The Grizzlies remained winless on the road as senior guard Ryan Toolson scored 38 points to lead Utah Valley to a 82-75 victory before 2,210 at the McKay Center on Tuesday.
The Grizzlies dug themselves quite a hole after the Wolverines (4-0) shot a scorching 14 of 19 from the floor in the first half and extended their lead to as much as 55-40 with 14:13 remaining in the contest. But road-weary Montana (2-3), coming off a 20-point loss Sunday at then No. 10 Duke, went on a 13-0 run to cut its deficit to two points. Sophomore center Brian Qvale scored the last bucket in that run.
“Too big a hill. Too big a hill,” Montana coach Wayne Tinkle said of the deficit his Grizzlies tried to overcome in a postgame interview on KXGZ 101.5 FM radio. “The way we started the game up 5-0, I thought we were OK. To (the Wolverines') credit, they hit some very tough shots early and then it just got worse from there.”
Junior guard Anthony Johnson came off the bench to lead the Grizzlies with a season-high 19 points. Junior forward Jack McGillis had his best game in a Montana uniform, scoring 15, and senior forward Jordan Hasquet added 12.
But the story was Toolson, who went 10-for-15 from the floor and 14 of 15 from the free-throw line. He finished the first half with 16 points and Montana was fortunate to be down just 41-36 at intermission as the Wolverines started out perfect in four attempts from behind the arc and held a 13-7 advantage on the boards at halftime.
“The thing about it, Toolson had 16, but he only had one 3,” Tinkle said. “It was what he was doing inside the 3-point line. Our whole focus was yes, we need to try to limit this guy, but we can't let their other guys jump up and bite us and that's what happened in the first half.”
The start of the second stanza gave Tinkle even less to cheer about as Utah Valley took only six minutes to stage a 14-4 burst to take its biggest lead of the evening at 55-40.
“We told our guys how we had to play from the start,” Tinkle said. “And it was physical, it was tough, it was all that sort of thing. Make it hard on them and don't give them anything easy. Until Jack McGillis made a good, hard foul when we were down 15 in the second half that's when we finally started to show some toughness and play hard.”
The Grizzly defense, playing mainly man-to-man while infrequently switching to a 2-3 zone, sparked the run that got Montana back into the game. It held Utah Valley scoreless for just over seven minutes before Toolson began his nine-point run with 6:57 to play.
A drive and a dunk by Johnson again cut the Wolverines' lead to two at 61-59, but a Toolson trey and 10-of-11 shooting from the free-throw line by Utah Valley in the final four minutes sealed the Grizzlies' second loss in a row and third defeat in three games away from home.
Utah Valley guards Josh Olsen and Jordan Swarbrick scored 12 points a piece and center Brett Ravenberg pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.
Montana will get a shot at redemption when it hosts Utah Valley on Dec. 22 at Dahlberg.
“We played them tonight coming back from Duke and we get them in Missoula after we play three games on the road,” Tinkle said. “We'll just have to make sure we get tougher by then and we'll respond when we're back in our yard.”
MONTANA (75)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Hasquet 33 3-7 5-6 4 5 1 12
f-McGillis 31 5-8 2-3 3 3 0 15
c-Qvale 19 0-1 0-1 6 1 1 4
g-Studacher 21 3-6 0-0 1 0 2 8
g-Elgin-Taylor 26 3-6 0-0 0 3 3 6
Taylor 15 0-2 2-2 1 3 0 2
Johnson 24 6-11 7-8 0 3 3 19
Selvig 10 1-1 0-0 0 4 0 3
Banny 5 0-0 2-2 0 3 0 2
Sharp 16 1-2 2-3 3 2 0 4
Totals 200 24-47 21-27 18 27 10 75
UTAH VALLEY (82)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Jensen 23 1-2 1-1 3 3 0 3
c-Ravenberg 18 1-2 1-2 8 4 1 3
g-Toolson 39 10-15 14-15 2 2 2 38
g-Olsen 38 3-8 6-7 3 4 6 12
g-Swarbrick 30 4-4 4-4 3 4 2 12
Curtis 1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0
Petty 6 0-0 0-0 0 3 0 0
Scoubes 14 2-4 0-0 2 3 0 5
Brown 9 2-3 0-0 1 1 0 6
Fannon 13 0-1 0-0 4 2 0 0
Baker 9 1-2 1-2 0 1 0 3
Totals 200 24-41 27-31 26 26 11 82
Halftime score: Utah Valley 41, Montana 36.
3-point goals: UM 6-11 (Staudacher 2-2, McGillis 2-3, Selvig 1-1, Hasquet 1-3, Taylor 0-2), UVU 7-12 (Toolson 4-5, Brown 2-3, Scoubes 1-3, Olsen 0-1).
Turnovers: UM 8 (McGillis 3), UVU 10 (Toolson 5).
Blocked shots: UM 3 (Hasquet, Ovale, Sharp), UVU 2 (Ravenberg, Baker).
Steals: UM 3 (McGillis, Studacher, Banny), UVU 3 (Swarbrick 2).
Officials: Bobby McRoy, D.G. Nelson, Greg Spencer.
Attendance: 2,210.
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