by There was some rust early for the Montana men’s basketball team in Monday’s season opening win over Northwest Indian College, but the Grizzlies would shake it off quickly in a 106-41 blowout victory inside Dahlberg Arena.
The visiting Eagles were able to knock down some shots early and hang tough with the Grizzlies through the opening stretch of the game, but once Montana shifted gears there was no slowing them down.
The Grizzlies closed the first half on a 27-1 run to take a 57-20 lead into the locker rooms and extended the overall run to 40-3 as they broke things open in the second half.
“We had a little rust to start off, I don’t think we played hard enough early, but once we started getting a few floor burns and making some hustle plays it took off from there,” head coach Travis DeCuire said.
It’s the most points in a game for the Grizzlies since putting 107 up against Northwest Indian in 2023 and it’s the largest margin of victory for Montana since a 69-point victory over SAGU AIC in 2021.
The Grizzly defense got the offense going on Monday night as they scored 25 points off turnovers. The momentum in the game really started to shift late in the first half when the Grizzlies had several breakaway dunks because of their defensive effort.
Montana had nine steals with eight different players recording one and forced the Eagles into 17 turnovers. It allowed them to get into a good rhythm offensively on a night when they shot just 24.1 percent from three-point range.
“It was really because we scored off of our defense. We forced turnovers and tough shots for them,” DeCuire said of the high score. “The possessions got shorter because of pressure and we changed our defensive coverage in the ball screen and I thought it caught them off guard. Once we got running, we became more productive.”
There were 12 different scorers for Montana on the night led by UNLV transfer Brooklyn Hicks. Hicks had 17 points and six rebounds in his Grizzly debut, contributing a big highlight with a breakaway slam off a steal.
The junior guard went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc as Montana’s best shooter on the night and made plays on both ends of the floor.
“He’s high energy. He got a lot of deflections, he forced a lot of turnovers, he was on the glass,” DeCuire said. “When you play hard, good things happen.”
There were three other Grizzlies that reached double figures on the night. True freshman Kenyon Aguino started the game and nearly had a double-double with 14 points and eight rebounds. Te’Jon Sawyer had a dozen points and Chase Henderson went 5-of-7 from the floor for 11 points.
DeCuire played 13 players on Monday and 12 of them scored. He got 10-plus minutes out of 11 of the players as he looks to figure out a rotation early on in the season.
“It didn’t get any easier,” DeCuire said following the game. “When you look at the minutes played, there are some guys that didn’t play as much or at all against Denver that played more than some of our higher minute guys. A lot of it was just based on how well you were playing and how well we were playing when you were in, and then I found a lineup in the first half that we kind of just let play it out.”
The Grizzlies got 63 points from their bench and scored 60 points in the paint against the undersized Eagles. They outrebounded Northwest Indian 57-17 in the game, grabbing 17 offensive rebounds and turning it into 14 points.
It’s the first of four games for Montana over the next eight days, which was another reason that so many different players picked up minutes. Grant Kepley led the Grizzlies with 24 minutes played on the night.
“We’re going to have to try to stay fresh as much as possible going into the weekend,” DeCuire said. “You have to get off to good start, have to take care of business when you have the opportunity, and then just see what happens from there.”
