Eagles falter, lose to Griz
MISSOULA – When it counted the most, the team that prides itself on its offense couldn’t get it done.
Eastern Washington failed to score on its final four possessions over the last 2 minutes, 40 seconds of the game and let Montana score the last five points to escape with a critical 85-78 Big Sky Conference win Saturday night at Dahlberg Arena.
“Anytime we can get a layup, that’s the shot we want,” Eagles coach Mike Burns said. “Those three looks go in for us, that’s six points that were huge. And Michael Taylor’s 3 … I was fine with that.”
The Eagles (11-13, 5-7 Big Sky) go into the final four conference games at Reese Court desperate for a sweep to move up from seventh place into the top six to make the Big Sky tournament for the 10th straight year. Conference-leading Weber State (16-9, 9-3) visits Wednesday, and sixth-place Portland State (15-10, 6-6) Saturday.
“I’d be willing to bet 9-7 gets us in the tournament,” Burns said. “I just told the guys that if we play that hard the next four, we’ll be all right. That was the best effort we’ve had in awhile.”
A nine-point surge gave the Grizzlies (12-11, 6-4) a 75-64 lead with 6:45 to play, but the Eagles kept scrapping.
Reserve freshman forward Brandon Moore started the comeback with a pair of free throws and freshman guard Taylor followed with a 3-pointer and two free throws. Marcus Hinton also had a 3-pointer, and when Rodney Stuckey made four free throws it was 80-78 with 2:40 to go.
After forcing Montana into a couple of difficult shots, Eastern had a chance to take the lead. The play didn’t go through Stuckey, who had 19 points. Instead, Taylor fired an open 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:40 to go.
“Usually we do (want Stuckey to have the ball), but we’ve got other guys that can make plays,” Burns said. “Michael felt it. He just made one a little earlier. I want him to play with some courage and he did, as did some others.”
“That was going in as far as I could see,” Taylor said. “I had the ball out there and I was looking at coach for what to run and he said, ‘Roll.’ He has confidence in me and so I was like, ‘All right.’ But I missed it.”
Stuckey missed a floater in the lane with 55 seconds left that could have tied it and then missed a tough left-handed shot with 15 seconds left after a Grizzly free throw. Montana made its final four free throws, with Hinton’s layup spinning out in between.
“Great job with the effort, I can’t ask any more of them from that perspective,” Burns said. “We got down 11 in the second half and gutted it out and got it all the way back to two.”
The Eagles never really had an answer for 6-foot-9 sophomore Jordan Hasquet, who had a monster game with 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting, including 4 of 6 on 3-pointers.
“We wanted to pound it down low, definitely,” said Hasquet, who also had 11 rebounds.
Montana finished with a 39-24 edge in rebounds.
Montana 85, EWU 78
Eastern Washington (11-13, 5-7)—Williams 1-2 2-2 4, Butorac 6-9 2-5 14, Hinton 2-6 4-4 9, Stuckey 6-16 6-7 19, Taylor 1-2 2-2 5, Krayem 3-6 3-4 10, Penoncello 2-5 0-0 5, Humphrey 1-2 0-0 3, Moore 2-2 5-5 9. Totals 24-50 24-29 78.
Montana (12-11, 6-4)—Hasquet 10-14 2-2 26, Dlouhy 1-8 11-12 14, Strait 7-13 0-2 14, Rundles 4-8 0-0 9, Martin 1-4 4-4 7, Ellis 0-1 4-6 4, Mayes 4-7 2-3 11, Staudacher 0-0 0-0 0, Chavez 0-2 0-0 0, Sharp 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-58 23-29 85.
Halftime—Eastern Washington 42, Montana 41. 3-point goals—Eastern Washington 6-18 (Hinton 1-1, Humphrey 1-2, Taylor 1-2, Penoncello 1-3, Krayem 1-3, Stuckey 1-5, Butorac 0-1, Williams 0-1), Montana 8-24 (Hasquet 4-6, Martin 1-3, Rundles 1-3, Mayes 1-4, Dlouhy 1-6, Chavez 0-1, Ellis 0-1). Fouled out—Taylor. Rebounds—Eastern Washington 24 (Moore 7), Montana 39 (Hasquet 11). Assists—Eastern Washington 12 (Stuckey 7), Montana 19 (Dlouhy, Martin 7). Total fouls—Eastern Washington 23, Montana 23. A—5,205.