In the two and half seasons since Travis DeCuire was hired as head coach of the Montana Grizzlies, it’s become customary of the coach to pace the sidelines, calling out plays and directing players this way and that. But even for DeCuire, an in-game technician, what took place Thursday at Southern Utah was anything but ordinary.
“I felt like I was in grade school playing football drawing up plays in the sand,” DeCuire joked during a postgame interview with KGVO radio following Montana’s 70-55 win over the Thunderbirds. Montana improved to 12-13 overall and 7-5 in the Big Sky.
DeCuire was forced to alter his offensive game plan when the T-birds went into a 1-3-1 zone and then change it again when the pain suffered from a hard screen moments into the game was too much for sophomore guard Ahmaad Rorie, the Grizzlies’ leading scorer, to endure over the final 20 minutes. It went from firing away from the outside early, to asking a couple freshmen to score from the block.
But maybe the most impactful alteration came on the other side of the court — and it came from a little further down the bench.
Montana freshman Sayeed Pridgett/ by Jason Bacaj
DeCuire said first-year assistant Marlon Stewart noticed Randy Onwausor, a 23-points-per-game scorer, was hesitant to drive to his left. So the Grizzlies instructed sophomore forward Bobby Moorehead to push the Big Sky’s second-leading scorer to that side. Onwausor finished the night 6 for 18 with just 16 points, a handful of them coming after the game was decided.
“We told Bob to just go ahead and side him, which is not typical of what we would do,” DeCuire said of his sophomore forward, who has spent much the season playing out of position, but was able to slide back down to his natural position in some of the bigger lineups Montana used. “Bob was phenomenal on him. That was some of the best defense we’ve had all year.”
Montana was forced to get creative when it was determined that Rorie would finish the night early. He was injured early on a back screen that caused him to the leave the game, only to return and play 12 first-half minutes. Rorie’s 0-for-4 night — the first game this season he hasn’t hit a shot — was emblematic of Montana’s early struggles as it adjusted to an unexpected defense.
It wasn’t until about 13 minutes expired off the clock that Montana was able to shake itself free of Southern Utah. To that point the Griz were 1 of 7 from beyond the arc with a field goal percentage hovering just north of 30 percent. But a prolonged 13-4 run that began on a Fabijan Krslovic layup and included buckets from freshmen Sayeed Pridgett and Jared Samuelson and another from Moorehead.
The underclassmen continued to influence the game in the second. When Southern Utah cut Montana’s 11-point halftime lead to four, the Griz used a 16-3 run to bury the T-birds. The trio scored 11 points during the spurt while Onwausor remained silent.
“I thought our freshmen and Bobby Moorehead won the game for us to be honest with you,” DeCuire said. “Those three guys — Samuelson hadn’t been getting a lot of minutes, but had been playing better lately. Sayeed Pridgett had been hot and cold a little bit and those three guys really carried us through the second half.”
Pridgett scored 10 of his game-high 19 in the first half and Samuelson paired with Krslovic down low to combine for 18 points and 12 rebounds.
Stay with the ‘Cats & the Griz at Silver Legacy Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada March 5-12
Montana finished the night with 46 points from its bench, 14 of them coming from senior guard Walter Wright, who assumed control with Rorie on the sideline. DeCuire did not mention what Rorie’s status for Saturday’s game at Northern Arizona is.
“Great team effort,” DeCuire said. “We’ve constantly talked to these guys: there’s gonna be nights where some of the key guys might not be on fire and somebody else is going to have to come off the bench and make a difference.”
NOTES: Montana outrebounded Southern Utah 41-30. … Samuelson finished with eight points after scoring seven in a win over Montana State. … Montana converted 11 Southern Utah turnovers into 20 points. … Montana was 22-26 from the line Thursday, which means it has hit 45 of its last 49 free throws dating back to Saturday.
