The Montana men's basketball team reached the Sweet 16 sooner than anyone expected.
It took the Griz just 21 games to lose No. 16.
It was the sixth straight Big Sky Conference loss for the Griz (2-7, 5-16), who have dropped 15 of their last 17. Eastern Washington, 5-0 on the road in league play, strengthened its grip on first place at 8-1, 12-10. The Eagles are 2fi games clear of Northern Arizona and Idaho State, which share second.
How bad was this loss?
n Montana coach Pat Kennedy didn't even stick around for the closing seconds. Official Andy Rios slapped Kennedy with a pair of technical fouls with 29.4 seconds to play, resulting in an automatic ejection.
n The Griz went 8 minutes, 10 seconds without scoring a point in the first half.
n Eastern Washington missed just seven shots in the second half, shooting 68 percent from the field. Ten of Eastern's 15 second-half field goals were layups; the other five were 3-pointers.
Banged up Brendon Merritt led the Eagles with 17 points, making all four of his 3-point attempts. Marc Axton, shut out in the Grizzlies' 79-68 win over Eastern last month in Cheney, added 14. Alvin Snow had his typical strong all-around game with 13 points, seven assists and four steals.
"We just have to find somewhere to turn," said Montana senior Steve Horne, who led the Griz with 16 points. "Our main concern is staying together, finding a way to win."
The Griz looked like they had a chance to do just that, jumping out to a 14-5 lead just six minutes into the game. Four of Montana's starting five contributed to the opening burst.
That was the high-water mark for the Griz. Eastern held the Griz scoreless for 8:10 while putting together an 18-0 run, grabbing a 23-14 lead before Victor Venters ended the drought with a layup at the 5:40 mark. Eastern went on to score the next seven points to open a 30-16 lead.
Although the Griz crawled within seven early in the second half on a breakaway dunk by Horne, Eastern's lead was never in serious jeopardy the rest of the way.
Montana's leading scorer Kamarr Davis was held to five points, just one in the second half. Kevin Criswell, the Grizzlies' second leading scorer, had just seven on 2-for-10 shooting.
Former Missoula Sentinel standout Eric Henkel, who had six points in his first return to Missoula as an Eagle, said Eastern wanted to avenge its only league loss.
"We definitely had to get back at them for what they did at our place," said Henkel. "That was the first thing on our minds. Personally, it feels good. Aside from the three free throws at the end, it was fun."
The free throws Henkel refers to came after Kennedy's ejection. Henkel made just one of the four attempts.
"I wanted to play well because my family was here," said Henkel, whose father Craig and sister Jill both played for Montana. "I'll leave it up to everyone else whether the Griz made a mistake (by not signing) me or not."
Kennedy got the technicals when he complained that Rios was not using a visible five-second count.
"You don't cheat the kids," Kennedy said. "Don't ever cheat the student-athletes. There's supposed to be a visible five-second count, it's a simple as that. Our kids were still working hard."
The Griz travel to Weber State next Thursday and Idaho State on Saturday.
"We just go game to game," Kennedy said. "Maybe we'll focus in a little bit more in our younger guys."
NOTES: A crew from ESPN was in Missoula Thursday night filming former Montana Grizzly Mike Chavez for a piece about Native American basketball players, both in high school and college. Chavez left the team last fall to seek treatment for a medical condition. He has enrolled in classes for spring semester.
Sports editor Bob Meseroll can be reached at 523-5265 or by e-mail at sportsdesk@missoulian.com.
EASTERN WASHINGTON (71)
Min FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Axton 32 4-7 5-5 5 1 1 14
f-Barnard 19 3-8 2-2 0 3 2 9
c-Nelson 22 2-4 2-4 7 3 0 6
g-Merritt 27 5-7 3-4 3 3 3 17
g-Snow 34 5-12 2-2 3 2 7 13
Henkel 14 2-4 2-5 0 0 0 6
Pariseau 25 2-4 0-0 2 3 2 4
McCulloch 8 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 0
Butorac 3 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Smith 15 1-1 0-2 6 3 1 2
Totals 200 24-47 16-24 29 19 16 71
MONTANA (52)
Min FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Horne 28 7-11 0-0 3 0 1 16
f-Davis 27 2-6 1-2 3 4 1 5
c-Easley 17 1-2 0-0 2 4 1 2
g-Mansell 35 3-6 2-6 2 3 3 11
g-Criswell 29 2-10 2-2 7 3 2 7
Lynch 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Booker 13 1-3 2-2 2 0 0 5
Cummings 5 1-1 0-1 0 1 0 2
Dlouhy 8 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0
Pederson 19 0-5 0-0 2 2 0 0
Venters 17 2-4 0-0 3 2 0 4
Totals 200 19-49 7-13 26 19 8 52
Halftime score: Eastern Washington 31, Montana 21.
Technical foul: Montana coach Kennedy 2 (ejected).
3-point goals: EWU 7-17 (Merritt 4-4, Snow 1-3, Axton 1-3, Barnard 1-5, Henkel 0-1, Pariseau 0-1), UM 7-22 (Mansell 3-4, Horne 2-5, Booker 1-1, Criswell 1-8, Davis 0-1, Dlouhy 0-1, Pederson 0-2).
Turnovers: EWU 15 (Snow 6), UM 18 (Horne 4).
Blocked shots: EWU 1 (Snow), UM 1 (Pederson).
Steals: EWU 10 (Snow 4), UM 6 (Davis 3).
Officials: Andy Rios, Brian Harrison, Don Wescott.
Attendance: 3,843
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