by The Montana men’s basketball team opened up the new year on the right foot with a dominant 78-64 win over Northern Arizona in the Big Sky opener for both teams. The Grizzlies pulled away behind a big second half and a balanced effort to improve to 9-3 under head coach Travis DeCuire in Big Sky openers.
The Grizzlies (7-7, 1-0 Big Sky) had five players reach double figures, the third time that it has happened against a D-I opponent. It’s the largest win over a D-I team this season for Montana, and it came on the backs of a strong defensive performance.
“Our defense showed up when we needed it most,” DeCuire said. “We defended well in the first half as well, I thought we had a couple of breakdowns. We gambled and turned the ball over and it put us in positions where we were at a disadvantage defensively. Once we settled in and took care of the ball, we made them miss quite a bit and we did a good job on the glass.”
The Grizzlies forced 13 Lumberjack turnovers on the night that led to 14 Grizzly points. Montana outshot Northern Arizona .538-to-.426 from the floor as the teams nearly had an even split on the glass.
Brooklyn Hicks led the way with 15 points, Tyler Thompson and Kenyon Aguino added 14 each, Te’Jon Sawyer had 13 points and a team-high 6 rebounds, and Williams added 11. The balance is what DeCuire has been hoping to find during the non-conference.
“A good Montana team usually does that, there will be four or five guys in double figures,” DeCuire said. “We usually have four guys average double figures and we’ve struggled with that of late, but we’re trying to get back to it so that was good to see.”
A big reason for the balanced scoring was Montana’s ability to set the tone in the paint. Sawyer and Aguino both scored in double figures in the same game for the fifth time this season as the Grizzlies outscored Northern Arizona 32-26 in the paint.
“We’ve been a team that naturally scores well in the paint and we’ve gotten away from that a little bit. It was important for us to get back to it,” DeCuire said. “Kenyon Aguino had a good offensive outing tonight and that helps and then Te’Jon got started on the perimeter and that allowed us to do more with penetration. When we are balanced on both sides of the ball, we will win a lot of games.”
Montana shot 54 percent from the floor in the game. The Griz went 10-of-24 (.417) from three and made 12-of-14 (.857) free throws in the contest. They had 17 team assists on a solid all-around day.
