Big Sky men’s roundup: Grizzlies rally to edge North Dakota

Martin Breunig scored five points in the final 1:30 and Montana closed on a 10-0 run for a 65-61 victory over North Dakota on Saturday in Grand Forks, North Dakota, to remain undefeated in conference play.

Jack Lopez nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to pull Montana to 61-58 and then Brandon Gfeller had a steal and fast-break layup to make it 61-60. After another North Dakota turnover, Breunig hit a shot in the lane for a 62-61 lead.

Breunig made a hook shot for a three-point advantage and the Grizzlies forced a missed shot on the other end, but they turned it over under the basket. Quinton Hooker missed a reverse layup and Breunig sealed it with one free throw.

Breunig had 27 points and 12 rebounds for Montana (11-6, 6-0).

North Dakota (8-9, 3-3) was paced by Hooker with 20 points.

Conner Avants made two 3-pointers during North Dakota’s 17-4 spurt for a 49-42 lead. He made two free throws during the run for its first lead since 23-22.

Northern Colorado 78, Montana State 76: Dallas Anglin scored 20 points with six assists, and Jeremy Verhagen hit two free throws with 27 seconds left to help the Bears slip past the Bobcats in Greeley, Colorado.

Anthony Johnson scored 16, on 6-of-10 shooting, while Jordan Wilson and Jordan Davis added 10 points apiece for Northern Colorado.

Wilson’s third 3-pointer put the Bears (5-13, 2-4) up 76-72 with 1:37 to play.

Montana State’s Tyler Hall was fouled as he hit a 3 and converted the 4-point play to tie the game with 38 seconds left.

Verhagen made the go-ahead free throws 11 seconds later and Montana State (7-11, 2-4) missed two potential tying shots in the waning seconds.

Tyler Hall led the Bobcats with 22 points, including five 3-pointers. Marcus Colbert added 19 while Stephan Holm and Sarp Gobeloglu scored 11 apiece.

Idaho State 73, Portland State 70: Ethan Telfair had 25 points, six rebounds and 11 assists, and Ben Wilson finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds to help the Bengals beat the host Vikings.

Geno Luzcando scored 12 and Kyle Ingram added 10 points for Idaho State.

Back-to-back layups by Wilson and Luzcando put the Bengals (7-10, 2-3) up 63-49 with nine minutes to play.

Portland State (6-10, 2-3) scored six straight to trim its deficit to four points with just fewer than five minutes left, and a 3-point play by Cameron Forte pulled the Vikings within three, 71-68, with 1:37 remaining.

Neither team scored until Luzcando made a layup with 13 seconds to go.

Armani Collins’ bucket with nine seconds left made it 73-70 but, after a Portland State turnover, Collins missed a potentially tying 3 as time expired.

Collins and Isaiah Pineiro scored 15 apiece for Portland State.

Weber State 85, Sacramento State 74: Joel Bolomboy scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Wildcats to a road win over the Hornets.

Jeremy Senglin added 15 points, Cody John had 11 and Dusty Baker 10 for Weber State, which shot 57 percent to extend its win streak to eight. The Wildcats (13-5, 5-0) had 18 assists on their 28 shots from the field and were 11 of 22 from long range.

Leading by five at the break, Weber State quickly extended it to 49-38 with three straight 3-pointers from Ryan Richardson, then used a 12-5 spurt to stretch the advantage.

Sacramento State (8-8, 1-4) cut the gap to single digits late in the game, pulling to 76-70 on Jeff Wu’s 3-pointer, before the Wildcats cemented the win from the foul line.

Justin Strings and Marcus Graves scored 23 points apiece for the Hornets. Strings had 11 rebounds.