BOZEMAN – If anybody was wondering how much the potential history in the building on Saturday meant to the Montana State Bobcats and, especially, their fans, the answer came even before tip-off.
On a particularly piercing note – “free” – of a spectacular national anthem, a wave of cheers crescendoed to the roof of the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, the 6,696 mostly partisan fans in attendance not needing the clock to start counting down for a reason to go crazy – understandable given what was at stake.
Earlier in the afternoon, the MSU women’s team held off the Lady Griz 75-73 in the opener of the doubleheader, setting up an opportunity for rare accomplishment in the nightcap. If Montana State’s men closed out the sweep, it would be the first time the Bobcats’ basketball teams won all four games in the rivalry since 1999. That coupled with a football win – which MSU secured with a 55-21 evisceration in Bozeman in the razor cold of November – had never happened.
The Brick is the perfect place to host such a momentous showdown – ring lights over the court spotlighting the hardwood like a WWE ring, softly banked rows of seats (all filled on Saturday) fading back into the darkness. It says a lot about the current state of the rivalry that, aside from all the other things going Montana State’s way, Bozeman is also the better place to watch a basketball game right now. Some would argue it’s been half a century since that’s been the case.
“The atmosphere was so amazing and that’s the thing I love about Bozeman in general,” said MSU superstar junior RaeQuan Battle after pouring in a team-high 19 points. “It will get loud in the Brick and I was telling the opposite team, ‘Our gym is louder than yours’. That’s what I was telling them. It’s more fun over here.”
For five minutes, it looked like the Bobcats were going to match that intensity with hounding defense, turning the Grizzlies’ dribble hand-offs into steals and run-outs the other way, including a soaring Battle dunk that sent the Spirit of the West marching band into pandemonium. And even after real life intruded on the narrative, muddying the rest of the first half into a foul fest that colored the rest of the game, the Bobcats turned that intensity into a 72-68 win – and history.
“I know how much this means to Bobcat nation,” Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle said. “It’s an emotional game, and it’s been a long time. … We were scrambling at times, but our guys were playing with great effort and energy.”
Like the first game in Missoula this year, Battle’s free throws in the final minute were the difference. On Saturday, he made two with five seconds left for the final margin after Montana cut a double-digit deficit to two points multiple times in the final 60 seconds.
It was an exciting end to a game that hadn’t deserved one for most of the 40 minutes. Montana State didn’t make a field goal for over 10 minutes in the first half, but still took a 32-24 lead to the halftime break after making 20 of 24 free throws in the first 20 minutes and ending the half on Tyler Patterson’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Battle, a Big Sky MVP front-runner, played for just eight minutes in the first half after drawing two quick fouls, while Montana head coach Travis DeCuire had to go to the bench early and often, with Griz bigs Dischon Thomas, Josh Bannan, Laolu Oke and Mack Anderson – the only post players available for Montana – each picking up at least two fouls before halftime as well. Montana State finished 32 of 41 from the free-throw line to Montana’s 15 of 17.
“Stoppages are one thing,” Montana head coach Travis DeCuire said. “Another thing is just playing with your bench against their starters. It’s been a long time since we’ve been faced with that, where I’d look up and three or four starters are on the bench with two fouls. … When your opponent gets 41 uncontested shots from the charity stripe, it’s going to be hard to beat them.”
Ironically, the sludgy first half led to an intriguing second one as both coaches were forced to put all their cards on the table. DeCuire put the ball in Bannan’s hands almost exclusively, unlocking the Australian’s bruising, effective face-up game against Montana State’s all-conference post banger Jubrile Belo, the league’s reigning MVP.
Bannan scored 20 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, not even a month after he had just five points in the first matchup.
“Once we spread them out in the second half, put the ball in Bannan’s hands a little bit, which took away that pressure, took advantage of the face-guarding on the shooters, we attacked the rim and got quite a few 2(-point field goals) at that point. The problem is we dug ourselves too big of a hole and ran out of time coming back.”
After Montana State missed seven 3-point attempts to start the game and finished the first half just 2 for 9 from deep, the Bobcats hit 4 of 6 3-point attempts in the second half to stay ahead. Darius Brown II’s triple with just over 10 minutes left stretched Montana State’s lead to 15, the largest of the game.
Montana didn’t cut it under five until there was less than 1:30 left, when Bannan’s two free throws made it 67-63, Montana State.
Montana’s Aanen Moody, who had a back-and-forth, trash-talking matchup with Montana State’s Patterson throughout, made two shots in the final minute. Both cut the deficit to two points, but Montana State’s Robert Ford III made two free throws after a controversial offensive rebound kept MSU’s possession alive to answer the first one, and Battle’s two free throws answered Moody’s wild fadeaway jumper with 6.5 seconds left to provide the final margin.
What were you feeling in that moment?
“Nothing at all,” Battle said. “I’ve been there before.”
Battle might have. His school hasn’t, which made Saturday’s statement, the flag firmly planted on the mountaintop, that much sweeter.
“It starts at the top,” Sprinkle said. It starts with President (Waded) Cruzado, and it trickles down to Leon (Costello), who’s the best AD in the country, in my opinion. The culture trickles down, the atmosphere around, the energy. That’s what Bobcat nation is.”
