MSU earns No. 6 seed, open Big Sky Tournament Tuesday against SUU
If the Bobcats take care of business on Tuesday, Montana State will get another crack at Weber State next week.
Montana State saw its five-game winning streak end in Ogden Saturday night as Weber State sent its seniors out in style by snapping a four-game losing streak with a 76-67 victory in front of 8,551.
“That hurts and we are in sixth place now but we have to get focused on the playoffs,” MSU sophomore Devonte Klines said. “Hopefully, we will see them again.”
Montana State junior Zach Green scored 19 points Saturday
Weber’s win moves the Wildcats to 12-6 in league play aided by an 11-2 start. The reigning Big Sky Tournament champions take the No. 3 seed into Reno as the Wildcats chase their fourth NCAA Tournament berth under 11th-year head coach Randy Rahe.
Montana State entered the game having won 10 of its last 12, including a signature victory over Montana in Bozeman and a sweep of Sac State and Portland State last weekend to move to 12-5 at home. The Bobcats finish the season at 11-7 in league play, 16-15 overall. MSU will take the No. 6 seed into next week’s tournament. The ‘Cats will play 11th-seeded Southern Utah.
The winner will take on Weber State in the third game of Thursday’s quarterfinal session. Montana State posted an 83-78 win over SUU in Cedar City in the only matchup of the season between the teams.
“Our mindset coming in was win, we get third and a bye, lose we get the six,” MSU junior Zach Green said. “Now we have to play on Tuesday. Weber is a team that I haven’t beaten here. I wanted to beat them tonight.”
North Dakota sewed up the first outright Big Sky title in school history with an 82-73 win over Portland State. Northern Arizona defeated Eastern Washington 74-61 to push EWU to second, NAU to No. 9. Weber’s win secured the No. 3 seed while Idaho’s 84-75 win at Southern Utah gives UI 12 league wins and the fourth seed. Because of Northern Colorado’s self-imposed postseason ban, the top five teams earn a bye. Montana will play Idaho in the final game of Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Griz earned the No. 5 with a 95-76 win at Idaho State Saturday night.
WSU guard Jeremy Senglin /by Brooks Nuanez
On a night Weber State celebrated its seniors, true freshman Jerrick Harding stole the show. WSU senior Jeremy Senglin scored all 22 of his points in the first 28 minutes of the game before giving way to the 6-foot-1 rookie from Wichita, Kansas.
Senglin showed his NBA skill set, drilling his first three 3-point attempts in a 16-point first half. His last bucket came on a sequence in which he showed why he will soon play professionally. The senior stripped MSU senior Quinton Everett, exploded up the court, stutter-stepped to get separation in transition, stopped on a dime and rose up for a 20-foot jump shot to give WSU a 52-46 lead with 12:45 left.
“That’s not finding our mans and transition defense,” Klines said. “He got confident once he started seeing shots go down.”
From there, Harding carried the load, putting an exclamation point on his debut performance in the starting lineup. Montana State built a 32-30 halftime lead despite just three points from sophomore Tyler Hall, the Big Sky’s leading scorer. Harding gave Weber the lead a minute into the second half with the first of three 3-pointers in the game’s final 19 minutes. He scored 15 points after halftime, seven in the final 7:41 and a career-high 19 overall.
Montana State sophomore Tyler Hall
With Ryan Richardson as the primary defender, Weber harassed Hall into one of his worst shooting games of the season, snapping a recent hot streak. During the four games leading up to Saturday, Hall had hit 32 of his last 45 shots, including 19-of-29 from beyond the arc. He hit 11 of 13 shots and scored 37 points in MSU’s win over the Griz.
Saturday, Weber held him to 2-of-11 shooting. The Big Sky’s leading scorer (23.2 points per game) hit two 3-pointers and 5-of-6 free throws to finish with 11 points, his low during conference play. Hall scored at least 20 points in 12 of 18 Big Sky games and 20 overall this season. He scored more than 30 in three Big Sky games and six times this season.
Klines, who scored 12 points, converted an old-fashioned 3-point play with 8:31 left to cut the WSU lead to 52-51. Harding and Dusty Baker drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to stretch the lead to seven.
“In the second half, we were over-helping (on Senglin) too much,” Klines said. “We just didn’t fight hard enough tonight to get a win.”
Green converted his last field goal of a 19-point night to cut the WSU lead to 61-57 with 5:09 left but MSU would get no closer. Baker scored 12 points off the bench, including hitting a dagger 3-pointer to push the lead to 67-59 with 1:46 left. He also hit four free throws down the stretch to seal Weber’s 17th win.
Big Sky Conference men’s tournament
Tuesday Men’s Round 1
8 Portland State vs 9 NAU
7 Sac State vs 10 Idaho State
6 Montana State vs 11 Southern Utah
Thursday Quarterfinals
1 UND vs PSU-NAU winner
2 EWU vs Sac-ISU winner
3 Weber State vs MSU-SUU winner
4 Idaho vs 5 Montana
