Montana holds off Eastern Washington

MISSOULA — Martin Breunig scored 26 points, Walter Wright added 25, and Montana held on for a 74-69 win over Eastern Washington on Saturday.

The foursome of EWU’s Venky Jois and Austin McBroom and Montana’s Breunig and Wright combined for 93 of the 143 points scored in the game. Those four players scored 24 of the last 25.

“It was a great basketball game – give both teams credit,” EWU coach Jim Hayford said. “All Big Sky league games should be this good. You recruit players to be able to play in games like this. I thought our players showed a lot of toughness and battled through adversity.”

Breunig shot 9 of 12 and grabbed seven rebounds for Montana (12-7, 7-1 Big Sky), which bounced back after its seven-game winning streak was snapped in a 63-58 loss to Idaho on Thursday.

Montana led 69-64 with 1:56 left until Jois’ jumper pulled the Eagles within three.

Wright answered for Montana with a reverse layin to get it back to five with 1:12 remaining, but McBroom’s third 3-pointer cut it to two 31 seconds later.

Jois was called for a defensive foul on Montana’s next possession, and Breunig made both free throws to give Montana a four-point lead. After the teams traded turnovers, Jois came up with a steal and was fouled but was unable to make either of his free throws.

McBroom had 22 points for Eastern Washington (9-10, 3-4) and Jois added 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Both teams were coming off losses, and had battled three times a year ago – including two EWU wins in Missoula. Those games featured 28 lead changes and 14 more ties, and Saturday’s latest installment of the rivalry did not disappoint.

In the last 11 minutes alone when the teams traded blows, there were four ties and a pair of lead changes, for a total of nine and six in the game, respectively.