On Tuesday morning, Tyler Hall secured the fifth Big Sky Conference Player of the Week of his career. The Montana State junior guard averaged 21.5 points per game — right at his season average — in MSU’s wins over Bethesda and at Milwaukee, moving into the Top 10 in Big Sky history in career 3-pointers made with 251 during the stretch.
Tuesday evening, Hall experienced something much more rare than earning a league weekly award. In Montana State’s road trip-ending rematch with Central Michigan in Mount Pleasant, Hall did not score a point in 11 minutes of action. The Rock Island, Illinois native tweaked his ankle during Monday’s shoot around an injury he initially suffered in MSU’s home opener. It is the first time in 73 starts as a Bobcat Hall has not scored a single point.
Hall’s off night coincided with one of the worst performances of the season for the Bobcats. Central Michigan scored 13 of the game’s first 15 points, Montana State made just seven of its first 27 shots and fell behind 37-20 at halftime on the way to a 75-48 CMU victory Tuesday night. The Chippewas defeated MSU in Bozeman 106-103 last season. Hall scored 29 points that night.
The win moves CMU to 7-1this season. The loss drops Montana State to 6-4 with a home game against UC Santa Barbara at 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon upcoming.
“I apologize to the game of basketball. It will never happen again,” Hall posted on Twitter a few hours after the game.
The Chippewas forced a season-high 17 MSU turnovers, including seven in the game’s first 11 possessions, and limited the Cats to 29 percent shooting.
“We just couldn’t make shots,” Bobcat head coach Brian Fish said, “and we turned the ball over too much. We were out of sorts the whole half, the whole game. We started out by not being able to get rebounds. This was a really, really disappointing night.”
Montana State sophomore point guard Harald Frey earlier this season/ by Brooks Nuanez
MSU sophomore point guard Harald Frey, MSU’s second-leading scorer behind Hall, scored just three points in the first half. He finished with a team-high 12 points, the only Bobcat in double figures. Senior Zach Green scored seven points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
But MSU shot 28.8 percent from the floor, the team’s worst shooting night since November of 2014. Montana State finished 1-of-16 from beyond the arc.
“We haven’t had 1-of-16 many times since we’ve been here,” Fish said. “You have to play through on those deals and keep playing. We would get a rebound and get a turnover. The ball didn’t move much. It caught up with us tonight.”
Four players for the hosts scored in double figures, led by Kevin McKay’s game-high 17 points.
The loss wraps up a brutal 3-week stretch that has included six of MSU’s last seven games away from home. Montana State has played eight of its 10 games in places other than Bozeman, including its opener against Omaha in Great Falls. Saturday’s matchup with UCSB marks the first Division I visitor to Brick Breeden Fieldhouse this season.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
