The Montana Grizzlies combined stellar blue-collar performances from two of their power big men in the low blocks, along with a smothering defense on the perimeter, and edged the Big Sky Conference-leading Portland State Vikings 72-65 before the most raucous crowd of the season (4316) in Dahlberg Arena Thursday.
Senior center Kyle Sharp punched-in with a swing-shift double-double of 10 rebounds and 15 points from point-blank range, while senior power forward Jordan Hasquet roped off the paint in the second half and finished with 13 points and four rebounds. Their yeoman efforts, along with 15 points and three assists from junior point guard Anthony Johnson, led the Grizzlies to their first win over the Vikings since 2006.
“They (Montana) hit some big shots, hit some big threes and... the crowd got into it, and I thought they just did a nice job of executing plays down the stretch and making baskets and we didn’t,” said Portland State Coach Ken Bone.
“I thought our guys played hard, but Montana just deserved to win,” said Bone.
Montana’s victory puts them at 6-3 and in third place – certainly poised to challenge for the conference crown – one-half game behind the Vikings (6-2) and one behind Weber State (6-1), which won at Idaho
State in overtime and moved into first place.
But just as impressive was the entire Montana defensive effort. The Grizzlies combined a smothering match-up zone defense with an active, switching man-on defense, and held Vikings’ point guard Jeremiah Dominguez to five points. The Vikings, the league’s most efficient three-point-shooting team, shot a sub-par 9-for-26 from beyond the arc for a 34.6 percent mark.
“All week all we were talking about was Dominguez,” said Hasquet. “That’s who we wanted to stop. We did a good job of that, and that was the difference in the game.
“And, I mean, we had some breakdowns, but we’ve taken a lot of pride in defense these last few weeks,” said Hasquet. “That’s going to be our motto.”
The result of that intensive defensive play saw the Grizzlies hold the Vikings to 44 percent from the field overall, while limiting them to 10 points below their league-leading average of 75.1 points per game. Montana also out-rebounded the Vikings by seven, 36-29.
“We mixed and matched defenses,” said Montana Coach Wayne Tinkle. “I thought it kept them from really getting into a rhythm. And I thought the energy they had to expend really helped us out down to the last couple of minutes. Our guys really bought into the game plan and did a nice job,” said Tinkle.
PHOTOS: Kyle Sharp dunks the ball for two of his 15 points in first half action. Wendell Wright and Dominic Waters look on. Jordan Hasquet (bottom) drives against Tyrell Mara for two of his 11 second-half points.
Nonetheless – borrowing a description of the game by Montana point guard Anthony Johnson – the game was a prize-fight from start to finish, with six ties and 10 lead changes.
"I told you it was going to be a knock-down drag-out fight," said Johnson. "It was nothing less than a heavyweight championship fight."
The Vikings extended a five-point 34-29 halftime lead to eight before Hasquet took charge in the early minutes of the second half. Hasquet scored eight of Montana’s next 16 points on a variety of drives and pivot & post moves to lead a 16-2 surge which resulted in a 50-43 Montana lead with 11:09 remaining.
I wanted to pick it up right from the start when I got in there in the second half,” said Hasquet. “And I was able to do it a little bit,” he said.
“Jordan got a nice little flow going by going to the basket, which is huge.,” said Tinkle. “He made some plays for Jack (McGillis), which got Jack going. We got Jack on the block, posted him up, which got him going a little bit. Then it went to Michael Taylor, who gave us a nice little boost... then Ceylon, Ryan,” said Tinkle.
The Vikings quickly rebounded, and for the next four minutes the teams battled on even terms until sophomore guard Taylor – who hit two treys and scored eight points – sank a the first of three Montana three-point shots, each of which either broke a tie or extended Montana’s lead to four.
Johnson’s trey at the 1:40 mark broke the final tie of the game and Montana used free throws to extend the lead to the game ‘s final margin.
Viking junior forward Jamie Jones carried the Vikings through most of the second half with 16 points. But it was sophomore forward Phil Nelson’s three-straight treys in the final five minutes of play that kept the Vikings within striking distance. Nelson finished with 14 points, while guard Andre Murray scored 12.
Nelson’s final trey knotted the score at 64 with 1:40 remaining, but Johnson responded quickly with a trey and the Grizzlies scored eight of the game’s final nine points to ice the win.
Sharp literally carried the Griz through the first half. When he wasn’t bulling up a shot from short range, he was in the battle for the boards. Two of
Sharp’s offensive rebounds resulted in buckets.
“When I start out trying to score the ball and trying to get things going, I think the team kind of picks after that,” said Sharp. “If I try to light a fire under the guys, we play a lot better.”
Montana had struggled to get the ball into the low post in its earlier league loss at Portland. Not on this night. Behind the ball handling of Johnson, Ceylon Elgnin-Taylor and Michael Taylor, the Grizzlies were able to get the ball to Sharp early.
PHOTOS: Anthony Johnson drives for a bucket in first half action. Johnson, who scored 15 points, was fouled and made the free throw. PSU's Micky Polis defends. (bottom) Ceylon Elgin Taylors drives into the lane in first-half action. Phil Nelson defends.
“When we were at Portland State, we had some trouble with their trap,” said Sharp. “We worked on it. We knew that if we got the ball moving, get out of that trap, we’d have wide-open layups.”
One of Sharp’s buckets was a resounding crowd-pleasing dunk that put a charge into the crowd. From there on, the crowd sounded more like the rabid Griz fans of years past.
Johnson, who had heard stories of past Montana crowds, but hadn’t seen any proof, was impressed.
“Oh, my gosh!” exclaimed Johnson. “That might have been Cameron-Indoor (Duke University) loud. That might have been...”
“To get the students up here more often would definitely help,” added Johnson.
Johnson credited the team’s steadily solidifying chemistry for its recent success. Especially this win.
“We talk about potential all the time,” said Johnson. “And that’s been the knock on us, is ‘When is our potential going to be realized?’ “
“And I think we saw today a little bit of what we can do when we’re all firing on all cylinders,” said Johnson.
“The chemistry was at a high. We knew that we needed to raise the level of intensity to play this game, and people stepped up.”
