Montana came to Greeley on Thursday night, and pushed its way closer in the race for the Big Sky Conference regular-season title.
In a much-anticipated showdown between the conference’s top two teams, the second-place Grizzlies played more like the No. 1, coming out on top 86-78 before a season-best crowd at Bank of Colorado Arena.
The Grizzlies (16-8, 9-2 Big Sky) spoiled the evening for the 1,989 fans from the start with an 11-2 run, and they led by as many as 21 in the second half to extend its current conference-best winning streak to five games.
Montana’s victory, though, doesn’t pull it into a tie in the conference standings with the Bears (17-7, 9-2). UNC retains first place because it swept Idaho State this season and one of Montana’s other conference losses was to the Bengals.
Montana shot in the high 60% range from the field all night, finishing at 62% to avenge an early January loss to UNC, 81-57, in Missoula.
Montana appeared to show an ease getting inside and finishing easy looks in the first half, while building its sizable lead before holding off a late Bears rally.
Grizzlies coach Travis DeCuire said his team’s ability to get inside was anything but easy.
“They forced us into some really bad shots last time, and we needed to work harder and be more selective at getting good shots,” DeCuire said. “We found some things in their ball-screen coverage and other things that allowed us to get the ball around the basket.”
Montana guard Money Williams came off the bench to score 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 3 of 5 from 3-point range.
Seven Grizzlies scored at least two points with burly forward Te’Jon Sawyer adding 15 points and seven rebounds, and guards Kia Johnson, Malik Moore and Joe Pridgen finishing with 14, 13 and 13, respectively.
Montana led 65-44 with 12 minutes, 17 seconds to play in the second half. UNC cut the lead to under 10 points a couple of times with under 2 minutes to play, but the Bears couldn’t come up with a defensive stop to ever really threaten in only its second home loss of the season.
Guard Quinn Denker led UNC with 21 points off the bench, again with a strong night on 3-point shooting. Denker hit 5 of 7 from 3-point range in one of his better performances of the season. He made 5 of 10 3s last Saturday in an 87-69 home win over Northern Arizona.
Isaiah Hawthorne, the Bears’ leading scorer for the season by a couple tenths of a point, added 17 points and seven rebounds, guard Langston Reynolds finished with 14 points and six assists and guard Jaron Rillie finished with 10 points.
“He had a great night,” Reynolds said of Denker. “We all know Q is a great shooter. Tonight, he hit some really big shots for us, even keeping us in the game. We gotta find a way to keep him going as well.”
Reynolds statistically has been one of the Bears’ best players all season. After the loss, he took responsibility for UNC’s defensive miscues that led to Montana’s big lead.
“Being soft,” Reynolds said. “Honestly, it started off with me. Pushing out those two buckets in the first media (time out). I was being soft. I shut that off, they have zero.”
UNC hosts Montana State at 6 p.m. Saturday at Bank of Colorado Arena.
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