Vandals knock off Griz for Big Sky title

BOISE, Idaho — They knocked off two higher seeds and boasted the tournament MVP, but the Montana Grizzlies’ basketball season ended short of a Big Sky Conference title with a 77-66 loss to Idaho in Wednesday night.

Money Williams was named the Big Sky Tournament MVP following a 19-point performance that gave him a tournament-record 91 points over three games.  

The Griz knocked off the hottest team in the league, Northern Colorado, in the quarterfinals behind 40 points from Williams, then eliminated regular-season champion Portland State in the semifinals. 

Williams and the offense ran out of gas against Idaho, which completed a men’s-women’s sweep of the tournament. The 6-foot-4 junior was battling an illness that kept him from that morning’s shootaround. Isaiah Brickner scored 23 points to lead four players in double figures for Idaho (21-14). The Vandals earned their first NCAA berth since 1990. 

“They wanted it more. There are no ifs, ands, buts, or explanations,” Grizzlies coach Travis DeCuire said. “They played way harder than us. Neither team was great offensively. ... but they just outscrapped us. They had more energy and more fight, and we fell short.” 

DeCuire has taken seven teams to the title game in his 12 seasons at Montana, and Williams is just the fourth player from a non-champion to win MVP. He shared team scoring honors with senior teammate Te’Jon Sawyer, who became the 39th UM player to reach 1,000 career points. 

The Grizzlies (18-16) limited Idaho to just 40.7 percent shooting but didn’t shoot any better; they committed 14 turnovers and were outrebounded by 14. Montana shot 6-of-25 (.240) from 3-point range. 

The Vandals took a 20-10 lead near the midway point of the first half, before Sawyer got loose for a bucket. Brooklyn Hicks jumped a pass and Idaho committed a flagrant foul on the breakaway to help spark the Grizzlies. 

Montana soon led 29-24 before taking a 31-30 lead to intermission. The Vandals started the second half hot, with a 3-pointer from Brody Rowbury giving the lead for good, 37-35. 

Another three from the 6-11 Rowbury made it 53-43 with 8:35 left and the Grizzlies couldn’t recover. 

Rowbury had 12 points in 23 minutes; Kolton Mitchell added 11 points and resever Trevon Blassingame checked in with 10 for the Vandals. 

“I can’t believe what happened,” Mitchell told the Idaho Statesman. “Just a sense of pride for our team and for this program and for the community in Moscow.” 

Williams finished with 699 points this sesaon, third most in program history. His 91 tournament points broke the previous record of 83, set by the late Anthony Johnson during UM’s 2010 Big Sky title run.  

"He was incredible,” DeCuire said. “That performance, you want to see it get him to the NCAA Tournament.” 

The Grizzlies worked through two players missing the majority of the season with injury and several changes to the rotation.   

“We were warriors to get to this point,” DeCuire said.