THE MATCHUP
In the latest matchup of the Big Sky Conference’s two most winning and successful Big Sky Conference basketball programs, Montana took on a Weber State squad that came to Missoula with an unblemished league record and 10 wins overall this season already. WSU was fresh off an 85-75 win over Montana State in Bozeman on Thursday while Montana posted a 78-54 win over Idaho State that same night.
THE RESULT
Lonnell Martin Jr. hit an acrobatic bucket off a sweet pass from Cam Parker as the shot clock wound down to lift Montana to a 74-72 lead. Martin’s basket came with 3.3 seconds left in the game and Dyson Roehler’s last-chance heave was no good.
The win moved Montana to 3-1 in Big Sky Conference play, 9-5 overall. The loss was Weber State’s first in conference and dropped the Wildcats to 10-5 overall.
THE STANDOUTS
Despite battling foul trouble, Robby Beasley III boosted a Griz offense that made 10 3-pointers for the second outing in a row by drilling five triples and scoring a team-high 19 points. Beasley has been playing more on the ball lately and thriving.
Parker can play on and off the ball, giving the Griz offense a different flow in either position. Parker hit a 3-pointer to halt Weber’s 14-0 run in the first half and scored 10 of his 12 points before halftime. He finished with eight of Montana’s 16 assists on a night UM shot 52 percent from the floor.
For the second outing in a row and the sixth time this season, Josh Bannan posted a double-double. The sophomore from Australia followed up Thursday’s 19-point, 10-board outing with 13 points and 10 more rebounds on Saturday. he is averaging 12.2 points and 8.1 rebounds per game this season.
Martin finished with seven points. His 3-pointer with 4:11 left was a big one, helping cut a Weber State lead that had swelled to 68-61, the largest advantage for the Wildcats down the stretch.
Koby McEwen, a former transfer from Marquette who scored 31 points against Montana State on Thursday, scored 14 points in the first half on the way to a game-high 24. He went 2-of-7 from beyond the arc on a night when Weber finished 5-of-17 from 3-point land.
Dillon Jones, the Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year last season, scored 17 points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds as WSU won the battle of the boards 33-26.
QUOTEABLE
“I don’t really know the history because it’s my first year here but I could feel the energy in the locker room before the game,” Lonnell Martin Jr. said. “I knew we had to come out here and play like we know how to play, play defense and the game will take care of itself.
“This is my first time experiencing this in an arena with this many fans. This is definitely something I’ve dreamed about since I was little. It was fun tonight.”
“It was a high-intensity game the last three times we played them last year with no fans so I knew it would be intense with fans,” Cam Parker said. “This was a big environment for us and we embraced it.”
“There could’ve been a call on every play but whatever, the game was called evenly and that’s what it was,” Weber State head coach Randy Rahe said. “It came down to a circus play. The guy is going to shoot it, we played it really well, the guy volleyballs it into the rim and I guess it might be a fitting end to the way this game was played. Two good basketball teams. You have got to play really well up here to beat these guys. We played well enough to give ourselves a chance. Just one play short.”
BOX SCORE (CLICK)
SOCIAL
WHAT’S NEXT
Montana plays at Eastern Washington on Thursday before traveling to rival Montana State for a Sunday game that was moved because plays for the FCS national championship on Saturday in Frisco, Texas.
“We are just looking forward to playing Eastern and then Montana State,” Parker said. “Those are big ones. We didn’t get to experience that last year. We have to beat Eastern. We can’t let them win four times in a row.”
