Sharp kick-starts Montana to a 63-44 tourney win over Denver

Montana forward Kyle Sharp scored 13 points on a dominating 5-for-6 shooting performace in the paint and the Grizzlies used a suffocating zone defense to transform a 27-26 halftime lead to a 63-44 walk-away over the Denver University Pioneers in the first game of the Karl Tyler Chevrolet Grizzly Basketball Classic before 3054 fans Thursday.

The game’s first 10 minutes were still a struggle for Montana, which played its third game in four days. Denver jumped to a quick 11-5 lead behind the dead-eye shooting of guard Nate Rohnert and forward Rob Lewis. Rohnert scored on several quick back-door plays down the key and two treys from the tip of the key.

With 11 minutes remaining and a media timeout, Montana coaches substituted four players into the game. That’s when Sharp made his first impart.

Sharp literally kick-started the sluggish Montana offense with several nifty pump-fake and pivot moves for scores in the paint, which then quickly opened things up on areas of the floor as the Grizzlies pulled even with young Pioneers for the remainder of the half.

PHOTOS: Kyle Sharp posts up against Denver player Nate Rohnert for two of his 13 points against. (below) Reserve power forward Derek Selvig drives past a high post screen by Sharp for two of his seven points.

Though Montana maintained a lead in the early going of the first half, it was Sharp again who had a hand in a 20-5 run midway through the second half. The Grizzlies did it in the paint and on high post drives to the bucket.

“With the posts we needed to duck and seal more,” said Sharp. “If we’re standing around it’s tough for the guards to penetrate and get us the ball. So when we’re moving around and get things moving, we can make plays.”

A power post-up layup and free throw by Sharp at the 11:37 mark of the second half gave Montana a 41-32 lead, which was quickly extended to 44-32 on a Jordan Hasquet trey and the Grizzlies pulled away to a 49-32 lead before the Pioneers would score again.

When Sharp wasn’t scoring off of post-up moves, he was often in the middle of the action, setting a screen near the free throw line which resulted in dribble-enter plays by several teammates who were playing the high post.

“The high posts did a great job. Jack (McGillis), Jordan, Derek (Selvig),” said Sharp.  “They get the ball in the high post. And they’re like guards out there passing the ball. If they can do that every time I’ll seal them and try to get easy baskets for us,”Sharp said.

Guard Anthony Johnson posted another stellar offensive outing with 4-for-5 field goals  on numerous slashing baseline drives, and 5-for-5 shooting from the free throw line for 13 points total.

But the Grizzlies got more successful over the entire court as the game developed. Nine Montana players saw double-digit minutes of playing time and 10 players scored, though Hasquet was the only Griz close to Sharp and Johnson’s output.

Yet it was a rejuvenated and literally seam-tight Montana zone defense over the second half of play that caused the Pioneers to come undone. Montana held Denver to an icy 33.3 percent shooting mark from the field over the second half of play, limiting the Pioneers to only 12 points of total offense until just over two minutes of play remained when Pioneer Lewis scored to trigger an eight-point Denver flurry to close out the game.

“We talked about it (the zone),” said Montana coach Wayne Tinkle. “You know that’s been a little bit of an achilles heel for us, containing the ball. We just kind of bit the bullet and said let’s work on our zone. Let’s just see how the guys do it, and I thought they responded very well tonight.”

“You know it’d be something that we could continue to develop and it could be a nice weapon for us against certain teams,” said Tinkle.

Tinkle lauded Sharp’s defensive play as the anchor to the suffocating Montana defense in mid-key, while also crediting the leadership and defensive play of reserve guard Michael Taylor on the perimeter.

“Kyle was great, he really was,” said Tinkle. “The best thing that you don’t see on the stat sheet is when he plays ins the middle of that zone he’s like a traffic cop and he’s talking and telling everybody where to go and that makes a huge difference in zone. He showed some real leadership there. And those are things that don’t show up in the stat sheet.”

Said Tinkle of Taylor: “Michael Taylor’s presence on the court was huge. The stat sheet doesn’t tell you much, but boy I thought he showed a lot of maturity out there and really helped us out,” said Tinkle.

“The little run we made in the first half and then the start of that run in the second half he was on the floor, so he did some great things.,” Tinkle added.

PHOTOS: Jack McGillis is fouled as he drives down the lane on a high post move. (Bottom) Guard Michael Taylor scores on an early offense drive after he had stolen a pass as the point of Montana's 3-2 zone defense against Denver.

Johnson said the Grizzly defense was clearly the difference in the game.

"Early on, we just couldn’t find it defensively, said Johnson. "We couldn’t get out on the three point shooters and stuff and gave up maybe three or four threes. But, the second half we calmed down, threw in a different defense and they couldn’t do anything about it. No response," said Johnson.

Montana converted nine steals from the zone into 23 points off of those steals and 20 total Pioneer turnovers.

Montana’s bench contributed 36 points compared to Denver’s six and the Grizzlies out-rebounded Denver 20-16 for the game.

Rohnert scored 14 points for the Pioneers while forward Lewis scored 12. Only three other Denver players scored.

The Pioneers now meet Texas Arlington in the Classic’s second game Friday at 7. Montana will play Texas Arlington Saturday at 7 p.m.