There were several nominations after Montana's backups outscored Denver's 36-6 during a 63-44 men's basketball win over the Pioneers on Thursday night in front of 3,054 fans at Dahlberg Arena.
The frontrunner so far is junior Anthony Johnson, who had 13 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, giving him four straight games with double figures in scoring.
And coming up on the outside is freshman Derek Selvig, who added seven points and a team-high five rebounds.
“That's the way we love it to be,” Sharp said of the balanced scoring. “We have such depth on this team that any night it could be any guy coming off the bench or one of the starters having a big night for us. That's one of the strengths of this team.”
Griz coach Wayne Tinkle pointed to Sharp and sophomore guard Michael Taylor as two of the unsung heroes.
“The best thing that you don't see on the stat sheet is that when (Sharp) plays in the middle of that zone, he's just like a traffic cop, talking and telling everybody where to go, and that makes a huge difference in zone,” Tinkle said. “So did Michael Taylor. His presence on the court was huge. The stat sheet doesn't tell you much, but he showed a lot of maturity out there.”
The Griz led just 27-26 at intermission after Denver's Nate Rohnert burned Montana for 13 first-half points. The Grizzlies' zone defense, though, forced the Pioneers out of their Princeton offense and put the clamps on Rohnert. He attempted just one shot in the second half and finished with 14 points.
“That's why we went to it,” Tinkle said of the zone. “We didn't want to follow all those cutters off the screens and all that jazz.”
The active defense keyed a 20-3 surge early in the second half that put the Griz on top 47-32 with 10:40 to play.
Jack McGillis sparked the run early on, feeding Jordan Hasquet for an easy layup, forcing a turnover at the other end and then scoring on an alley-oop dunk from Ryan Staudacher - all in the space of 25 seconds.
Sharp added a three-point play during the burst and also deflected a pass that Johnson recovered and turned into a three-point play to finish the run.
“Defense, one word, that's all I can say, defense,” Johnson said, explaining how the Griz got their offense started. “We threw in a zone, they were a little out of whack and we just capitalized.”
The Griz forced 20 turnovers, four of which came as the result of shot-clock violations by the deliberate Pioneers. Denver made just six field goals in the second half, shooting 33 percent.
The Griz made 10-of-13 buckets (77 percent) in the second half and shot 75 percent from the line for the second straight game.
“We were standing around a little too much with our offense,” Sharp said of the first half. “That zone tends to get you too stagnant and we wanted to be moving the ball. When we're moving around and getting things moving we can make plays for each other.”
The Karl Tyler Chevrolet Classic continues Friday when Denver faces Texas-Arlington. The Griz will face UTA in the final game on Saturday night.
NOTES: The Griz owned a 20-16 advantage on the boards. Rob Lewis led Denver with five rebounds and backed up Rohnert with 12 points. ... Denver was called for 22 fouls to just 11 for Montana. ... Hasquet needs 18 points to pass Charles Davis (1,214 points from 1947-53) and move into the 12th spot on UM's career scoring list. His nine points snapped a string of six straight games in double figures. ... Staudacher was 2-for-3 from 3-point range. He's made 8 of his last 10 attempts and is shooting 65 percent from long range for the season.
DENVER (44)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-R.Lewis 33 6-12 0-0 5 4 2 12
f-Coughlin 29 0-3 0-0 3 2 1 0
f-Rohnert 35 3-7 6-7 3 4 4 14
g-Stafford 35 3-7 0-0 0 3 2 8
g-K.Lewis 27 1-3 1-1 0 3 1 4
Hallam 21 2-4 0-0 0 2 0 6
Chen 10 0-1 0-0 1 2 0 0
Peter-Denman 10 0-0 0-0 1 2 0 0
Totals 200 15-37 7-8 16 22 10 44
MONTANA (63)
Mins FG-A FT-A Reb PF A Pts
f-Hasquet 27 3-5 1-2 4 0 2 9
f-McGillis 19 2-4 2-4 3 3 2 6
c-Qvale 15 2-4 0-0 0 2 0 4
g-Staudacher 33 2-5 0-0 1 0 1 6
g-Elgin-Taylor 17 0-0 2-2 0 1 3 2
Taylor 20 1-2 0-0 0 1 3 2
Stockton 1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0
Johnson 25 4-5 5-5 3 2 2 13
Selvig 15 3-4 1-2 5 0 1 7
Banny 7 0-0 1-2 0 1 1 1
Sharp 21 5-6 3-3 2 1 0 13
Totals 200 22-35 15-20 20 11 15 63
Halftime score: Montana 27, Denver 26.
3-point goals: UD 7-20 (Rohnert 2-4, Hallam 2-4, Stafford 2-6, K. Lewis 1-3, R. Lewis 0-1, Coughlin 0-2), UM 4-7 (Hasquet 2-2, Staudacher 2-3, McGillis 0-1, Taylor 0-1).
Turnovers: UD 20 (R. Lewis 5, Rohnert 5), UM 14 (Hasquet 4).
Blocked shots: UD 0, UM 2 (Qvale, Sharp).
Steals: UD 5 (Stafford 2), UM 9 (McGillis 2, Johnson 2).
Officials: John Weeks, Jason Hinch, Ty Elkin.
Attendance: 3,054
Sports editor Bob Meseroll can be reached at 523-5265 or at sportsdesk@missoulian.com.
Denver vs. Texas-Arlington
Friday, 7:05 p.m.,
Dahlberg Arena (7,321)
Tickets: $6 for general admission, $9-35 for reserved.
Radio: None. TV: None.
Records: Denver, of the Sun Belt Conference, is 0-5. Texas-Arlington, of the Southland Conference, is 4-1.
Last outing: Denver fell 63-44 to Montana on Thursday in Missoula. UTA downed Houston Baptist 88-74 last Saturday in Houston.
Series: Denver leads 2-1.
Last meeting: Denver won 108-102 in December of 1977 in Denver.
Up next: Denver hosts former Big Sky Conference member Cal State Northridge next Tuesday. Texas-Arlington faces the Griz on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. in Dahlberg Arena.
Probable starters
Denver
24-Nate Rohnert, 6-5, jr. 14.6 ppg
10-Rob Lewis, 6-7, so. 14.0 ppg
12-Justin Coughlin, 6-9, fr. 0.0 ppg
5-Brian Stafford, 6-3, fr. 7.2 ppg
11-Kyle Lewis, 5-11, so. 8.0 ppg
Texas-Arlington
4-Tommy Moffitt, 6-5, jr. 9.0 ppg
32-Anthony Vereen, 6-7, sr. 14.6 ppg
00-Marquez Haynes, 6-3, jr. 13.6 ppg
5-Jeremy Smith, 5-10, so. 3.4 ppg
23-Brandon Long, 6-1, jr. 17.2 ppg
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