The Montana Grizzlies made coach Wayne Tinkle's 42nd birthday a happy one with a 71-60 win over Northern Colorado in a Big Sky Conference men's basketball game Saturday night at the Butler-Hancock Sports Pavilion.
It was the second straight win for the Griz, who moved into sixth place in the league standings at 3-4, 9-11 overall. Northern Colorado dropped to 2-6, 8-12 after suffering its fourth straight loss, two of those coming at home.
The Bears had to play great in the second half just to make it a game. The Griz scored 14 straight points to open a 14-1 lead at the start of the game and expanded that margin to 23 late in the opening stanza.
The offensive explosion was fueled by Montana's pinpoint 3-point shooting. The Griz made seven of their first 11 from downtown, capped by a rare trey from Ceylon Elgin-Taylor to make it 39-16 with 4:09 to play before intermission.
“I had a really good feeling when we practiced last night, the way we shot it and the coaches said our guys were into it before the game,” Tinkle said. “We were nailing shots, but I wish we could've kept our foot on the pedal a little more.”
The Bears scored the final six points of the half to cut the gap to 39-22 at intermission.
“We went away from what was working and settled for mediocre,” Tinkle said. “And that carried over to the second half.”
Northern Colorado chipped away at the lead and got within single digits on a 3-pointer by Will Figures that made it 59-50 with 2:18 to play.
Despite some loose ballhandling by the Griz down the stretch, the Bears were never able to get closer.
“When they got it to nine and we started throwing the ball all over, I got worried,” Tinkle said.
But the Griz salted the game away at the free-throw line, led by Elgin-Taylor's 8-for-9 effort. Elgin-Taylor finished with a career-high 13 points.
“How about Ceylon stepping up and going 8-for-9?” Tinkle said. “We hung in there and continued to fight, fight, fight to the end.”
Jordan Hasquet made four 3-pointers and led the Griz with 16 points while grabbing seven rebounds. Andrew Strait added 12 points and tied a career-high with 12 rebounds. Freshman Brian Qvale, making his third straight start, finished with six points and six blocks, one off the school single-game record.
“(UNC's) Jabril Banks ends up with 16 points on 16 shots, but (Qvale) did a great job of protecting that rim,” Tinkle said.
Banks' 16 points led the Bears, who shot just 36.7 percent from the field, compared to 48.9 percent for the Griz.
The Griz improved to 2-2 on the road in league play.
“I'm really enjoying this, I'm learning a lot about myself through the adversity and a lot about our players,” Tinkle said of a team that had won just three of its previous 12. “Even though we didn't play pretty, we found a way to get it done on the road. Our guys responded.”
NOTES: The Griz were 16-for-22 from the free-throw line two games after going 11-for-25 against Weber State. ... UNC won the rebounding battle 36-33. ... Daren Engellant holds the UM record for blocks in a game at seven against Boise State in 1991. ... The Griz play their next two on the road, Thursday at Portland State and next Sunday at Eastern Washington. ... UNC outscored Montana 38-22 in the paint and 17-5 on second-chance points. ... The Griz had an 11-6 edge in points off turnovers.
MONTANA (71)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Hasquet 38 5-9 2-3 7 1 1 16
f-Strait 26 5-8 2-4 12 4 1 12
c-Qvale 28 3-3 0-0 2 5 0 6
g-Staudacher 24 3-8 0-0 3 2 2 8
g-Elgin-Taylor 30 2-5 8-9 0 1 3 13
Rundles 21 2-8 0-0 2 0 2 5
Martin 22 2-5 4-6 5 0 4 9
Sharp 11 1-1 0-0 2 2 0 2
Totals 200 23-47 16-22 33 15 13 71
NORTHERN COLORADO (60)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Banks 29 7-16 2-4 8 3 0 16
f-Montgomery 24 3-7 0-0 5 3 0 6
g-Palacios 28 2-5 3-6 6 3 1 7
g-Pangtakoplos 17 0-2 0-0 0 1 0 0
g-Beitzel 26 1-7 0-0 1 1 0 2
Figures 24 4-9 4-4 4 4 3 13
Taibi 11 0-2 0-0 1 0 0 0
Anderson 1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Kingman 16 2-5 3-4 2 2 1 7
Mason 25 3-7 2-2 7 3 1 9
Totals 200 22-60 14-20 36 21 6 60
Halftime score: Montana 39, Northern Colorado 22.
3-point goals: UM 9-21 (Hasquet 4-6, Staudacher 2-6, Elgin-Taylor 1-1, Rundles 1-4, Martin 1-4), UNC 2-16 (Mason 1-2, Figures 1-5, Montgomery 0-1, Kingman 0-1, Taibi 0-1, Panagiotakopoulos 0-2, Beitzel 0-4).
Turnovers: UM 13 (Martin 4), UNC 10 (Banks 2, Mason 2).
Blocked shots: UM 6 (Qvale 6), UNC 1 (Mason).
Steals: UM 4 (Strait 2), UNC 7 (Palacios 2, Figures 2).
Officials: Gregory Nixon, Chuck Jannelli, Jimmy Casas.
Attendance: 1,614
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