Montana Grizzlies starch Northern Colorado to win Big Sky tournament championship

BOISE, Idaho — Montana's 14-point lead had been methodically whittled down to a single tally with 3:35 to play in the Big Sky Conference men's basketball tournament championship game.

The second-seeded Grizzlies didn't panic late Wednesday night. They rallied together, never gave up the lead and closed out a 91-83 win over top-seeded Northern Colorado.

Their third win in four days at Idaho Central Arena resulted in them capturing the Big Sky tournament crown and an NCAA tournament berth for the first time since 2019.

"All the adversity we've been through, everything we've been through since the summer, how we came together, that's what we leaned on," Montana senior Joe Pridgen said of those final minutes. "Kind of looked each other in the eyes and we asked each other what we wanted. The rest is what it is."

The championship is the third for Montana head coach Travis DeCuire in six title game appearances during 10 tournaments leading his alma mater. That ties Wayne Tinkle for the most wins by a coach in Griz history.

The title is the 12th for Montana in the tournament, extending its Big Sky record, as it advanced to the championship game for a league-record 22nd time in 46 tournaments. The Griz will now head to the NCAA tournament for the 13th time and will do so with a 25-9 record.

"This is my proudest moment as a coach, as a head coach because of what this team has been through," DeCuire said. "I can't speak to everything that this team has been through, but the team knows. I've never been around a basketball team that has had as much adversity as we have had. To see these guys come together and support one another through it has been huge."

Montana's tournament championship adds to the history the team had already made this year. The Griz earned a share of the Big Sky regular season title, their first conference crown of any kind since 2019.

They had to win the rubber match against Northern Colorado (25-9) in the chipper after the teams split in the regular season and appeared on a collision course as they both went 15-3 in conference play to separate from the pack. This time, the Griz closed out the championship game after they blew a double-digit lead in the second half against Montana State last year.

"Ever since that last game I've wanted it," Montana senior Brandon Whitney said. "That's one of the reasons why I came back was to win a Big Sky championship and Big Sky tournament. I just put everything I had into it and I think the whole team did and the staff did. It felt great."

Montana made its march to the title game with nine newcomers, including eight transfers, the most in program history. It was going to take time for a team like that to mold together, and that process took longer than expected due to injuries during the nonconference slate.

Montana won 14 of its final 15 games, including crafting a 10-game winning streak that saw star sophomore Money Williams move from the starting lineup to the bench. It went 11-1 to close the regular season, then beat No. 7 Northern Arizona 74-65 in a Sunday quarterfinal and No. 6 Idaho 78-55 in a Tuesday semifinal to make its return to the title game.

"For the first time in a long time, we have games and no one's tweeting their stats or looking at stat sheets or concerned about how many points they scored," DeCuire said. "All they care is that we had more points than our opponent. I knew that going into this tournament and that's why I was so confident that we could win.

"I knew it wouldn't be easy because Northern Colorado is very talented, so were some of the other teams in the tournament, but I knew that we would handle adversity because no team's seen more adversity than this team this year."

Kai Johnson, a transfer from NCAA Division II Western Washington, scored 14 of his team-high 23 points in the second half, pouring in six in less than a minute to turn that one-point lead into an 80-73 advantage with 2:24 left. He made the all-tournament team as he returned to form after being slowed by an ankle injury in the final week of the regular season.

Whitney, the record-breaking fifth-year guard who accepted a smaller scoring role, was named the tournament MVP after being a second-team all-conference pick. He scored 18 points and dished a team-best three assists in the chipper after he put up a season-high 24 points in the quarterfinal and added seven in the semifinal.

Williams, the All-Big Sky second-team guard who lost both his father and mother in less than a year, also made the all-tournament team. He had seven points in the title game after scoring 16 and 13 in the first two games. It was his first Big Sky tournament after missing last year's because of injury.

"Usually you need some luck to win championships and this has been a very unlucky team," DeCuire said. "Usually you don't win, you don't even have winning seasons going through some of the things that we've gone through. There's three or four guys in our program that very easily could have sat this year out and didn't."

Pridgen, a transfer walk-on who earned All-Big Sky first-team honors while playing at his fourth school, scored 17 points. Malik Moore, a transfer from Pepperdine who has battled back from a wrist injury and was an all-conference second-team pick, added 15 points.

Te'Jon Sawyer chipped in six points before he fouled out. Austin Patterson had five points, all on free throws in the final 72 seconds, one game after he scored a season-high 20 points and grabbed a career-best four steals.

They all helped UM shoot 65.2 percent from the field, its best percentage against an NCAA Division I opponent since 2011, and make 24 of its 28 free throws to maintain its late lead over UNC, which shot 58.5 percent. The Griz shot 73.9 percent in the first half to build a 48-39 halftime advantage.

"The stat sheet doesn't tell the story about this team," DeCuire said. "I've had a lot of good teams: talent, toughness, skill. This team had a combination of everything. But what makes this team special is their commitment to one another and the sacrifices that they were all willing to make."

DeCuire also credited his staff. Associate head coach Chris Cobb has been with him all 11 seasons, while assistant Jay Flores and Anderson Clarke have both been on staffs that won titles previously. Then there's recent additions DJ Broome and Reuben Williams.

Next up for Montana is its first trip to the NCAA tournament since the Griz made back-to-back appearances in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. They'll find out their fate during Selection Sunday this weekend.

"Our staff worked hard to pull this thing together," DeCuire siad. "I wouldn’t say hold it together because these guys wanted to be together, but we had to pull it together.

"Of all my years and championships and experience, I'm going to enjoy this trip to the tournament with these guys as much as any that I've ever had."