The Grizzlies had a scoring outburst in Sacramento the night Travis DeCuire implemented a new offensive attack. Two nights later, the Hornets of Sac State cracked that code and defeated Montana in double overtime.
The UM men’s basketball team did not play again for 11 days because of its rivalry series with Montana State getting cancelled. When the Griz took the court again on Thursday of this week at Portland State, offensive flow was nowhere to be found.
Montana trailed for 37 minutes, including all but two seconds of the second half on Thursday. But freshman Robby Beasley drilled a 30-footer at the buzzer to tie the game at 54. UM went on to win, 70-64.
Saturday, offensive inconsistency remained. Montana turned the ball over 11 less times than Thursday — UM committed 24 miscues in the first game against Portland State — and shot the ball well; the Griz converted 21-of-44 field goals (47 percent) Saturday afternoon.
But the Griz simply couldn’t score points for the second game in a row, trailing for the final 18 consecutive minutes of the game in a 61-55 loss to the previously struggling Vikings on Saturday afternoon at the Stott Center.
Beasley, a true freshman from San Ramon, California, hit a 3-pointer with eight minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half to give the Griz an 18-11 lead, UM’s largest of the game. PSU answered with a 7-0 run to tie it and the action was close if not aesthetically unappealing for most of the final 27 minutes of the game.
PSU’s Kyle Greeley hit a jumper with two seconds before halftime to cut Montana’s advantage to 28-27 at halftime.
With the game tied at 36, PSU used a five-point spurt to take the lead and never relinquished it again. The hosts opened up the lead to 55-46 with 2:04 left, the largest margin for either side.
Derrick Carter-Hollinger, last season’s Big Sky Freshman of the Year for the Grizzlies, had his best offensive outing of the season, leading UM with 14 points. He hit a 3-pointer with 14 seconds to play to cut the gap to 58-54.
But Portland State disrupted any flow by UM, beating Montana for the fourth time in the last six matchups between the two teams.
The Vikings held sophomore Kyle Owens, Montana’s leading scorer entering the game (11.6 points per contest), to two points and two field goal attempts on Saturday. Michael Steadman returned to the starting lineup, scoring 13 points in 22 minutes but only played one minutes in the game’s final seven minutes.
Portland State moved to 3-5 in league play with the win despite Montana mitigating several of the keys that PSU usually relies on for success. The Vikings play a chaotic style that forces turnovers and sends all five players to the offensive glass on most missed shots.
Saturday, Montana committed the second-least turnovers by a PSU opponent this season – Only Oregon State had less. Montana gave up five offensive rebounds, the least allowed by the Vikings this year.
Yet Montana is still searching for answers after falling to 4-6 in league play. The number of league losses is already almost the most in seven seasons under DeCuire. In 2017, the Griz finished 11-7 in league play.
DeCuire entered this season with a .752 win percentage in Big Sky games, the third-best among any coach that has coached at least 100 games in the league.
And the road doesn’t get any easier. The Griz host surging Weber State, a team that just swept Montana State. The Bobcats entered the weekend as the lone team without a Big Sky loss. Weber, MSU, Eastern Washington and Southern Utah are in a four-way tie atop the standings at 6-2.
Following the game, DeCuire did not give an interview to Riley Corcoran of the Grizzly Radio Network.
