DENVER, Colo. — Montana’s Cinderella run was not meant to be.
The Montana Grizzlies lost 85-66 to the Wisconsin Badgers at Ball Arena in Denver on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The game was Montana’s first March Madness appearance since 2019, an opportunity the Grizzlies earned by winning the Big Sky Conference Tournament last weekend.
“A good basketball team met a better basketball team today,” Montana head coach Travis DeCuire said after the game.
The 14-seed Grizzlies entered the game as underdogs against the 3-seed Badgers, who were matched up in the NCAA’s East Region. The Badgers will move on to play the winner of 6-seed BYU and 11-seed VCU in the second round on Saturday.
For the Grizzlies, the loss marks the end of the season.
“How this group came together and learned to play together, then playing together throughout the entire year, the season, I think that shows with our 25 wins,” senior guard Kai Johnson said. “That’s what I want to be remembered for is how close this team is on and off the court.”
Wisconsin guard Xavier Amos delivered the fatal blow with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game when he hit a 3-point shot to extend the Badger lead to 16. Montana was able to cut that lead to a dozen before it ballooned again in the game’s final minutes.
Up until those final 10 minutes, Montana had well-founded hope. For example, the Grizzlies won the first five minutes of the second half, pulling within four points of the Badgers.
“For stretches of the game we showed that we could play with them,” DeCuire said. “We just couldn’t sustain it. We had long stretches where I don’t think we were executing very well on either side of the ball.”
While Wisconsin’s height prevented the Montana bigs from converting in the post, the bigger Grizzly guards provided points in the paint. Joe Pridgen outmuscled Badger defenders off of cuts and drives, creating good looks inside.
“They’re bigger than us, but I felt like we were as strong,” senior forward Te’Jon Sawyer said. “We tried to make it hard for their guards, seeing if the bigs can try to beat us. They made shots, but I think down low, we was pretty physical.”
Meanwhile, smaller Montana guards Brandon Whitney and Malik Moore created open shots in the mid-range in the first half, and knocked down a couple of them.
Throw in a 5-for-11 first-half shooting performance from deep, and the Grizzlies had a recipe for a well-rounded offensive attack, even if nothing came easy.
Fastbreak points, for example, were tough to come by.
With four seconds left before halftime, sixth-man guard Money Williams stole the ball at the top of the defensive key. He had an opportunity to score the Grizzlies’ first fastbreak points of the game, but he couldn’t get a three-point attempt up before the buzzer because of pesky transition defense from Wisconsin.
Still, the Grizzlies held within eight points in the first half, trailing 40-32. Montana had found a blueprint. They were within reach of the Badgers. A hot-shooting second half could spark an upset.
But the Grizzlies parlayed a 5-for-11 deep shooting performance in the first half into a 2-for-13 showing in the second half.
“You can’t win these kind of games shooting 39% and giving up 55% to your opponent,” DeCuire said. “Got beat tonight on both sides of the ball.”
By combining the poor second-half shooting with foul trouble, the Grizzlies killed their upset bid.
Six minutes into the second half, Pridgen was called for an offensive foul when he put his shoulder into a defender in the paint. The foul was Montana’s fifth of the half and Pridgen’s fourth of the game.
Pridgen, a key piece for Montana on both ends of the floor, went to the bench.
Guard Kai Johnson picked up his fourth foul three minutes later, with less than 12 minutes to play. And five minutes after that, Williams joined the four-foul club.
“We needed to do a better job of defending without fouling,” DeCuire said. “I thought that was one of the things that killed our momentum.”
Wisconsin leads the nation in free-throw shooting percentage. When the Badgers entered the bonus with 11:38 to play, the barrier preventing a Grizzly comeback became impenetrable.
“One of the things we talked about going into this game was try to keep them off the free-throw line,” DeCuire said. “You can’t have a guy score [14] points on five attempts and think you’re going to win a basketball game.”
That guy was star guard John Tonje, a top-10 scorer among major-conference players this season. Tonje led the way as the Badgers hunted contact in the second half and found the whistle they hoped for.
Montana shut Tonje down for most of the game, allowing five points from the field on five attempts. But Tonje drew a game-high nine free-throw attempts, eight of them in the second half, and hit all nine.
Wisconsin guard John Blackwell led all scorers with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting.
Badger big man Steven Crowl poured in 18 points of his own in an efficient 8-for-10 outing. Crowl dropped easy buckets in over smaller defenders in the paint, while also hitting two of his three 3-point attempts.
Tre’Jon Sawyer and Kai Johnson led the way for Montana with 15 points apiece. Johnson was the only Grizzly with multiple 3-point makes, hitting four of his seven attempts.
Pridgen was the other Grizzly in double-figures, posting 12 shots on 11 attempts.
