Montana State hits 25 three-pointers in a 101-58 win over NAU on Thursday

Thursday, February 11

Bozeman, MT

7:05 pm

Montana State University

6-611-13/ BSC

101

Northern Arizona

2-104-19/ BSC

Northern Arizona

Montana State

101

On a night when three-pointers rained, Quinton Everett hammered a dunk

Photo by: Sepp Jannotta

Montana State hits 25 three-pointers in a 101-58 win over NAU on Thursday

2/11/2016 10:43:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Bobcats set Big Sky record for long-range shooting

By: Bill Lamberty

It was a barrage.

Montana State rained in a Big Sky record 25 three-pointers in defeating Northern Arizona 101-58 in Bozeman on Thursday. The Cats made 15 in the first half, shot 55.6% from the floor and 58.1% from three-point range, and for good measure out-rebounded the Lumberjacks 45-to-21. Those 25 treys stand as the most in Division I this season, and were just three shy of a Division I record.

Bobcat coach Brian Fish was as pleased with the 'how' and the 'what.' "They were good shots," he said of his team's three-point parade. "They were penetrate-and-kick, they were shots we practice, and tonight they went in. That's going to happen once or twice a year. They were going in the hole tonight."

Montana State's hot shooting began immediately. Marcus Colbert hit a triple on the team's first possession, then Tyler Hall hit one on the next trip to the offensive end. After a Bobcat turnover Quinton Everett hit a three. Tyler Hall broke the monotony with a 19-foot two-pointer on MSU's sixth possession, and after four straight possessions without a score the Cats hit three more three-pointers in a row.

With just under six minutes remaining in the first half, 10 of Montana State's first 11 made baskets were from beyond the circle. At that point, the Bobcats led 39-8. Northern Arizona had three baskets and a pair of free throws. By the end of the half, Montana State led 56-18, had out-shot the Lumberjacks 63.3% to 17.4%, and were out-rebounding NAU 28-to-7.

"I thought defensively and rebounding we were pretty good in the first half," Fish said, "which led to some of those (offensive) things. And any time you get 35 baskets and 24 assists (for the game), that's pretty good."

Freshman phenomena Tyler Hall was fabulous. He scored 29 points on 10-for-14 shooting, including 8-for-11 from deep. He also grabbed five rebounds. "He's bouncing back a little bit from his couple-game slump where people skewed defenses toward him," Fish said of Hall. "Outside of maybe one or two where I got him (the ball) late in the shot clock I thought 12 of his 14 shots were in-rhythm shots and his teammates found him."

Five Bobcats scored in double-digits, four of them reserves. Sam Neumann (15 points on 5-for-5 three-point shooting) and Nahjee Matlock (13 points, 3-for-4 from the arc) had career games. Fish was happy to spread the minutes around. "We got a lot of guys playing time," he said. "A lot of guys saw the insides of their lungs coming out their mouths tonight because they hadn't played that many minutes, but I've been in the position Northern Arizona was in tonight. They've got really good young players, they're well coached, we just made shots tonight."

The Bobcats won their 11^th game of the season Thursday, and eight of the previous 10 had come by margins of eight points or less. Matlock said inspiration to stay focused on the task at hand came from an unusual source. "(Bobcat play-by-play announcer) Jay Sanderson gave us a saying from baseball, 'Win every pitch,'" the junior point guard said. "We try to do that. We try to win every possession."

Fish found plenty of factors that led to Thursday's win. "I think we're getting better. Guys are finding their roles. I thought we dominated on the boards in the first half and that led to some second-chance points. We got 24 second-chance points on 14 (offensive) rebounds, and that's really good. The ball movement was good, guys were giving themselves up. You can ask any coach in America, sometimes they move the ball, sometimes they don't, and tonight it was just popping."

MSU now stands 6-6 in Big Sky play one season after finishing with just four conference wins, and is 11-13 overall. Northern Arizona falls to 4-19 on the season, 2-10 in the league. The Bobcats host Southern Utah on Saturday at 2 pm. Purchase tickets here.