Yellowstone Times

Montana State Sweeps Montana with 72-68 Win

The Montana State men's basketball team overcame a cold-shooting first half to put Montana away 72-68 for a Brawl of the Wild Sweep in Worthington Arena on Saturday night.

With the result and the MSU women's basketball team's win earlier that afternoon, the Bobcats went 4-0 against their rivals for the first time since the 1998-99 season. It was also the first time since 2010 that the men's team swept the regular-season series with Montana. 

The Bobcats (19-9, 12-3 Big Sky Conference) shot 32-for-41 from the charity stripe – 12 of which came from Great Osobor, who had 14 points and went 1-for-1 on field goal attempts — to help overshadow a 10-minute stretch in the first half without a made field goal. MSU got more production up and down the roster than that of the Grizzlies (14-13, 8-7 Big Sky Conference), which only had four of their nine players score. UM would also turn the ball over 15 times to MSU's 14, plus the visitors lost the battle of the boards 28-23.

"I know how much this win means to Bobcat Nation," Montana State Head Coach Danny Sprinkle said. "It's an emotional game, and it's been a long time since we've swept [Montana]."

RaeQuan Battle was effective from midrange and with another highlight-reel dunk: a . He finished with 19 points. Darius Brown II was MSU's best all-around player, as he scored 14 points on 5-for-9 shooting, plus added three assists, three steals and his first block of the season. As a team, MSU shot 54.5% in the second half en route to a 43.6% showing on the night.

"I thought Darius was tremendous all night," Sprinkle said. "I thought his defense sparked us early, and Robert Ford II did a great job on defense. We made it hard on them. We were scrambling at times, but our guys were playing with great effort and energy."

The Bobcats drew contact effectively in the first half, as 20 of the Bobcats' first half-points came off free throws. MSU built a 6-0 lead from the charity stripe, then, the MSU defense generated three-straight turnovers that led to the first made field goal of the night: a wide-open layup from Darius Brown II to make it an 8-0 game.

Aanen Moody hit back-to-back threes to get Montana on the board, but a steal and high-flying dunk from RaeQuan Battle got the sellout crowd back on its feet one possession later. He nearly made a fourth with 14:41 to go by nailing a three from the left side as he fell away, yet as he celebrated making the shot, one of the officials called him for an offensive foul for kicking his defender.

With leading scorer Moody nailed to the bench Montana only managed four points in four minutes. Meanwhile, Montana State kept getting to the line and extended its lead to 17-10 off a pair of free throws from Great Osobor. Yet as MSU went nearly seven minutes without a field goal, the Grizzlies went on a 6-0 run to make it a one-point game with 8:15 to go.

Josh Bannan's free throws at 7:46 tied the game at 18, but MSU got back in front with four-straight Osobor free throws. The sophomore forward would be the hero again late in the first half by snapping the 10-minute drought without a field goal on a thundering dunk, then by drawing an offensive foul on the next possession to get the crowd back in the game. 

Brown II's defense helped get the crowd back in the game. With 3:50 to go, the Bobcat backcourt locked down the Grizzlies' guards and forced a shot clock violation, prompting the loudest cheers from the crowd up to that point. Out of the media timeout, Brown II blocked a would-be fast-break layup from Josh Vazquez for his first deflection of the year. With less than a minute to go, Brown II picked off a lazy inbounds pass, which led to a deep three to put MSU up 29-23, then Tyler Patterson closed the scoring with his first three of the night as time expired.

Scoring came easier for both teams in the second half. With a 32-24 lead out of halftime, Patterson nailed another three to put MSU up 11 for its largest lead of the night. The Bobcats kept a 13-pont lead with a timely three from Robert Ford III, then extended it to 14 two minutes later when Sam Lecholat's three made it a 51-37 game with 12:38 to go.

Another three from Brown II pushed MSU's lead to 56-41 with 10:18 left. From that point forward, Montana would pull within seven points of Montana State on just four occasions. A floater from Battle put MSU up 65-56, then the Bobcats would get back to a nine-point lead as Brown II hit a floater from the elbow to make it 67-58 with 3:04 left.

Moody and the Grizzlies would not go quietly.

Four Moody free throws in the final four minutes made it a two-possession game, then two free throws from Bannan with 1:28 left made it a 67-63 ballgame. Osobor split a pair of free throws with 1:06 left to put MSU up 68-63, then both teams picked up the pace, turned the ball over in a frantic sequence that led to Moody nailing a three with 43.1 seconds to go that pulled UM within two.

On MSU's next possession, the Bobcats missed two shots, but deflected the ball off a Montana player with 13.9 seconds to retain possession. Moody fouled Ford II, who made both free throws to extend the lead to four. Yet Moody had one more big shot in him, nailing a short corner jumper with 6.5 seconds left to pull within two points. Two more free throws from Battle on MSU's final possession would put the game out of reach.

Josh Bannan led Montana with 25 points and eight rebounds, while Josh Vazquez (13 points) and Moody (21 points) rounded out the double-figure scorers for the Griz. Vazquez was responsible for all 13 of UM's bench points.

Original source can be found here.