The Montana State Bobcats play the role made famous by Bill Murray, repeating the same day over, and over, and over.
But unlike Murray's character, the Bobcats haven't found a way to break out of the rut that lands them in the same place every time.
The win kept the Grizzlies in the Big Sky Conference title hunt at 17-5 overall, 7-3 in league, two games behind Northern Arizona. The Cats probably dropped out of title contention at 6-4 in league, 13-11 overall.
Senior Kevin Criswell led the Griz with 18 points on the night he became the fourth-leading scorer in school history, passing Griz assistant coach Wayne Tinkle. The Griz got an unexpected boost from redshirt freshman Jordan Hasquet, who added 15 points and six rebounds while helping to hold MSU power forward Marvin Moss to just nine points. Montana's leading scorer Andrew Strait added 11, but played just eight minutes in the first half because of foul trouble.
The Griz shot 52 percent from the field in the second half while holding the Cats to 34 percent, 38 percent for the game.
“I thought it had a lot to do with our stick-to-itiveness on defense,” Montana coach Larry Krystkowiak said in explaining how the Griz were able to pull away. “It was a grind. The basket wasn't really inviting for about the first two-thirds of the game. It was tough for us to score. It was neat watching some defensive intensity.”
In particular, the Grizzlies again held MSU's leading scorer, Ja'Ron Jefferson, in check. Jefferson, who averages 15 points a game, had just nine while being guarded by Matt Dlouhy and Virgil Matthews, two more than he had in UM's 80-64 win in Bozeman. Moss also failed to crack double digits, as did Al Beye, who averaged 25 in a pair of games last week. Point guard Casey Durham and reserve guard Derrick Edmonds led the Cats with 11 apiece.
The Griz bolted to a 12-4 lead out of the gate, but Strait picked up his second foul with 16:07 still to play before intermission. Behind seven first-half points from Beye, the Cats rallied to go on top 32-29 at intermission, similar to the 34-30 lead they owned at the break last month in Bozeman.
The teams basically treaded water for the first 10 minutes of the second half until Criswell hit a 3-pointer to give Montana a 49-46 lead with 9:05 to play, igniting the crowd. A pair of Bobcat misses on the other end led to another trey by Mike Chavez. Criswell then stripped the ball from a Bobcat, missed the layup, but Matt Martin hustled down court to get the put-back, giving the Griz a 54-46 lead with 7:52 to play.
“It started with Criswell's three,” Durham said. “That was my fault. I was trying to get to the eight-minute timeout and it ballooned to an eight-point lead and that's the way it stayed. In a game like this, that one big spurt cost us.”
Statistically, it was Criswell's best game in nine tries against the Cats. He entered the game averaging 10.5 ppg against Montana State.
“He's the one who's going to take the big shot for them,” Durham said of Criswell. “He's played in enough of these games to know that.”
Criswell was happy just getting the win.
“That's the important thing, we got a big win late in the conference,” Criswell said. “I'm just excited that the fan support came and made the atmosphere the best I've ever seen it since I've been here. It's not tough to get up for games like this.
“I'm not used to it from early in my career. It would be nice to see that for the rest of the year, but it's probably not realistic. I have a lot of respect for them coming out and showing the support.”
The lead grew as big as 13, 62-49, on a 15-foot fallaway by Criswell with 5:28 to play. The Griz held the Cats at arm's length the rest of the way.
“We knew there were going to be some ups and some downs in a game of this magnitude,” Krystkowiak said. “I give our guys a lot of credit for believing in that. It's what we've been preaching that if you play defense, it will keep you in games. If you happen to be clicking on quite a few cylinders offensively, it's going to make it an easy game. Nights like tonight when it wasn't easy offensively, we just kind of seized the opportunity when it presented itself.”
NOTES: MSU had 14 turnovers to just eight for the Griz, two in the second half. Š MSU won the rebounding battle 42-40 behind seven apiece from Moss, Beye and Ted Morris. Š Beye had all five of MSU's blocks. Dlouhy had three stuffs for the Griz.
MONTANA STATE (61)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Moss 27 4-12 1-3 7 3 1 9
f-Dissly 30 0-5 0-0 3 0 1 0
c-Beye 27 4-5 1-2 7 3 2 9
g-Durham 31 3-8 2-2 6 2 3 11
g-Jefferson 27 4-13 0-2 5 3 1 9
Edmonds 23 4-9 1-1 1 0 0 11
Morris 13 3-5 1-2 7 1 0 7
Wilson 9 0-2 0-0 1 2 2 0
Durr 13 1-1 2-3 3 2 1 5
Totals 200 23-60 8-15 42 16 11 61
MONTANA (70)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Hasquet 29 7-10 0-3 6 3 0 15
f-Dlouhy 30 0-7 2-2 5 3 2 2
c-Strait 28 4-7 3-5 7 4 3 11
g-Criswell 34 6-12 3-3 2 3 2 18
g-Matthews 20 1-4 0-1 3 0 4 2
Martin 23 3-7 1-2 3 0 3 8
Ellis 10 0-1 0-0 1 3 2 0
Sharp 8 2-5 0-0 4 1 0 4
Mayes 6 1-5 0-0 3 0 0 3
Chavez 12 3-6 0-0 5 2 0 7
Totals 200 27-64 9-16 40 19 16 70
Halftime score: Montana State 32, Montana 29.
3-point goals: MSU 7-21 (Durham 3-8, Edmonds 2-5, Jefferson 1-4, Durr 1-1, Dissly 0-2, Moss 0-1), UM 7-28 (Criswell 3-8, Chavez 1-2, Mayes 1-3, Martin 1-5, Hasquet 1-3, Dlouhy 0-4, Matthews 0-1, Ellis 0-1, Sharp 0-1).
Turnovers: MSU 14 (Edmonds 3), UM 8 (Strait 2, Criswell 2).
Blocked shots: MSU 5 (Beye 5), UM 6 (Dlouhy 3).
Steals: MSU 3 (Jefferson 2), UM 4 (four with one).
Officials: Chris Rastatter, Jimmy Casas, Mark Cook.
Attendance: 7,311.
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