THE MATCHUP
Montana played its second road game in the last three days coming off a 59-56 loss at Air Force in Colorado Spring, Colorado on Sunday. Tuesday, the Griz played at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. The Golden Eagles entered the game with a 7-0 record.
THE RESULT
Montana held Southern Miss 15 points below its single-season scoring average but the hosts remained as one of the last 18 remaining undefeated teams in Division I men’s basketball with a 64-54 win over the Grizzlies. Montana is now 3-5 overall, including 0-4 on the road. UM’s other road losses include at Duquesne, at Xavier and Sunday at Air Force.
THE STANDOUTS
Donovan Ivory came off the bench to score 20 points to lead the hosts on a night where Southern Miss shot 39 percent from the floor, including just 6-of-18 from beyond the arc.
Felipe Haase had 18 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including hitting both is 3-ponters and all six of his free throws on a night Southern Miss went 20-of-26 at the free throw line. That proved to be a difference maker as Montana made 10 free throws (in 10 attempts).
Lonnell Martin Jr. scored 18 points, a season-high, for Montana while Dischon Thomas, a former Colorado State transfer, had his sixth double figures scoring game, finishing with 15. But only five Griz scored and Montana’s only bench points came on a 3-pointer by true freshman Jaxon Nap early in the first half. Josh Bannan scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds while fellow junior Brandon Whitney scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds in his second game back after missing time with a foot injury.
BOX SCORE
QUOTABLE
“Positive and disappointed at the same time. I’m happy about the effort and the attention to detail. We took 12 points off the board from a team that has been scoring a ton of points against good competition. Defensively, we made a jump. Execution-wise, this is one of the better defensive teams in the country. They are turning people over at a high rate. I think we are the only team that has played against them with single-digit turnovers. They are scoring 30 points per game off turnovers and they scored two tonight.
“So we grew in some areas and there are some areas that we won. The disappointing piece of it is that you flash back to opportunities earlier in the year, closed door scrimmages, like opponents, the effort wasn’t what it needed to be in terms of physicality and our sense of urgency. We got their attention. We had to had some heart to hearts, some pretty serious conversations the last 48 hours and you warn guys to get to the point. I think they got the message, it was just a little later than we wanted. But, November has never really been favorable to us. We draw a tough schedule, we go on the road, we play good teams. We have had years where we came in with a worse record than this and still won the league. So there’s a lot out there for us. We just need to continue to grow.”
Montana head coach Travis DeCuire
On how to sum up November:
“Yesterday, I would’ve summed it up differently than today. Yesterday, I would’ve been disappointed. Today, I think we have some growing pains. In 48 hours, we became a different basketball team. The thing I keep reminding myself of is we haven’t had our back court since the first half against Merrimack (Aanen Moody has been out). It’s hard when you don’t have your starting back court. It puts guys in roles that isn’t there role and it’s unfair to the guys on the floor. With Brandon Whitney getting back to health, I think he’s getting back. Moody, we get him back. That will give guys like Bannon and Dischon offensively. You put another 10-15 points on the board, it’s a different basketball.”
Montana head coach Travis DeCuire
SOCIAL
WHAT’S NEXT
Montana hosts South Dakota State on Tuesday December 6 at 7 p.m.
