Big Sky Conference

Sherwood’s tip-in lifts Idaho to crucial win over first-place Griz

on

MOSCOW, Idaho — The battle lived up to its billing and a Nate Sherwood tip-in at the buzzer reaffirmed the Vandals as one of the team to beat in the Big Sky.

In a showdown between two of the league’s top contenders, the old rivalry continued to have its flames stoked in the new age. Montana junior Ahmaad Rorie hit a collection of clutch shots to help the Grizzlies drag the all-out brawl into overtime.

But B.J. Blake’s monster double-double (27 points, 11 rebounds) meant he had all the Grizzlies’ attention as the extra period wound down. On the final possession, Idaho isolated their smooth senior power forward, leading to a game-winning attempt that barely rimmed out. Sherwood, Idaho’s agitating junior post, tipped the ball in at the buzzer to lift the Vandals to an emotional 79-77 overtime win over the first-place Griz.

Idaho head coach Don Verlin/ by Brooks Nuanez

“This puts us back in the conference race,” Idaho 10th-year head coach Don Verlin said. “Montana has Idaho State and Weber State and Montana State at home. Still, they are in the driver’s seat. But this puts us in the position to make them uncomfortable, no question about it.

“The thing I wish would’ve happened it this game would’ve happened three weeks from tonight because that means we are going to the NCAA Tournament. But I’m glad it happened tonight and we are going to work like crazy to make sure it happens three weeks from tonight.”

Sherwood’s tip kept the Vandals in contention for the top seed in next month’s Big Sky Tournament in Reno.

“We were getting the ball to BJ because he was our man tonight. He made a play, it happened to miss and I happened to be in the right spot at the right time,” Sherwood said after finishing with eight points and seven rebounds. “Our plan was for him to score, attack the hoop and for us to rebound or get back so I did what I was coached to do and it fell my way.”

The preseason conference favorite Vandals stumbled to a 2-2 start that included the necessity of a 15-0 run to end a one-point win over Sac State and a loss on a buzzer-beater to Portland State. Meanwhile in Missoula, Montana ripped off 13 straight wins, one short of its school record and two short of the most consecutive wins in the history of the league.

Even though Idaho entered Saturday night’s quarrel in Moscow winners of five straight and eight of nine, Montana’s tear had overshadowed the rest of the league’s strong stretches entering the third-to-last weekend of BSC play. But the Grizzlies entered Cowan Spectrum limping after a 74-65 loss at Eastern Washington on Thursday night in which UM could not buy a bucket from beyond the arc.

Idaho guard Victor Sanders (11)

In front of 1,839 inspired fans, including LaWan Sanders the relentlessly vocal father of Idaho star Vic Sanders chirping cour side, Idaho seized control early as its stars set the pace. The Vandals built a 10-point lead less than seven minutes into the game behind 18 combined points from Blake and Sanders. But the Griz answered with a 11-0 run to assume control and a back-and-forth slugfest ensued the final 28 minutes of regulation into the extra period.

Despite Montana’s unwavering fight, the Griz came up short for the second straight game. Idaho’s win boosts the Vandals to 11-3 in league play, 19-7 overall. The loss drops Montana to 13-2 in the Big Sky, 20-7 overall.

“Wow, what a game,” Verlin said. “I thought our guys played extremely hard, fought like crazy. I was on them pretty hard because I didn’t think our effort was nearly good enough on Thursday (an 88-78 win over Montana State). I thought they turned in one heck of an effort tonight.

“One of our big keys was rebounding. We felt we had to out-rebound them and what did it do? It came down to a rebound to win the game. What a play by Nate Sherwood.”

Idaho’s buzzer-beater/ contributed

Weber State’s 83-73 win at Sacramento State on Saturday means there’s all of a sudden a logjam at the top of the Big Sky standings. The Griz have a half-game lead over WSU with a one-game week — the Griz host Montana State Saturday — upcoming. Weber is a game ahead of Idaho, who is two games ahead of fourth-place Eastern Washington.

“They have proven all year that they are a great team,” Sherwood said. “We knew it was going to be a dog fight. We came out strong and basketball is a game of runs. One side is going to go, then the other side is going to go. It’s a 40-minute game and you have to play every minute of it.”

After 13 straight wins and 15 wins in 16 outings, now Montana must adjust for the first time in 2018. The Griz host rival Montana State on Saturday before playing Weber State and Idaho State at home. UM is 11-0 at Dahlberg Arena in Missoula this season.

“We fought and we have a lot of confidence, we know we can play at a high level,” Montana head coach Travis DeCuire said. “We just have to settle down. The foul trouble got us out of whack early. They made a lot of shots (52 percent, 12-of-19 from 3-point arc). They made their first three 3s they took. At some point, percentages are supposed to catch up but they didn’t really tonight.

