Hall Hits Thirty Points as Cats Come Up Short

Saturday, February 20

7:05 pm

Montana State University

12-14, 7-7

Montana

17-8, 12-2

Montana State

Montana

Sophomore Zach Green

Photo by: Todd Goodrich

2/20/2016 10:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The formula was different. The end result wasn’t.

By: Bill Lamberty

The formula was different. The end result wasn't.

Montana rode a free throw parade, hitting 30 charity tosses in 42 attempts, to a 87-78 win over Montana State on Saturday in Missoula. The win was UM's second over the Cats this season, but didn't come easily.

"The guys fought hard," said Bobcat coach Brian Fish. "We got it down to a one, two possession game but it seemed like every big possession they got themselves to the foul line. And unless they change the rules, you can't guard them there."

The Bobcats trailed by 10 points for times in the second half, and by as many as 13 a minute-and-a-half into that period. But the team's terrific guard tandem of Marcus Colbert and Tyler Hall led the charge back. Consecutive plays by those two, followed by three free throws by Hall, trimmed the Grizzlies lead to one at 54-53 with 12:11 to play.

But that's as close as the Cats could get. "We just couldn't get enough stops," Colbert said. "They shot a lot of free throws, and you can't guard them there so they knocked them down."

Colbert scored 18 points with five assists in his final regular season Bobcat-Grizzly game. He also grabbed eight rebounds. Hall, in his first visit to Dahlberg Arena, was magnificent. He scored 30 points – his second game with at least that many during his freshman season – and grabbed four rebounds. He hit seven three-pointers.

Montana freshman Michael Oguine provided the home team a special performance, pouring in 27 points. Fish was impressed with the rookies. "Those are two good players," he said. "They each played 34 minutes and they brought it the whole time." Brandon Gfeller scored 24 for Montana.

The UM guards may have gone off as MSU made concessions in slowing down Grizzlies big man Martin Breunig. The Cats held UM's league MVP candidate to nine points on 2-for-6 shooting.

Montana created separation at the end of the first half, largely from the free throw line. The Grizzlies sank all six of their charity tosses in the last three minutes of the half – and in fact finished the first 20 minutes 10-for-12 from the line. The Cats finished the first half 3-for-7 from the line, but three of those misses were on the front end of one-and-ones, depriving the team up to six points.

Each team enjoyed scoring runs fueled by shooting sprees in the first half. MSU's came first, with the Cats building a 23-15 lead just inside of the 10-minute mark on Nahjee Matlock's three-pointer. That bucket followed a brilliant blocked shot by Matlock on the other end of the floor. The Bobcats shooting percentage was 60% at that point.

The Grizzlies answered with a pair of three-pointers and four free throws on their next four possessions. Oguine's triple at 6:53 made the score 27-25 MSU. After a pair of turnovers – the Cats turned Montana over nine times before intermission, but gave the ball away seven times – the Grizzlies scored on eight of their last nine possessions. That amounted to a 16-5 run to close the half.