The first Saturday in February featured five Big Sky Conference games. Idaho outlasted Sacramento State in overtime in the fourth OT game of the conference season already. Weber State beat Idaho State in double overtime, moving the total to five games that needed extra time and meaning there’s been 13 total games that have come down to the final possession. That also includes Montana winning for a single point over Northern Arizona, handing NAU its second one-point loss of the weekend.
BIG SKY SCOREBOARD
Eastern Washington 98, Portland State 88
Montana State 75, Northern Colorado 62
Weber State 72, Idaho State 71, 2OT
Montana 67, Northern Arizona 66
Idaho 82, Sac State 76, OT
Eastern Washington 98, Portland State 88
The Eagles moved to 12-0 in Big Sky Conference play by scoring their highest point total against a Division I opponent this season. EWU’s 14-game winning streak the longest current streak in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.
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EWU got up and down at will against Portland State’s pressing, up-tempo style, finishing the game 34-of-51 from the floor, including shooting 16-of-24 after halftime. Five different Eagles scored in double figures, led by Tyreese Davis’ career-high 27 points on 9-of-11 shooting. He also dished out five of EWU’s 22 assists.
EWU has a two-game lead in league play with six games remaining. The Eagles are in search of their second Big Sky title in the last three seasons and their first under second-year head coach David Riley. Steele Venters scored 19 points and Angelo Allegri scored 13 for the victors.
Portland State, which beat Idaho on Thursday, fell to 4-7 in league play despite 29 points, 10 assists and five steals from Cam Parker.
Montana State 75, Northern Colorado 62
Montana State won for the ninth time in 10 games in 2023 to keep pace with Eastern. MSU’s only loss this calendar year came on its third game in five days at Idaho five days before playing at rival Montana. The Bobcats lost 74-70 in Moscow and have not lost since.
Two nights after only leading for 43 seconds yet still beating Northern Arizona 69-68, Montana State raced to a commanding 48-28 halftime lead. Three minutes into the second half, the host Bobcats had a 23-point lead, the largest of the afternoon at Brick Breedin Fieldhouse.
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Senior Jubrile Belo and junior RaeQuan Battle continued to carry Montana State. Belo, the reigning Big Sky MVP, scored 19 points for the second game in a row to lead all scorers. Battle, a former four-star recruit who started his career at Washington, added 15 points as the Bobcats moved to 10-2, alone in second place and two games behind EWU.
Tyler Patterson also proved pivotal, drilling five 3-pointers in nine tries from deep. Darius Brown II scored just two points on 1-of-4 shooting but dished out a career-best 12 assists as MSU finished with 19 dimes on 26 made baskets.
Daylen Kountz and Matt Johnson each scored 15 points for Northern Colorado, who fell to 2-9 in league play, tied with NAU for last in the 10-team league.
“I thought our effort and energy were great today,” Montana State fourth-year head coach Danny Sprinkle said. “We sent a message to them during our walk-through on Friday and they responded. The guys came out against a team that’s so much better than their record — when you have three seniors who can score like Northern Colorado can, that’s a team you don’t want to see in a tournament setting.”
Weber State 72, Idaho State 71, 2OT
The Wildcats won at the buzzer for the third time in the last four weeks, including the second time All-Big Sky power forward Dillon Jones bulled his way to a go-ahead layup in the waning seconds. Jones hit an almost identical shot to lift WSU to a 50-48 win over Sac State earlier this season. Weber State also overcame a 57-56 deficit with 1.9 seconds left to post a 59-57 win over Montana in Missoula by stealing an in-bounds pass, a takeaway that led to Steven Verplancken’s game-winning triple.
On Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho State had chances to win the game at the end of regulation and the first overtime, but Brock McKenzie could not convert on either isolation clear out. Weber almost hit a full-court shot at the buzzer of the first OT to win. Then Jones, a front runner for league MVP, converted at the rim to finish with 16 points and 10 rebounds in 44 minutes, boosting Weber to 7-3 in league play, alone in third place behind EWU and MSU.
