Ohio State gave Montana State a taste of its own medicine in Columbus on Friday evening.
Montana State’s record-setting season looked like it would have a chance to continue for much of the first 20 minutes of its first round of the NCAA Tournament matchup against the Buckeyes. The teams traded runs, but the Big Sky Conference champions certainly looked like they belonged.
The No. 13-seeded visitors closed the first quarter tied with the fourth-seeded hosts at Value City Arena. In the second quarter, Montana State answered a 6-0 Ohio State run with a 10-0 run of its own to take a four-point lead late in the first half. And even at halftime, the Bobcats remained strongly competitive, trailing 32-27 at the break.
MSU entered the NCAA Tournament with a Big Sky-record 30 wins on the strength of a defense that forced 23 turnovers a game and led the entire NCAA Division I in steals per contest. During conference play, Montana State made opponents melt down with its high-pressure defense, forcing 30+ turnovers on multiple occasions on the way to a 17-1 league record.
Although the Bobcats turned the ball over 14 times in the first half against Ohio State, they also forced 11 Buckeye turnovers to keep the underdogs in the game.
But in the blink of an eye, Ohio State erased any hope of an upset and abruptly ended Montana State’s historic season.
The Buckeyes forced a flurry of turnovers to begin the second half on a 15-0 run after closing the first half on a 9-0 run, turning a slug fest into a runaway. Chance Gray hit three 3-pointers in the first 1:16 of the second half and the Buckeyes forced four turnovers and four missed field goal attempts in the first three minutes of the third quarter. By the time Taylor Thierry drilled a 3-pointer in rhythm, Ohio State had pushed the run to 32-3 and the lead to 55-30 with 2:46 in the third quarter to basically end MSU’s third NCAA Tournament appearance under 20th-year head coach Tricia Binford.
MSU and Ohio State were even in the fourth quarter but the damage had been done. Ohio State forced 26 turnovers and shot 51 percent from the floor in cruising to a 71-51 win to end MSU’s dream season.
“All the credit goes to Ohio State. They came out in that third quarter, really jumped on us super fast,” Binford said after her team finished its season 30-4. “It was like a blink of an eye.”
Natalie Picton sparked Montana State’s 10-0 run. The sophomore from Canada hit a pair of triples during the spurt and finished with 12 points overall.
“I grew up watching basketball and everybody going into those tough games in March Madness,” Picton said. “It was just awesome. I loved it.”
Montana State’s loss continued a trend of No. 13 seeds having a pretty much impossible time against No. 4 seeds. Since 1994, No. 13 seeds have won seven times out of 124 possible matchups. The most recent winner was when Wright State beat Arkansas in 2021. Before that, it was Marist beating George in 2012.
Although the odds were steep, at least they were not impossible. No. 14 and No. 15 seeds in the NCAA Tournament have never won a first-round game.
A 12-seed, however, would’ve yielded a neutral site. A total of 26 teams that were No. 12 seeds have won first-round games since 1994. And a total of 37 No. 11 seeds have won during that same span.
Many thought Montana State would get a 12-seed after winning the most games in Big Sky history, a slate that included beating Central Florida and winning at Florida Gulf Coast during its non-conference schedule. The ‘Cats also set a program record with 19 straight victories and nearly ran the table in the Big Sky. But a 30-3 record wasn’t enough to avoid playing on Ohio State’s home court.
“The No. 1 thing that we’re really searching for that fourth ring is not to play on somebody’s home floor for your first-round game. And we had 30 wins,” Binford said. “We thought we had a really strong resumé, a very competitive one.
“I think we’re going to have to probably get a win within the top 50 in the NET. I think that’s something that we’re going to really have to focus on. But we had a very competitive preseason schedule. We had some in that 50 to 100. But it is difficult.
“That crowd gets on you. It’s on somebody’s home floor. At the same time, I’m really proud of how our kids handled that the first half, the way they got the crowd engaged when that kind of happened, I’m, like, this is Bobcat basketball. They handled it really well in that first half. It just took a few minutes in the third quarter. If we could have that first few minutes back and just trust our composure and trust our process, I think this game’s a little bit tighter.
“But we certainly had some kids show out. And I think maybe I would like to see some WNBA coaches see a young lady for a potential kid in in the training camp because Esme really showed some incredible stuff today.”
Esme is Esmeralda Morales, Montana State’s bright senior guard. After winning Big Sky regular-season and conference tournament MVP, the Spanaway, Washington product ended her Bobcat career with a flurry, hitting five 3-pointers and pouring in 20 points in her final game at MSU.
“I felt like it was family here,” Morales said. “Because when you’re playing against a community like this you just don’t get the sense of it. But being part of the family, it’s like, wow, it’s amazing. I’m so blessed I was able to do this for one year and do what we did in a year. But the biggest thing is just like the community, how they were like, we’re family and we’re here for you.”
Regardless of the loss, Morales called the NCAA Tournament experience amazing.
“It felt like March Madness,” she said. “It just felt great. I loved the energy, especially when they were booing us. That’s what I love. It kind of just gets me going.”
The banners and records were prevalent this season for Montana State. MSU won its eighth Big Sky regular season title and its fourth tournament crown in 2024-25.
And although the third quarter Friday doomed MSU, Binford chose to focus on the journey.
“I’m definitely going to remember how they were so selfless this entire season and they were all bought in,” Binford said. “It took everybody to be all bought in. We did talk about the hashtag. It’s hard to live out a hashtag when it’s in a grind, it’s really difficult. This team at some point will go down as one of the greatest if not the greatest Bobcat teams of all times.
“I know 30 wins, we were asking how long has the Big Sky been in existence to get 30 wins. And to do that, to play that consistently for that long of a season, just so proud of the way that we did our journey together this year. They had so much fun. They brought out the best in each other. A coach could not be prouder of that.”
