeCuire and senior guard Michael Oguine (0)/by Brooks Nuanez
But this group — one known for their distinct personalities, articulate individual speaking skills and a full embrace of DeCuire’s tenets as much as their basketball skills — is still in the hunt to set Montana’s school record for victories. If UM wins out, the Griz will finish 17-3 in league play, 27-7 overall, breaking the school record of 26 wins shared by DeCuire’s Griz squad his senior year as a player in 1992 and last season’s Grizzlies. That quest for a seven-game streak to send the season begins Saturday.
“This will be an exciting night,” DeCuire said. “These guys have a lot of people coming. Sometimes, it’s fun to experience that with them to see how much support they have. Hopefully, they come out and play well for them.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or note. All Rights Reserved.
