Game Recap

Hall falls just short of Big Sky scoring record, ‘Cats fall short against UNC

on

BOZEMAN — Tyler Hall’s next basket will be historic. But Monday, Montana State fell one bucket short.

Hall, already the all-time leading scorer in the history of Montana State men’s basketball, caught fire early in the second half of his team’s battle for first place against visiting Northern Colorado. Hall scored 10 points in the span of two minutes, 12 seconds to help MSU shave UNC’s seven-point halftime lead to 46-44 points with 15:19 remaining.

Hall would hit one more jump shot, this one a mid-range pull-up from about 15 feet that kept Montana State within six, 66-60. But that bucket, which drew Hall within one basket of the league’s career scoring mark, came more than 10 minutes after Hall’s fifth and final 3-pointer of the night Monday at Brick Breedin Fieldhouse.

Every time Hall got cooking, Northern Colorado locked in, denying Montana State’s three-time All-Big Sky Conference selection the ball. And every time Montana State made a run, Northern Colorado answered,

The Bears did not make a shot the final four minutes of the game but also held Hall, who finished with 25 points, scoreless for the last five minutes to emerge with a 73-70 victory in front of 2,706 on Monday night.

Montana State guard Tyler Hall (3)/by Brooks Nuanez

“(Breaking the record) would’ve been ideal if we could’ve gotten a win out of it,” said Hall, who is one point shy of tying Bogdan Bliznyuk’s record of 2,169 career points. “But I don’t really pay attention to any of that stuff. It’s hard not to see it. But I’m a senior, I want to win and we didn’t do that tonight.”

The loss drops Montana State to 4-2 in league play. UNC is now 5-1, a game ahead of Weber State in the win column. The Bobcats are 7-9 overall while the Bears move to 11-6.

“At the end of the day, they won the toughness things,” MSU head coach Brian Fish said. “We got beat on the boards and we missed free throws (8-of-12)) and those are recipes to get beat and not give yourself a chance. We hit enough shots to make it closer than that but when I look back at the film, I would say I’m going to be disappointed with our competitiveness.” 

Hall’s scoring effort gives him 2,168 points in his illustrious career, one point from tying Bliznyuk, the former Eastern Washington star who earned Big Sky MVP a season ago and finished with 2,169 points in 138 games at EWU between 2014 and 2018.

Hall has played 110 games in his Montana State career. His next basket will move him atop the league’s all-time scoring list, ahead of Bliznyuk, former Idaho star Orlando Lightfoot (1991-1994), former Weber State sharpshooter Jeremy Senglin (2013-17) and WSU big man Bruce Collins (1976-1980) and former Montana MVP Larry Krystkowiak (1982-1986).

With his five made 3-pointers, Hall now has 370 makes and counting from distance, 25 more than Senglin made in his decorated career. Monday, as he has throughout their careers, Hall embraced the matchup with UNC’s defensive specialist Jonah Radebaugh, the league’s Defensive MVP two seasons ago. In both the first and second half, when Hall looked like he was getting it going, UNC would buckle down.

The Rock Island, Illinois native had two 3-point shots that would’ve tied the game in the final 21 seconds, but both highly contested tries rimmed out.

Montana State guard Tyler Hall (3) with Northern Colorado guard Jonah Radebaugh (12)/by Brooks Nuanez

“(Radebaugh) is a good defender, has been a good defender since he’s been in the conference. It’s a great matchup and I like it,” Hall said. “He’s good. If you don’t go at him, he’ll take you complete out of the game. It’s a good challenge but we’ve gotta get a win.”

After Hall’s second miss with UNC clinging to a 70-67 lead, Northern Colorado star senior Jordan Davis stepped to the line and knocked down two free throws with seven seconds to play despite the rumbles from the adjacent MSU student section.

Montana State’s last gasp came as Harald Frey hit his first 3-pointer on a night he finished just 4-of-12 from the floor for nine points. That bucket cut the Bears advantage to 72-70 with five seconds left.

Davis, the Big Sky’s leading scorer and one of the top offensive players in the country with an average of 24.8 points per game entering the game, made one of two free throws to give the Bears a 73-70 lead. Then Davis, who finished with 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting, stole the final inbounds pass to seal Northern Colorado’s fifth league victory in six outings.

“It felt like there was a few times there we got it to 10 and Montana State responded,” UNC head coach Jeff Linder said. “I think our guys, I was really proud of how we responded to the butt kicking we took from Montana on Saturday and to have to turn around and get challenged like they did from the coaching staff to a short turn around to be able to understand a comprehensive scouting report, I was really proud of our guys’ response.”

UNC ripped off four straight wins to begin conference play behind four straight outings of between 28 and 30 points by Davis. But Northern Colorado fell sharply, losing 88-64 to Montana in Greeley on Saturday.

Montana State guard Harald Frey (5) looks to create with Northern Colorado guard Jordan Davis (0) defending/by Brooks Nuanez

A short turnaround and an unorthodox Monday game — the Big Sky added Monday games to its schedule when the league expanded the schedule to 20 conference games — could’ve spelled doom for the visitors.

Instead, UNC started the game on a 15-5 run. Montana State responded with a 7-0 run that Northern Colorado answered with six straight. When Montana State took its first lead on Hall’s second 3-pointer in as many possessions late in the first half, the Bears went into halftime on a 10-2 run.

Sam Neumann’s basket in the paint tied the game at 46 with 14:48 left. MSU took it’s only lead of the second half on a Keljin Blevins fast break layup 24 seconds later. UNC true freshman Bodie Hume’s second 3-pointer on his 16-point night sparked an 11-0 run that also included Trent Harris’ two of four made triples Monday.

“We were there, we just had dead hands on (Harris),” Fish said. “He got five looks at it and hit four. We talked about it and I thought that was a big key. We’ve gotta close out better.”

Harris, who finished with 14 points on a night Northern Colorado’s bench scored 25, gave UNC its largest lead of the second half, 56-48, with 12 minutes to play. The deficit grew as large as 10 and as small as two but the Bears never gave the lead back to the Bobcats.

“It’s a game of runs,” MSU sophomore center Devin Kirby said after scoring 10 points and grabbing four rebounds. “We had some defensive lapses and some rebounding issues, the little things. When it comes down to closing conference games, it’s going to be tough. You have to take care of the little things like boxing out and getting stops in key moments to halt their runs. We didn’t do the little things tonight.”

Northern Colorado forward Kai Edwards (25) boxes out Montana State forward Keljin Blevins (2)/by Brooks Nuanez

UNC won the battle of the glass 38-36 behind a game-high 14 rebounds from Kai Edwards. Blevins led MSU with 10 boards. Montana State held a 15-7 advantage in second-chance points.

Northern Colorado plays its third game in seven days and it’s second straight that is a battle for first place when UNC plays at Weber State on Saturday. Montana State next plays at Eastern Washington on Saturday afternoon.

Hall knows history is inevitable this weekend. But he’s focused on his team exploits instead.

“We want to be taken seriously in this league and I think we should and I think we will,” Hall said. “They came ready to play. It was couple of possessions either way and I think the game could’ve went either way. They just made the plays down the stretch so credit them. I think we are going to be a team at the top of the conference when it’s all said and done.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved. 

Montana State forward Keljin Blevins (2) rises up with Northern Colorado forward Jalen Sanders (22) defending/by Brooks Nuanez

Montana State guard Tyler Hall (3)/by Brooks Nuanez

Montana State forward Zeke Quinlan (0)/by Brooks Nuanez

Montana State guard Tyler Hall (3)/by Brooks Nuanez

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

Recommended for you