“We had to claw our way back into it twice and that’s a pretty good sign with what it would look like at a neutral site.”

Sanders, a 6-foot-5 combo guard with NBA aspirations, scored 18 points on five shots in 18 minutes before picking up his fourth foul with 8:45 left in regulation. Less than two minutes later, Sherwood made his first offensive impact. Idaho’s X-factor drilled a 3-pointer from the corner with a hand in his face for his first bucket to break a tie and give the hosts a 63-60 lead with 7:08 left.

Sanders re-entered the game and promptly drilled his fourth 3-pointer in as many attempts as the shot clock expired to give Idaho a 66-62 lead with 5:47 left in regulation, giving him his final total of 21 points on seven shots. A Blake layup gave Idaho a 68-63 lead while Montana was mired in cold spell that saw the Griz miss six of seven and go without a field goal for almost four minutes.

The first miss of any sort on the night for Sanders, the front end of a one-in-one, led to a Montana turnover that led to a deep pass to a streaking Chad Sherwood, Nate’s senior shooting guard brother who finished with eight assists. But UI senior Jordan Scott was called for a controversial impediment foul that helped spark Montana’s final rally of regulation.

Despite Nate Sherwood’s clutch 3-pointer from the corner with a hand in his face with 1:55 left, Montana owned the end of regulation.

Montana point guard Ahmaad Rorie earlier this season/ UM Athletics

Rorie, who finished with a game-high 21 points and surpassed 1,000 for his Griz career, rattled home a pull-up 3-pointer through contact with 92 seconds left as the shot clock buzzer sounded to cut the UI lead to 71-70. Then Montana got a stop, forcing a missed Scott 3-point try leading to Fabijan Krslovic drawing a foul on Blake with 46 ticks remaining. UM’s lone senior missed the first but hit the second from the stripe to tie the game at 71.

Montana center Jamar Akoh, a bruising junior who struggled with the pesky and aggressive Sherwood’s defense all night while also battling foul trouble, blocked Sherwood’s bunny with 22 seconds left in regulation, leading to Montana’s final possession.

With six ticks left, Rorie missed a pull-up attempt but Bobby Moorehead grabbed the offensive board and fired a shot at the buzzer that grazed the rim.

“It’s up and down,” Rorie said. “We definitely wasn’t trying to lose two in a row but we have to bounce back. We fought hard. We have to keep playing.

“We are looking at it as we are still in first place. We are trying to get all the wins we can get.”

In overtime, Blake executed such a hard spin move, he pulled his left hamstring, yet still finished through contact and converted the old-fashioned 3-point play to give UI a 74-73 lead with 3:07 left in OT.

“I’m the next guy up so when one of our star players gets in foul trouble, we have to look at each other as a team,” Blake said. “I’m not a flashy player. I hustle for every point I get.”

Akoh’s free throw on the ensuing possession tied the game for the 11th of 12 times in a contest that also included 10 lead changes.

Montana head coach Travis DeCuire/ by Brooks Nuanez

Trevon Allen, the only underclassmen in Idaho’s rotation, played 26 minutes in place of senior point guard Perrion Callendret, who played seven because of what Verlin called a coach’s decision. Allen came up huge, drilling a corner 3-pointer with 93 seconds left to give Idaho a 3-point lead.

Krslovic, a 75-percent free throw shooter, missed his second free throw in six attempts Saturday but made his final one to reach 14 points and cut the lead to 77-75 with 1:14 let. Michael Oguine, who finished with 15 points, hit a jumper with 30 seconds left for the final tie in a game that Idaho lead for 32 minutes.

On Idaho’s final possession, with Sanders on the bench, the hosts isolated Blake. His final shot rimmed out but Sherwood’s defender had rotated to help, leaving the 6-foot-8 forward open for the heroic tip.

“That’s what we’ve been working on all year: to make big plays at the right time,” Sherwood said. “Our team stayed strong together and we made plays.”

Idaho’s push for the league title next includes in-state rival Idaho State in Pocatello Thursday before Saturday’s showdown against Weber State. The Vandals have not won in Ogden since returning to the Big Sky before the 2014 season.

Montana’s sole focus is getting back on track, starting with their fierce rival, the Bobcats.

“We don’t talk about streaks,” DeCuire said. “I never went in the locker room and was stressing 11, 12, 13 on the wins side so I won’t go in the locker room and stress two on the losing side. At the end of the day, we are 7-2 on the road in conference and this is a tough place to play, Eastern is a tough place to play. When you are undefeated and you’ve got a streak, teams are going to play the game with a championship effort and enthusiasm. I don’t think we matched it Thursday but we did tonight.”

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.

Recommended for you