Bobby Howard scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Montana State outscored Montana 10-2 in the final two-and-a-half minutes to seal a 61-52 victory in frenzied Worthington Arena on Saturday.
Montana State's game-closing run answered a Grizzly stretch that sliced a double-digit Bobcat lead to one when Brian Qvale dunked with 2:33 to play. Qvale and Anthony Johnson keyed the 10-1 Grizzlies run by scoring all of UM's points in that stretch, including two free throws each on a foul and ensuing technical when an promotional mini-basketball was thrown onto the floor.
"The ball incident was crazy," said Bobcat senior Branden Johnson, who hit the game's biggest shot, a trey after Qvale's dunk brought Montana to within a point. That three-pointer from the top of the key to extend MSU's lead to 54-50. "I'm proud of the guys for hanging in there and rallying and getting it done."
The game's main storyline proved to be Montana State's ability to neturalize the top Grizzly weapons. Qvale led the Montana with 18 points, but grabbed only two rebounds (he averaged 7.1 per game before playing MSU) and blocked only one shot (he leads the league with 2.1 per game). Johnson averages over 17 points per game, but scored just eight on 2-for-9 shooting. He missed a pair of one-and-one free throw opportunities in the game's final minutes, as well.
"I didn't keep track of who was guarding him," said MSU coach Brad Huse of the Bobcats' switching defenders on Johnson. "I knew it would be one of three guys on him all night, and I thought all three guys worked extremely hard. (Johnson is) a very dynamic player."
Johnson cited Montana State's defense. "They played good defense," he said. "They did an excellent job contesting my shot."
A bit of on-floor dialogue spilled into post-game interviews when Johnson admitted that MSU's Navarre ribbed the Grizzly senior after Anthony Johnson missed the late-game free throws. "He may be onto something," a dejected Anthony Johnson said.
But Navarre wrote the exchange off to innocent in-game chatter. "I just gave him something to think about as the game wound down," Navarre said with a smile. "He's a great player. He lit us up last year."
While spreading the chore of guarding Johnson among three players worked defensively for MSU, sharing the scoring load paid similar dividends. Howard and Navarre led the Bobcats with 12 points each, while Erik Rush and Branden Johnson each added 11. Will Bynum chipped in six, and Cameron Henderson added five off the bench.
The win raises Montana State's league record to 6-2 at the conference season's halfway mark, good for a second-place tie with Northern Colorado, while the Cats now stand 11-8 overall. Montana enters the second half of the Big Sky season with a 4-4 league mark, 13-7 overall.
Montana State visits Northern Arizona Thursday at 6:35 pm.
