Montana Pounds UI 94-68 As Vandals Defense Rests

Some 10-year-old kid named Travis walked out of the crowd during a timeout at Dahlberg Arena and buried a 3-pointer.

No, he wasn’t a Montana men’s basketball player. Had he been, he probably would have been fouled while making the shot falling out of bounds.

The Grizzlies were that hot Friday night, connecting on 19 of their first 22 shots on their way to burying Idaho 94-68 in a Big Sky Conference mismatch viewed by 5,496.

Travis settled for winning a Grizzlies sweatshirt as part of the timeout promotion. Montana settled for handing Idaho its worst loss in the series since an 81-49 outcome in the 1974-75 season. Montana’s 94 points, tempered slightly by its 12-point output in the final 9 minutes, was its most against Idaho since scoring 98 in 1971.

“I have no explanation,” responded Idaho coach Joe Cravens when asked how Montana could riddle an Idaho defense that was leading the conference in field-goal percentage defense (41.8). “I have no explanation for the game.”

Perhaps it was just a matter of time. After all, Friday followed Idaho’s track record this season - play well, win three or four in a row, then collapse and leave everyone searching for reasons why a club can look so good one night, so bad the next.

Consistency isn’t UI’s trademark.

“We just can’t get down on ourselves,” said junior guard Eddie Turner. “We get down 15, so what, keep playing.”

That didn’t happen, however. In the second half, several Vandals became spectators while they were on the court. Montana converted with easy transition buckets, the capper a Chris Spoja dunk as a couple of Vandals sauntered back on defense after a missed shot.

“When they got up 20, a lot of our guys just rolled over and died,” said Vandals guard Reggie Rose, who had 17 first-half points.

Rose finally got a little help from his teammates late in the half when Shawn Dirden made two 3-pointers to trim a 22-point deficit to 53-41 at the half.

“We were lucky to only be down 12,” Cravens said.

Idaho hit the first bucket of the second half before Montana ripped off 14 of the next 18 points.

Ball game.

“I really thought our defense got us the win,” Grizzlies coach Blaine Taylor said. “But to play such good offense made the margin as wide as it was.”

Some of that offense came from unlikely sources. Eric Bowie, he of the 2.8 scoring average and 20-percent accuracy on 3-pointers prior to Friday, made 7 of 8 shots, both his 3-point attempts and scored a team-high 16 points.

Shane Belnap, normally a 38 percent field-goal shooter, was 5 of 5, including a first-half 3-pointer he made as he was getting leveled by UI’s Jason Jackman. Nate Colvill: 46 percent shooter on the season, 5 of 6 against UI.

Montana, which shot 69 percent in the first half and 57 in the second, improved to 14-5 overall, 4-2 in the Big Sky with Eastern Washington visiting Missoula tonight.

Idaho is 9-8 and 3-3 and probably needs a win tonight at Montana State (13-6, 5-1) in Bozeman to stay in title contention.

Cravens took measures to keep his troops somewhat fresher for tonight’s game, subbing a new five into the game with 6 minutes left.

“We need a split,” Rose said of the road trip.

Montana 94, Idaho 68

Idaho (9-8) - Harrison 3-10 2-2 8, Jackman 2-12 6-8 10, Turner 1-5 1-2 3, Rose 5-9 8-9 21, Dirden 3-9 0-0 9, Baumann 1-4 0-0 3, Thomas 1-1 0-0 2, Gardener 1-3 3-4 5, Jones 2-5 1-2 5, Sturing 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 20-61 21-27 68.

Montana (14-5) - Spoja 7-11 0-0 15, Samuelson 5-10 4-8 15, Covill 5-6 0-1 10, Bowie 7-8 0-0 16, Belnap 5-5 2-6 14, Walker 2-6 0-0 4, Dade 2-4 0-0 4, Seidensticker 0-2 0-0 0, Smith 4-7 4-7 12, Dick 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 39-62 10-22 94.

Halftime-Montana 53, Idaho 41. 3-point goals-Idaho 7-21 (Rose 3-6, Dirden 3-8, Baumann 1-4, Sturing 0-1, Turner 0-2), Montana 6-12 (Bowie 2-2, Belnap 2-2, Samuelson 1-2, Spoja 1-4, Walker 0-1, Seidensticker 0-1). Fouled out-Dade. Rebounds- Idaho 35 (Harrison, Gardener 7), Montana 39 (Covill, Smith 8). Assists-Idaho 7 (Jackman 3), Montana 25 (Belnap 9). Total fouls-Idaho 19, Montana 21. A-5,496.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo