Basket Brawl II set for Saturday at MSU
A resurgent Montana State men’s team and still-unbeaten women’s squad will host the second Cat-Griz basketball doubleheader of the season, when the intrastate Big Sky Conference rivals play Saturday at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on the MSU campus.
The Bobcat women play host to Montana at 2 p.m.; the men’s game follows at 7.
Both games will stream on ESPN+ as well as Scripps Sports/MTN. Ben Creighton, Krista Redpath and Grace Lawrence will call the women’s game; Creighton and Jeff Riggs will handle the men’s call.
Bobcats vs. Grizzlies
The Montana Grizzlies (19-8 overall, 12-2 in the Big Sky) head to Bozeman owning first place in the league men’s standings, but the Bobcats (12-15, 7-7) have won six of nine games. The surge has come since the Cats moved Jabe Mullins and Patrick McMahan to the bench and Bryce Zephir and Sam Lecholat into the starting lineup.
McMahon and Mullins have been very productive since, and bench players have led MSU in scoring seven times since the switch. Mullins is averaging 18.5 points and 4.3 rebounds over the last four games.
The Bobcats’ Brandon Walker is the second-most valuable player in the Big Sky according to KenPom.com. The junior forward has been good for 14.6 points a game while shooting 52.3 percent and averaging 21 minutes.
Montana has been even hotter than MSU, having won eight straight. That includes a 77-70 win over MSU in the first intrastate meeting on Jan. 25. The Grizzlies led by as much as 17 in a game that marked Kai Johnson’s return to their starting lineup.
Johnson has led the team in scoring from that point, averaging 15 points on 58.2 percent shooting. Meanwhile Money Williams has averaged a team-best 15.8 points on the road; Malik Moore follows at 15.1 and is shooting 55 percent (21 of 38) from the arc during the win streak.
The game matches MSU’s 3-point defense, which allows just 30 percent shooting from the arc, against UM’s 36 percent success rate from that range. The Griz are shooting 42.5 percent from the arc in their 14 league games.
This will be the 310th meeting in the rivalry, and a chance for 11th-year UM coach Travis DeCuire to match George Dahlberg’s record of 221 wins as Griz coach.
MSU women vs. Lady Griz
The Bobcats are a perfect 14-0 in league games and 24-2 overall ahead of the 120th meeting in the rivalry. Montana State has won eight of the last 10 meetings, but prevailed just 67-66 on Jan. 25 in Missoula – that and a 58-56 win at Eastern Washington are the two closest games the Bobcats have had in their current 17-game win streak.
That steak is the third-longest in Division I, and the Bobcats are ranked No. 10 in Collegeinsider.com’s Mid-Major Top 25.
Esmeralda Morales leads MSU in scoring at 14.6 points; Marah Dykstra is next at 13.4, and Katelynn Martin follows at 9.8 ppg. Freshman Taylee Chirrick has been a dynamo, averaging 9.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.2 steals per game.
Montana (10-15, 6-8 in the Big Sky) answers with freshman Avery Waddington, who has started nine games and ranks third on the team in scoring at 8.8 ppg and second in rebounds at 5.8.
Mack Konig leads the team with 10.3 points and nearly five assists per game for Montana, which has gone 5-5 since Brian Holsinger’s leave from and eventual departure his coaching duties. Montana has lost its last three under interim coach Nate Harris, two of them on the road.