Big Sky Conference

Colbert leads Bobcats to win in final home game

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Marcus Colbert’s career has been defined by his refusal to stop fighting. On Saturday, Montana State’s senior point guard came out swinging early and kept his aggression at full tilt for the duration of his final game at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

Colbert scored eight of Montana State’s first 10 points and 15 of MSU’s 39 in the first half. After halftime, he poured in 14 more, including a banked in 25-foot 3-pointer as the shot clock expired to give MSU a double-digit lead with 77 seconds to play. Colbert hit four of six free throws in the final 60 seconds to help his Bobcats secure an 89-82 victory over North Dakota in front of 2,585 on Saturday afternoon.

MSU guard Marcus Colbert

MSU guard Marcus Colbert

“I was really excited for this game because I’m never playing here again so I had to get up for it,” Colbert said. “I was aggressive from the start and didn’t ever want to let up.”

The win moves Montana State to 9-9 in Big Sky Conference play, 14-16 overall. The Bobcats will take the No. 7 seed into the Big Sky Tournament in Reno next week. MSU will play 10th-seeded Sacramento State at 5:35 p.m. on Tuesday. The loss drops North Dakota to 10-8 in league, 15-14 overall. UND will be the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will play at 2:35 p.m. on Tuesday.

“I’m bias but I thought that was two really good teams playing really good basketball today,” MSU second-year head coach Brian Fish said. “If you bought a $10 ticket today, I think you got your money’s worth.”

North Dakota employed a trapping half-court defense focused squarely on taking freshman Tyler Hall, Montana State’s leading scorer, out of his rhythm. With quick-handed freshman Geno Crandall constantly harassing Hall and Colbert, the Bobcats were able to move the ball and find the open shooter.

Colbert’s early aggression was apparent as he scored the first bucket of the game and put up eight shot attempts in the first eight minutes. He attempted 12 field goals, including six 3-pointers and shot five more free throws in the first half alone.

MSU guard Marcus Colbert

MSU guard Marcus Colbert

“I thought Marcus was going to set a record for shot attempts in a game early on,” Fish joked following his 21st win in his second season at MSU. “I knew he was going to be aggressive. You have people in sports that when the pressure gets going, they either run from it or they run at it. He runs at it. You always find a little bit of energy as it gets to the end of the hourglass.”

Colbert slashed into the lane on the first two offensive possessions, scored five straight points in the first four and had eight points before the game was four minutes old. His missed fall-away in the lane caused for Fish to pull him aside and calm him down.

“Sometimes, you have to get some steam burnt off so you have to get on them a little bit, let them bark back at you because you don’t know what it means to them,” Fish said. “Marcus has people there who hasn’t seen him. He knows it’s his last one. So if you get on a guy a little bit and he gets edgy and bits you back, that gets him back into his rhythm.”

Hall finished with a season-low eight points — the freshman entered the game averaging 21 per conference contest — on 3-of-9 shooting, including hitting a fade-away 3-pointer from the corner with a hand in his face as the shot clock expired early in the second half. In his place, sophomore Zach Green, junior Quinton Everett and Hall’s true freshman roommate Sam Neumann rose to the occasion.

MSU forward Zach Green

MSU forward Zach Green

Green made 4-of-6 from beyond the arc and 8-of-11 from the floor to finish with a career-high 23 points. He previous career high was 17 scored earlier this season against Portland State.

“Tyler always has attention on him,” Green said. “That takes attention off of me. I was just trying to step up for us.”

Everett hit a 3-pointer from the corner for one of Colbert’s three assists and used an aggressive first step to convert four other field goals in traffic to finish with 12 points. Neumann hit a corner 3-pointer on a Colbert assist and made 4-of-5 free throws while contributing strong defense as the Bobcats outscored the much bigger Fighting Hawks 30-28 in the paint. Montana State won the battle of the glass 40-34 and drilled 13-of-29 shots from beyond the 3-point arc.

“I thought we played harder and got after it a little more,” Fish said. “You have two options: you figure out how to guard it inside or you make your guys grow. I haven’t figured out how to make them grow yet so we just have to keep junking it up inside.”

Montana State clung to a 13-12 lead eight minutes into a game that had no flow early. Green hit his first 3-pointer to spark a 15-3 run to give MSU a 26-14 lead with 8:13 to play in the first half.

UND freshman Conner Avants scored seven points during a 12-3 North Dakota run that cut the MSU lead to 31-27 before Colbert answered. He converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to push the lead back to double digits. Crandall scored four straight but Green and Everett answered with 3-pointers and Neumann corralled a missed Colbert 3-pointer and converted at the buzzer to give MSU a 39-30 halftime lead.

MSU forward Danny Robison

MSU forward Danny Robison

After halftime, MSU senior Danny Robison had one of his best sequences of the conference season as he continues to battle the pain of a surgically repaired left elbow. Robison blocked UND 7-footer Carson Shanks and converted a sweet dump off pass from Nahjee Matlock for his first, last and only bucket of his final game in Bozeman.

“I had to come back in my last game,” said Robison, a Billings West product who sat the final 16 minutes of the first half and played 13 minutes overall. “I wanted to make as big of an impact as I could, do as much as I can and give us a spark there.”

Robison’s layup pushed the lead to 49-36 and a Green layup on the next possession pushed MSU’s lead to 51-36, the Bobcats’ largest with 15:10 to play. From that point, UND star guard Quinton Hooker scored 16 of his 26 points and Crandall added 11 of his 15 as the Fighting Hawks cut the lead to single digits for most of the stretch run.

Crandall’s 3-point play with six minutes cut the Bobcat lead to 68-63. MSU answered with a 12-3 run capped by Everett’s strong finish in traffic and Hall’s second 3-pointer to push the host’s lead to 80-66.

Hooker hit a 3-pointer and Crandall had a put-back dunk to cut the lead to 80-71 with 2:29 to play and a Drick Bernstine free throw cut it to 80-72 with 1:17 to play. As MSU tried to wind down the clock, Colbert found himself with the ball about 25 feet from the basket in the middle of a UND trap. He split the double team and hoisted a shot that banked in off the glass for his fifth 3-pointer and his final field goal at the Brick.

UND forward Drick Bernstein and guard Adam McDermott box out MSU forward Tyson Kanseyo

UND forward Drick Bernstein and guard Adam McDermott box out MSU forward Tyson Kanseyo

“I wanted to pass it and I stepped through, saw the shot clock was at three, both guys were on the side of me so I had a good look at the basket,” Colbert said. “It was probably lucky but it went in.”

Hooker’s 3-point play with 17 seconds left cut it to 87-82 but Colbert put the victory on ice with two free throws. The win caps the second-best single-season turnaround in Montana State history. MSU posted a 7-23 mark a year ago, including just 4-14 in Big Sky play. Colbert capped his career at home in style with his second trip to the Big Sky Tournament just days away.

“It felt like that last two minutes took forever,” Colbert said. “I’m just happy, glad how it ended here in Bozeman. It feels so much better your last home game getting a win than taking a loss.”

 

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

 

Big Sky men’s basketball schedule

Tuesday March 8

Game 1 — No. 8 Portland State vs. No. 9 Northern Colorado, 12:05

Game 2 — No. 5 North Dakota vs. Southern Utah-Northern Arizona, 2:35 p.m.

Game 3 — No. 7 Montana State vs. No. 10 Sacramento State, 5:35 p.m.

Game 4 — No. 6 Eastern Washington vs. S Utah-Northern Arizona, 8:05

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.

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