Griz edge Dinos 82-72 in first "Battle of the Border' meeting

It’s a little difficult to develop much solid analysis from a line score. But there were some encouraging signs to take from the post-game stats of the Montana Grizzlies’ 82-72 win in the first game of the Battle of the Border against the University of Calgary Dinos, played in Calgary Saturday.

Because the tourney is defined as international competition, the Grizzlies will log four Labor Day tourney games (which don’t count on their season record) well in advance of the normal first-week-in November start of NCAA basketball play.

The Griz -- trailing by three after a quarter and by 40-34 at halftime -- rallied quickly at the start of the second half on a layup by post Brian Qvale and a trey by guard Ryan Staudacher off a feed by 6’-6” redshirt junior wing Jack McGillis to pull within one point of the homestanding Dinos. 

But Montana -- which led by single digits through much of the first quarter -- didn’t regain the lead for another six minutes until McGillis’ jumper gave the Griz a 57-56 lead at the 2:59 mark of the third quarter.

From there the Grizzlies extended the margin quickly to as many as seven points and a 65-58 third quarter-lead until a trey by power forward Kyle Sharp with 6:45 remaining gave Montana a 10-point lead it would maintain for the win.

McGillis led Montana with 19 points on 6-of-14 shooting, followed by senior power forward Jordan Hasquet’s 15 points and 8 rebounds.

Sophomore 6-11 post Qvale snared 8 boards and scored 13 points while backup point guard -- redshirt soph Michael Taylor -- scored 11 and notched three assists and two steals. Junior off-guard Staudacher scored 11 on 5-of-8 shooting while Sharp scored 10 points and pulled-down 10 boards. Senior point guard Ceylon Elgin-Taylor had seven assists in a team-high 31 minutes of play.

Missoulian sports writer Bob Meseroll's game story was not available online by mid-morning Sunday. However, you can read this coverage in the Calgary Herald. 

THE ENCOURAGING SIGNS:

• Montana’s 82-72 win came against essentiallly the same Dinos team that beat Montana-foe, and Big Sky Conf. member, Weber State 81-74 in this same tourney a year ago.

• McGillis’ 19 points from the wing position gives Montana offensive punch it was missing from that position throughout the 2007-08 season.

• Montana’s 9 steals was nearly double its’ Big Sky Conference-worst mark of 4.8 steals per game  from last year.

• Montana’s 24 assists and +5 assist-to-turnover ratio continues a solid offensive pattern the team has accomplished over the past four years.

• Redshirt sophomore backup point guard Michael Taylor made all five of his field goals while notching three assists and three steals as Elgin-Taylor’s backup.

• Montana had an 18-point, 30-12 scoring advantage on points in the paint while Montana reserves outscored Calgary 23-4.

• Eight Montana players logged a minimum of 17 minutes while two more played at least 10 minutes.

• The Grizzlies got balanced scoring from six players in the win. That compares to a combined 55 points  (out of 72 points total) from two Dinos players (Henry Bekkering and Tyler Fider). It will be interesting to see if Montana can adjust defensively to limit scoring by those two Dinos players in the teams’ rematch Monday.

Montana continues tourney play with games Sunday against the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Lethbridge before a Monday rematch with the Dinos, who will be well-rested, because the Canadian teams do not face each other in the tourney.