Big Sky Conference

Despite Hall’s career night, Cats’ home win streak snaps

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Brian Fish and several of his veteran leaders have stated a common goal for this year’s Montana State Bobcats frequently during this young season, Fish’s third at the helm. If the MSU men’s basketball team wants to take a step to the level Fish hopes to attain as he tries to grow the Bobcats into one of the Big Sky Conference’s elite teams, Montana State must refuse to lose at home.

This MSU team tore off five straight home wins to begin the current season, boosting the team’s streak to nine wins overall dating back to last winter. On Monday at Brick Breedin Fieldhouse, Montana State found itself in an unusual situation trailing by double digits in the second half on its home court.

The Bobcats fell behind by 19 points against Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Bozeman on Monday evening. Behind a spirited and explosive scoring effort by sophomore Tyler Hall and energetic defense down the stretch, MSU cut the lead to 74-72 with one minute, 30 seconds left in the game. But Montana State could not rally all the way back.

Two days after losing 75-69 in Missoula to the Montana Grizzlies, Wisconsin-Milwaukee shot the lights out of the Brick. The Panthers nailed 13 3-pointers and 7-of-8 free throws in the game’s final 90 seconds to emerge with an 83-78 win in front of 2,212 spirited fans who braved sub-freezing temperatures to spur MSU almost all the way to a signature comeback.

The home loss is the first in six outings in Bozeman for Montana State. MSU is now 5-1 at home, 5-4 overall with two more road games looming this week.

We can’t let this end the world,” Fish said following the loss. “We have to regroup. We lost this game. It’s more on us. We have to change that. It’s our goal to win every game at home. But it doesn’t change anything. We have to go change what we did wrong more than worrying about a home loss.”

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Montana State sophomore Tyler Hall scored a career-high 42 points on Monday/ by Brooks Nuanez

Montana State fell for the first time at home since a January 30 loss to Montana last season. MSU’s first home defeat this season came despite Hall scoring a career-high 42 points. Hall scored 16 points in the game’s first nine minutes to keep MSU in it early and his 13 points in the final four minutes helped MSU shave 66-47 deficit with 13:35 left to a one-possession game.

“We played tough and I’m proud of us because we didn’t give up,” said Hall, a sophomore from Rock Island, Illinois. “You have to credit them. They made the right plays at the right times and hurt us at the end.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee drilled nine 3-pointers before halftime while also corralling eight offensive rebounds, leading to 16 second-chance points and a 37-25 overall advantage on the glass.

“They were just tougher than us. We always talk about rebounding. That’s always a No. 1 priority for us. Today, it just wasn’t. That hurt us.”

Hall’s performance tied Greg Harris (Portland State, 1968) for the second-best single-game scoring output ever by a Bobcat. The school record is 44 by Tom Storm during the 1966-67 season.

“He’s so, so good, my goodness,” said UWM head coach Lavall Jordan, an assistant at Michigan the last six years before taking his first head coaching job. “He has size, he can lift up and shoot over the top of you. I coached Tim Hardaway Jr. at Michigan and he can raise up and shoot over you like Tim. He can go down and post up as well. He’s a really good player and they have a really good team.”

Hall finished 15-of-25 from the floor, including 6-of-12 from beyond the arc. He hit 6-of-7 from the free throw line to top his previous career high by six points.

“It’s a great performance but knowing Tyler the way I know Tyler, he’d rather take two points with a win than anything about the 42 points in a loss,” Fish said. “He was very, very good offensively but we have to give him some help.”

Sophomore Zach Green scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds in 20 minutes of action. No other Bobcat scored more than senior Quinton Everett’s seven points.

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Montana State freshman point guard Harald Frey/ by Brooks Nuanez

Milwaukee saw four players score in double figures, including senior Cameron Harvey, a southpaw who drilled four first-half 3-points and five in as many attempts overall. His 17 points came on a perfect shooting night as the Panthers shredded MSU’s 2-3 zone defense in building a 44-38 halftime lead, then exploding on a 22-11 run out of intermission to put MSU at the largest home deficit its faced this season.

“They got big key rebounds that turned into baskets,” Fish said. “On top of that, you let a team shoot 65 percent from 3 and you are going to have a hard time staying in the game.

“Some of their guys hit the shots we wanted them to shoot. Once they got going, they kept knocking them down. Their guys stepped up.”

A total of 17 of Hall’s points came during a 23-8 run that helped MSU cut the lead from 19 to two. The lead swelled like it did because of Milwaukee’s hot shooting an ability to at least slow down Hall during the last four minutes of the first half and the first eight of the second half.

“We defended,” Jordan said. “Tyler Hall is a phenomenal player. He is really tough to guard. We had different people flying at him, threw different coverages at him. We got stops, multiple stops in a row and got in transition and that’s our best offense sometimes.”

Montana State junior Joe Mvuezolo/ by Brooks Nuanez

Montana State junior Joe Mvuezolo/ by Brooks Nuanez

Brett Prahl (13), Cody Wichmann (12) and Jeremiah Bell (12) all joined Harvey in double figure scoring for the visitors. Prahl, a 6-foot-9 center, found his way with MSU in the second half, scoring all 13 of his points and grabbing most of hi seight rebounds after the break. With 1:23 to play, Brock Stull missed a layup but Prahl earned the rebound, helping the Panthers wind the clock under a minute. MSU was forced to foul. Bell hit four free throws down the stretch and Stull and Wichmann hit two each at the stripe to sew up the first road win for Milwaukee under Jordan.

Montana State leaves the friendly confines of its home arena on Tuesday. The Bobcats play in Vermillion against South Dakota on Wednesday night and at Omaha on Saturday night. MSU hosts South Dakota in a return game on December 18 before wrapping its non-conference schedule by hosting Central Michigan on December 21.

“It’s as tough as anything we’ve faced,” Fish said of his upcoming schedule. “We are going to have to buckle down here and play because we are not getting beat by bad teams. That’s a really good team who played really well tonight who is very well coached. We have another big one in 48 hours on the road (at South Dakota) and then we keep going to play an Omaha team that just beat Iowa. We come back and play South Dakota again. It’s going to be a lot of sleepless nights here figuring out what we are going to do. But it has to start on the defensive end and with rebounding.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved. 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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