Riding a three-game win streak, the longest of the season, Montana welcomes its most consistent threat to conference supremacy for a New Year’s Eve showdown Saturday afternoon in Missoula. Weber State, the league’s reigning champion and the preseason pick to hold the conference crown in Reno, comes to Missoula after dispatching Montana State 87-75 in Bozeman on Thursday.
Weber State hit 17 3-pointers, including eight from preseason All-Big Sky guard Jeremy Senglin. The 2015-16 first-team all-league pick hit his first seven attempts from behind the arc, winning a duel with the ’Cats’ Tyler Hall as the league’s most feared scorers. Senglin has won back-to-back Big Sky Player of the Week honors and is the fifth-leading scorer in the Big Sky (19.7 per game) and is hitting 49 percent of his 104 attempts from the arc.
Weber State senior guard Jeremy Senglin/ by Brooks Nuanez
Weber, as most would expect, is the league’s stingiest defensive unit. Yet, the Wildcats are holding a negative rebounding margin despite employing one of the league’s most imposing front lines. Sophomore Zach Braxton and senior Kyndahl Hill have been marginalized to a degree by foul trouble. Both posts have more than 30 fouls this season. It’s unclear whether the mounting fouls or head coach Randy Rahe’s desire to keep both forwards fresh for the stretch run have kept their minutes down. Hill, a 6-foot-7 bruiser who was the Big Sky’s Top Reserve last season, has seen the court more and is averaging a healthy 29 per game. Braxton, a 6-10 true center, is playing slightly less than 22 per game.
Related: Experienced Wildcats set to defend Big Sky title
The two teams have met eight times in the Big Sky championship game, evenly splitting the matchups. Weber is looking for its first win in Missoula since February of 2009. Skyline Sports went to Montana’s practice Friday afternoon to get a little more insight into the heated rivalry from head coach Travis DeCuire.
You are familiar with each other, what are the problems Weber presents?
Montana head coach Travis DeCuire/ by Brooks Nuanez
“The guard. It’s a defensive battle with us every year. They are very rarely high scoring games. Neither one of us want to give up high-percentage shots. It’s a grind. The one thing for us with these guys is they are more physical than anyone that we’ve played all year. The officials in this conference have adjusted to them and we need to adjust to them. One of the best things about playing this game is that the refs let us play. They let the players determine the outcome of the game so we just need to come in with a mental state that there is going to be a lot of contact and take advantage of it and adjust to it.”
Is this a team more willing to grind than other teams you face this year?
“Yeah, there’s no question about that. I think if they could win 45-40 they’d be OK with it, whereas a lot of teams in our league they wouldn’t enjoy that, it wouldn’t be fun to them. We’ve had games with them that have been in the 50s going down the stretch and felt like it was a bloodbath and every shot someone made it felt like they made four or five because you go so long without baskets. I’d expect the same thing in this one. It’ll be a defensive battle and open shots will be tough to come by.”
You tried to press them at times last year. Is backcourt depth more important against Weber than other teams?
“Yes and no. If you want to press then yeah in that regard because you want to rest guys and stay fresh down the stretch. Hopefully your depth overcomes them, which it did last night with Idaho State when they were playing well and playing with us. We made runs when we subbed and it came back to groups. They were playing six guys and it was difficult for them. If guys like Senglin are going to play 38 minutes, then we hope that running good offense and forcing him to run off screens and pressing them and them running off as many screens as they do wears them down.”
Obviously there is Montana State, but is Weber State the real rival of this program?
“Rivalry it’s like everywhere, you have cross-town rivals and championship rivals and the teams that compete for a championship every year always turn into a rivalry. That’s why Weber is is just that they and us have a ton of championships so that’s where the build up is every year for those games. We’re the two schools that draw the most so you have the best crowds.”
Do you let emotion run its course or do you try to add emotion and energy to this meeting?
“Last three or four practices these guys have been very energetic. Now we’re coming back after a game, it’s early practice, we had a longer film session than usual so there was a lot of yawning going on before we got to the floor so I knew I was going to have to bring it at some point.”
Other key information:
- Montana is ranked No. 165 in the kenpom.com rankings and is No. 184, third in the Big Sky, in ESPN RPI rankings.
- Weber State, led by eleventh-year coach Randy Rahe, is ranked No. 149 in the kenpom.com rankings and is No. 216, fourth in the Big Sky, in the ESPN RPI rankings.
“We really enjoy playing each other,” Rahe, who has coached against Montana in the Big Sky Tournament championship game four times since 2010, told Skyline Sports after the Montana State win. “It’s a rivalry. I think everybody gets a little excited about it. They are very good. They always are and they are very good this year. We have had a hard time up there. We haven’t beat them up there in quite a long time. It’s not going to be an easy task but we are going to embrace the opportunity.”
When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Where: Dahlberg Arena
Radio: KGVO 101.5 FM
Watch: watchbigsky.com
Series: Weber leads 69-55
Last: 2016, Weber won 62-59 in the Big Sky Tournament championship
kenpom Prediction: Montana 61 percent (Montana, 69-66)
Probable starters
Montana
G – Ahmaad Rorie, 6-1, So., 16.1 ppg
G – Michael Oguine, 6-2, So., 8.3 ppg
G – Sayeed Pridgett, 6-5, Fr., 8.9 ppg
F – Jack Lopez, 6-6, Sr., 7.3 ppg
F – Fabijan Krslovic, 6-8, Jr., 6.4 ppg
Weber State
G – Cody John, 6-3, So., 9.0 ppg
G – Jeremy Senglin, 6-2, Sr., 19.7 ppg
F – Ryan Richardson, 6-4, Jr., 6.2 ppg
F – Kyndahl Hill, 6-7, Sr., 9.5 ppg
C – Zach Braxton, 6-9, Fr., 8.3 ppg
