Montana State Goes Cold in Loss to Quinnipiac

Saturday, November 26

Montreal, Canada

5 p.m.

Montana State University

3-4,0-0Big Sky

Quinnipiac

7-0,0-0MAAC

Quinnipiac

Montana St.

Jed Miller

Photo by: Bobcat Creative Services

11/26/2022 7:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

A 7-0 run late in the first half and a Jed Miller-led comeback attempt in the second half weren’t enough to overcome a tough shooting night against the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Saturday.

MONTREAL — The Montana State Bobcats fell to the Quinnipiac Bobcats 70-53 in the penultimate game of the Northern Classic, held in Montreal, Canada on Saturday night.

In only the second meeting between the two teams, the Montana State Bobcats (3-4) struggled on offense, shooting 35.1% from the field and 3-for-25 (12%) from three, compared to the Quinnipiac Bobcats (7-0) 40.3% shooting and 9-for-22 clip (40.9%) from beyond the arc. Quinnipac led wire-to-wire, yet the Bobcats pulled within one point late in the first half with a 7-0 run.

Jubrile Belo would lead the Bobcats for the second-straight game, scoring 14 points, grabbing nine rebounds, plus adding a block and a steal. RaeQuan Battle finished with eight points, while Robert Ford finished with eight points, four assists, two steals and two blocks.

"We had good looks once again," Montana State head coach Danny Sprinkle told Bobcat Sports Radio Network. "We had wide-open threes and we had 13 missed layups. I'll bet that out of those 22 we missed, about 17 to 18 were catch-and-shoot threes that we should continue to shoot. I thought Jubrile Belo and Jed Miller really competed today."

Quinnipiac took a 5-0 lead in the first two minutes, yet Montana State would only allow Quinnipiac to go 3-for-10 (30%) from three in the first half. MSU worked it inside early with layups from Belo and Battle, then a 5-0 run capped off by a pair of Caleb Fuller free throws made it a 9-8 game with 13:20 left. But Quinnipiac would go on a 7-0 run to double up Montana State 16-8 with 11:16 left in the first half.

Out of an MSU timeout, Tyler Patterson sank a corner three with 7:28 to go in the half, which eventually sparked a Bobcat run. Belo came alive with a dunk, then a lay-in off a pass from Ford II on back-to-back possessions to make it a 20-19 ballgame. Montana State would outscore Quinnipiac 5-2 after the final media timeout to pull within two, 26-24, at the break.

Quinnipiac's offense came alive in the second half. After Great Osobor's layup of the half pulled MSU within three points with 16:10 to play, Quinnipiac went on a 10-2 run to take a 48-33 lead. Patrick McMahon drove along the baseline to make a right-handed layup through contact, yet he couldn't finish the three-point play out of the under-12 media timeout.

With Montana State trailing 48-33, Jed Miller helped spark a comeback attempt — first with a deep three in front of MSU's bench, and then by picking off an errant skip pass and finding Battle in transition less than a minute later. This sparked six-straight points from Battle, then Montana State pulled within eight as Miller's second three made it a 55-48 ballgame with 4:34 remaining.

Unfortunately for Montana State, the Bobcats wouldn't get closer. Quinnipiac went on a 9-0 run late to extend its lead to as many as 18 points until four-straight points from Ford III under a minute to go made it a 67-53 game with 1:09 remaining. A Dezi Jones three with 37 seconds left wrapped up the scoring in the 70-53 game.

Jones led Quinnipiac with a game-high 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, plus seven rebounds. His teammate Matt Balanc chipped in 15 points and five rebounds.

MSU's stint in the Northern Classic concludes tomorrow morning with a game against Middle Tennessee State at 11:30 a.m. MT. The game will be streamed on BeTheBeast Event Live+, which can be purchased online or at the link provided on the men's basketball team's schedule page at msubobcats.com. Additionally, a free radio broadcast will be provided through the Bobcat Sports Radio Network.

From here, Montana State plays at Southern Utah on Nov. 30 at 7 p.m. The Bobcats make their return home to face St. Thomas on Thursday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m.

Single-game tickets for all remaining home games can be found on msubobcats.com/tickets, and all home games — with the exception of the Cat/Griz matchup — are buy one, get one free with promo code BOGO until Monday at 11:59 p.m.