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Idaho State’s Brayden Parker drew 15 fouls on Saturday, leading to 23 points. He finished 7-of-19 from the floor and 8-of-10 from the free throw line but Idaho State fell to 5-5 in conference play. Parker played a key role in fouling out WSU center Alex Tew in 18 minutes and Daniel Rouzan in 12 minutes. Reserve guard Junior Ballard scored 20 points in 36 minutes before fouling out for the Wildcats as well.
Montana 67, Northern Arizona 66
Montana lost in overtime, 75-74, at Northern Arizona when Jalen Cone hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 19 seconds left. That was NAU’s lone victory in single-possession games and Saturday turned into NAU’s fifth loss in such scenarios, including its second in as many games after losing 69-68 in Bozeman to Montana State on Saturday.
Carson Towt, who finished with a monstrous double-double thanks to 23 points and 12 rebounds, finished through contact, drew a foul and converted the 3-point play with just under three minutes to give NAU a 64-60 advantage. But Aanen Moody’s seventh 3-pointer of the game and his 10th of the weekend shaved it back to one, 64-63, with 1:42 left. Moody finished with 26 points for the second outing in a row.
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With 47 seconds left, Josh Vasquez managed to strip a tumbling Jalen Cone and go coast-to-coast for a transition lay-up. That bucket, which gave UM a 65-64 lead, gave Montana six fast-break points after not scoring a single transition bucket for three games in a row.
Xavier Fuller, who finished with 16 points, hit two free throws with 36 seconds left to give NAU its final lead. But Brandon Whitney’s bucket with 11 seconds to play proved to be the final margin after Fuller couldn’t score on NAU’s final offensive possession.
The win, Montana’s third in row, moves the Griz to 6-6 in league play, alone in fourth place in the conference. Moody hit 7-of-9 from beyond the arc and 9-of-15 overall to complete a scorching shooting weekend that saw him go 19-of-32 from the floor and 10-of-16 from deep.
Dischon Thomas bounced back from a tough game Thursday to chip in 13 points. Josh Bannan totaled 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists while Whitney scored 10 points and dished out six assists on a night UM had 16 helpers.
“You might not want these games, but we had to come out with wins in these scenarios becuase if you are going to active in the conference tournament, there’s going to be lots of these types of games,” Montana ninth-year head coach Travis DeCuire. “Our guys now have a lot of confidence down the stretch of the close games we can win.”
Montana held NAU guard Jalen Cone to 10 points, a little less than half of his single-game scoring average. NAU is now 2-9 in league with three losses coming in the final seconds and three more coming by a single possession.
“They are all tough,” NAU fourth-year head coach Shane Burcar said. “I thought we had a great college basketball game here tonight.
“You are up 64-60 and you can’t let the best shooter in the gym (Moody) get a 3-pointer and we did. We had some opportunities for good shots but we didn’t make them. That’s how you lose those games.
“Our next step is just winning games. That’s it. That’s the truth. We have high-character guys. We just have to finish these games right now.”
Idaho 82, Sac State 76, OT
After falling to the Hornets in overtime in Moscow a little less than a month ago, the Vandals prevailed behind 10 points from Isaac Jones in the extra period as one of the league’s top big men finished with 25 points.
The Idaho win snaps a four-game losing streak for the Vandals, who move to 3-9 in the conference. The Hornets fell to 5-6 in Big Sky play and have now lost three straight after drilling Montana 67-48 on January 26.
Jones and Divant’e Moffitt again paced Idaho. The pair from Spanaway, Washington combined for 55 points as Moffitt led with a game-high 30 points on 13-of-18 shooting while Jones posted 25 points on 11-of-16 from the field. The duo has now combined to score 20-plus points in 22 games (11 each) and recorded at least 30 points on seven different occasions (Jones 4, Moffitt 3).
The Vandals shot 63.5 percent (33-of-52) from the field, 50 percent (6-of-12) from three and 83 percent (10-of-12) from the foul line. It was the highest field goal percentage against a conference opponent for a Vandal basketball team in at least the last nine years.
