Poor Shooting Dooms Bobcats in First Brawl of the Wild in 2015

Saturday, January 17

7:05 pm

Montana State University

Montana

Michael Dison led the Cats with 17 points

Photo by: Ruth Shellenberg

Poor Shooting Dooms Bobcats in First Brawl of the Wild in 2015

1/17/2015 9:30:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Grizzlies post 63-48 win over MSU

By: Bill Lamberty

Montana State's worst shooting game of the season, in the non-Kentucky division, couldn't have come at a worse time. But it came Saturday, and the result was a 63-48 Montana win in Missoula on Saturday.

"We missed 15 layups," said junior guard Marcus Colbert. "At the half we had 19 points. We just have to be better offensively."

The Bobcats shot just 26% in the first Brawl of the Wild Series men's basketball tilt of 2015, with one six-minute dry spell and two others of four minutes without points spelling MSU's doom. The game's key moments surrounded halftime. MSU scored just two points in the final 5:02 of the first half, as the Grizzlies stretched a two-point lead to 10, 29-19, at the break.

Halftime didn't change much.

Montana State's shooting went from bad to worse, as the Cats managed just five points in the first seven minutes of the second half. Montana built a lead as big as 25 points to eliminate any drama that may have existed. Michael Dison found his shooting touch, hitting three-pointers on three straight possessions to pull MSU within 14 around the five minute mark.

But, it was too little too late. Jordan Gregory answered UM's spurt with a three and Martin Breunig converted a pair of buckets to restore order. Breunig, the University of Washington transfer, scored 17 points with 11 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. Point guard Mario Dunn also scored 17, including 12 points in the first half when MSU tried to double Breunig from Dunn's defender.

"We knew we had to try to give something up to try to (slow down Breunig)," MSU head coach Brian Fish said. "He knocked down a couple of three-pointers and we got away from that. He's a Division I athlete on scholarship, we knew he could knock those down."

Montana State trailed by 10 at halftime in spite of a four-minute Bobcat dry spell to begin the game and another near the end of the half. The Grizzlies jumped out to a 9-0 lead, but MSU whittled at the margin until pulling within 11-10 at the 12:22 mark and within 19-17 at 4:27. From that point, Montana outscored the Cats 10-2 to close out the half. The Grizzlies shot 42.3% in the first half, to MSU's 25%. MSU turned the ball over eight times, and made just two of 11 three-point tries.
Montana State's poor shooting was epidemic. The Bobcats shot 25% before halftime, 27% after. The team shot 18% from the arc in the first half, and 29% in the second. MSU hit 11 of its 13 free throws, but 14 turnovers offset any offensive positives. There were individual positives. Dison finished with 17 points, the only Bobcat in double-digits, and Marcus Colbert dished out five assists. Eric Norman matched his career high with six blocks, and also had nine boards.

Fish traced the root of the problem back deeper than Saturday. "I didn't like our week of practice," he said. "We had to prod those guys and push 'em to get going, and that's on me. I have to get them going. But at the end of the day you have to finish, and we didn't."

Montana State falls to 3-14 overall with the loss, 0-5 in Big Sky play. The Grizzlies are 8-8, 4-1 in the league. MSU hosts Southern Utah on Thursday in Worthington Arena.