MISSOULA, Montana — Before the pandemic hit, Travis DeCuire felt he had “the perfect schedule” for his Griz basketball team this season.
Instead, UM played its first and only home game of a truncated non-conference slate on Saturday afternoon. The Griz embraced the statistical challenges put forth by DeCuire and his coaching staff against an overmatched opponent.
In a nearly empty Dahlberg Arena, Montana shot 68.4 percent from the floor, won the battle of the boards 49-15, dished out 21 assists and destroyed Yellowstone Christian College, 102-42.
“This was the year we were supposed to have the perfect schedule; a tournament at home, buy games at home, home and homes starting here with a Mountain West team,” DeCuire told Riley Corcoran on the Grizzly Radio Network. “To not have any home games, we just had to way to make it happen at the last minute. That’s where we are at right now.
“But I think it’s important to have these guys be able to wake up in their own beds, walk over and go through a pre-game here. It’s quiet so it’s more of a closed-door scrimmage feeling. But that’s what we needed. This is a feeling we haven’t had yet.”
The win is the first of the season for a Griz squad that started 0-4 for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign. Montana’s first four games included losses at USC in Los Angeles (76-62) and Georgia in Athens (63-50) along with a pair of one-point losses to Southern Utah to open Big Sky Conference play earlier than most of the rest of the league.
The loss is the seventh straight for Yellowstone Christian, a private Baptist college out of Billings that currently has roughly 40 students enrolled in its student body. YCC’s roster featured players from Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, California, Tennessee and Arkansas along with international players from Cameroon, the Ukraine and West Africa.
Cam Parker’s first and 3-pointer gave the hosts an early 15-3 lead. The Centurions navigated the next four minutes admirably, marking the only period of the game in which they held their ground against the Grizzlies, a team that has qualified for the NCAA Tournament the last two times the Big Dance has been conducted.
Derrian Reed, who finished with 20 points to lead YCC, converted a layup with 11 minutes, 16 seconds to play in the first half to cut the Griz lead to 21-10. Montana senior post Michael Steadman, a 6-foot-10 preseason All-Big Sky selection, converted his fourth bucket of the first half on the next UM possession, sparking a 12-2 run to give Montana its first big lead in a game where that lead seemed to never stop growing.
Freshman Brandon Whitney’s layup but Montana up 20 points with 3:56 left in the first half. Freddy Brown III nailed a corner 3-pointer on the last offensive possession of the first 20 — his first triple in two seasons after redshirting last campaign — to give Montana a 49-19 lead at halftime.
The Griz lead surpassed 40 for the first time when Whitney hit a pull-up jump shot to push the gap to 72-31. The lead hit 50 when Parker found freshman post Josh Bannan filling the lane for a two-handed dunk that made the Griz advantage 81-31.
And the lead hit 60 points when Parker’s eighth assist went to Mac Anderson for a dunk to make the score 98-37 with 2:57 left.
Bannan, who tied Steadman for the team lead with 19 points, scored his final bucket on Parker’s nine assists to help Montana get into triple digits, marking the 31st time in school history that UM has scored at least 100 points, including the 5th time this century.
And Brown gave Montana its largest lead of the otherwise expected afternoon
with a layup to push the advantage to 62 points, 102-40.
“This was an opportunity for us to get better but more importantly, an opportunity for us to realize the areas we have gotten better,” DeCuire said. “I thought we got better from Game 1 to Game 2 coming out of the USC game but the results didn’t show (Montana lost 64-63 at Southern Utah).
“For us to see that, that you have more points than our opponent, you need to see that from time to time and we needed that today.”
Bannan and Steadman combined to go 15-of-22 from the floor to lead a Griz team that only missed 18 of the 57 shots they attempted. Whitney hit 7-of-9 from the floor, showing great pace and a fine shooting stroke on his way to 15 points.
UM sophomore Josh Vazquez hit three 3-pointers as the Griz shot 5-of-13 from deep on his way to 15 points. Owens finished in double figures for the fifth straight game, matching his double-digit scoring game total from his freshman season, and also added 13 rebounds to lead the charge on the glass.
“It was nice to get our first win and it was nice to see the ball moving around, us playing together as a team,” Parker said.
“We’ve been kind of stagnated lately, not going into the bigger guys post. It was just nice to see all of us move the ball around and then it led to easy buckets.”
Parker scored 12 points by converting all four of his field goals, but it was his nine assists to lead a Griz team that dished out 21 times that was most impactful, at least when it comes to fulfilling one of DeCuire’s stated pregame goals.
“Parker, he wants assists,” DeCuire said. “That’s his thing. This was one of those days where guys needed shots and we got in transition a lot more, which is where he thrives.”
Those goals included dishing out 20 assists and turning the ball over 10 or less times. Montana had 21 assists and 15 turnovers. Those goals included winning the battle on the glass, particularly by keeping the opponent off the offensive glass. The Griz grabbed 49 rebounds and allowed just four offensive rebounds to the Centurion. And those goals included picking up in transition, which the Griz did seamlessly against their largely overmatched opponent.
“Coach has harped a lot in the past on us getting rebounds and the guards helping rebound as well,” Owens said.
“Get the ball,” added Steadman. “You have to go get it off the rim.”
Montana will look to capitalize on its first win of the season with another trying opponent. UM plays at Washington on Wednesday, December 16. DeCuire is a Seattle native who went to Mercer Island Prep before playing his college ball for the Grizzlies.
“Always love going home and we’ve been so close there, whether it comes down to free throws or a possession or foul trouble,” DeCuire told Corcoran. “We are always excited about that matchup and I think it’s one where our guys always look forward to it too.”
