Montana State catches 3rd straight Huge Sky title

Mar 14, 2024, 02:37 AM ET

BOISE, Idaho– Robert Ford III scored 22 points and No. 5 seed Montana State beat third-seeded Montana 85-70 on Wednesday night to win the Big Sky Conference competition champion and an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.Montana State(17-17

)advances to the Huge Dance for the third straight season and 6th time total. Montana( 23-11 )was going for its 12th look after sweeping the Bobcats throughout the regular season.Ford made 8 of 13 shots with two 3-pointers and 4 of 5 complimentary throws for Montana State. He added 9 rebounds, 5 takes and 4 helps. John Olmsted amounted to 16 points and 5 rebounds off the bench. Eddie Turner III had 15 points, Brandon Walker 14 and Tyler Patterson 12. Josh Vazquez had 20 indicate lead the Grizzlies. Aanen Moody and Laolu

Oke each scored 14. Brandon Whitney pitched in with 13 points and six rebounds.Moody was fouled on a 3-pointer and made all 3 totally free throws, Vazquez followed with

a 3-pointer and Montana liquidated the half on an 8-2 run to lead 38-32 at halftime.Montana took an 11-point lead 3 times in the very first 3 minutes of the 2nd half, the last at 49-38 on Moody’s layup.Montana State tracked by seven when Turner scored in the paint and Ford and Patterson hit back-to-back 3-pointers

to put the Bobcats up 51-50 with 12:25 remaining. Patterson struck two complimentary tosses and nailed a 3-pointer to help the Bobcats pull away from a 53-all tie to a 62-53 advantage with 8:30 delegated play.The run grew to 14-0 and Montana State led 67-53 before Moody’s layup for the Grizzlies ended the spurt.

First-year coach Matt Logie’s Bobcats weren’t threatened from there.Weber State is the just other team to win 3 straight Big Sky tourney titles, doing so from 1978 to’ 80.